Park Ohio Holdings Corp (PKOH) 2017 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio second quarter 2017 results conference call. (Operator Instructions). Today's conference is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings press release as well as in the company's 2016 10-K, which was filed on March 9, 2017, with the SEC.

Additionally, the company may discuss as adjusted earnings and EBITDA as defined. As adjusted earnings and EBITDA as defined are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of net income to as adjusted earnings and for a reconciliation of net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Edward Crawford, Chairman and CEO. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Park-Ohio's second quarter operational review. May I introduce Matthew Crawford, President and COO of Park Ohio for his remarks.

Thank you, and good morning.

Overall, we're pleased with our improved operating results, which were in line with our internal expectations. Operating highlights include: higher profit flow-through from higher sales in Supplies Technologies, higher sales of fuel filler systems and fuel rail products in our Assembly Components segment, both in the U.S. and internationally; increased demand for new equipment and after-market products and services in our industrial equipment group; and lastly, successful integration of our December 2016 acquisition of GH, which is meeting its operating targets. These improvements, combined with ongoing vigilance at the expense line, led to adjusted earnings in the second quarter of $0.87 per diluted share, an increase of 14% compared to Q2 2016 and an increase of 28% compared to the prior quarter.

Revenue also increased during the quarter by 6.5% to $351 million, compared to $329 million in the second quarter of last year. This increase was relatively broad-based, as we saw improved revenue performance in most of our businesses.

Additionally, we took actions during the second quarter to enable future growth. Specifically, as we discussed in our first quarter call, we completed $700 million in new financings. First, we completed the issuance and a private placement of $350 million worth of 6 5/8 notes, senior notes, due in 2027. The proceeds from the issuance of the senior notes were used to repay in full the company's previously outstanding 8 1/8 senior notes due in 2021 in the aggregate for principal amount of $250 million. We also paid down the company's $21 million term loan, and with the remainder a portion of the balance on the company's revolving credit agreement.

Also in April, we amended our bank credit agreement, which, among other things, provided an increased revolving credit facility of up to $350 million, extended the maturity to April 2022, added an accordion feature for an additional $100 million while also providing better overall terms. We believe that this debt financing is critically important to the company's future, providing increased capacity and flexibility to enable future growth.

Market interesting in our new senior notes was extremely high, allowing us to achieve a significant reduction in the interest rate on the new notes of almost 150 basis points. At June 30, 2017, our overall liquidity was $250 million, which included $73 million of cash and cash equivalents.

Also on the strategic front, during the second quarter 2017, Supply Technologies completed an important acquisition related to our growth strategy in the aerospace and defense segment by purchasing Arrow Missile Components for $10.5 million in cash. Arrow Missile, or AMC, is a supply chain management business providing high-quality specialty fasteners and other components in the defense and aerospace markets. We continue to believe that Supply Technology will meet its goal of building $100 million business in this industry through its Apollo Aerospace brand.

The AMC acquisition, like our acquisition of GH in December 2016, is an excellent example of the type of deals that we're pursuing as part of our M&A strategy. Our strategy continues to focus on companies that operate in favorable end markets where growth opportunities exist -- in this case, aerospace; are complementary to more of our existing businesses -- in this case, Apollo Aerospace, which is part of Supply Technologies; thirdly, are strong operationally with strong management teams supporting the business; and lastly, will add strategic strength to the long-term value of the business brand which acquired it.

Now let's move on to our detailed results for the second quarter. As mentioned earlier, we achieved improved earnings this quarter, adjusted diluted EPS was $0.87 per diluted share during the second quarter, a 14% increase over the $0.76 adjusted in the second quarter of '16 based on 12.4 million shares outstanding. The $0.87 represents a 28% increase sequentially over the first quarter of this year.

As I've mentioned, sales were up 6.5% year-over-year to $351 million, compared to $329 million a year ago. This increase was due to higher sales in our Supply Technology and Engineered Products segments, driven by increasing demand for our products; and sales from GH, which was acquired at the end of '16. In addition, fuel-related product sales increased significantly both year-over-year and sequentially.

Gross margin as a percent of net sales increased by 70 points year-over-year, from 16.5% last year to 17.2% this year. On a sequential basis, the improvement in margin percentage compared to last quarter was over 100 basis points. The margin improvement this year was due primarily to profit flow-through from the higher sales levels and improvements in our historically higher-margin Engineered Products segment.

SG&A expenses were $36.2 million in the second quarter compared to $34 million in the second quarter of last year. The increase was due primarily to SG&A expenses in the GH business, which was acquired at the end of '16. As a percentage of sales, SG&A expenses were 10.3% in each period.

The second quarter of 2017 interest expense was $7.9 million compared to $7 million in the prior year. The increase was due primarily to debt incurred in connection with the GH acquisition, the higher outstanding senior notes balance and higher ROA during the current-year quarter on our revolver.

In the 2017 quarter, we incurred a loss on extinguishment of debt of $11 million. This amount included $8 million of tender premiums paid to repurchase the old senior notes of $3 million related to our unamortized prior debt issuance costs and other fees and expenses related to our formal borrowings. These amounts are nonrecurring and have been added back to arrive at the adjusted EPS.

Our effective tax rate for the second quarter was 38%, compared to 32% last year. The increase in effective rate during the quarter was due to a discrete expense item which drove the quarterly effectively higher. We expect the full year 2017 effective income tax rate to still be 30% to 32%.

Now let's look at the segments. In Supply Technologies, sales were up 7%, from $133 million last year to $142 million this year. This increase was driven by higher customer demand in several of our key end markets and new business implemented in the second half of 2016.

We saw improved end market demand in many end markets including power sports, the recreational equipment, semiconductor and aerospace. These increases were partially offset by lower year-over-year sales in the heavy-duty truck- and truck-related market, which was down 10% year-over-year. However, while the truck- and truck-related market was down versus '16, it did grow 26% sequentially compared to the first quarter. We continue to see the second half of 2017 demand strengthen in many of our key end markets, including heavy-duty truck. In addition, strong sales continued in our fastener manufacturing business, as sales were up 5% compared to a year ago, driven by increasing global customer demand for our proprietary products.

Operating income in Supply Tech was up 12.4% from $10.9 million a year ago, an increase of 14%, due primarily to the profit flow-through from higher sales. Operating profit margin in the segment increased to 8.7% from 8.2% a year ago.

In our Assembly Components segment, sales were down, from $134 million 2016 to $126 million in the current year. The decrease was due to lower sales in our aluminum business compared to last year. Our aluminum business has transitioned from the loss of volume during 2016 and is now stable and profitable. We expect continued increases in production from new business, which will benefit the second half of this year.

This decline in the aluminum business was substantially offset by higher sales volumes in our fuel filler and fuel rail products businesses, which were up over 30% in the second quarter compared to a year ago, driven by new product launches in several plants in the U.S., Mexico and China. We expect strong continued sales in these businesses for the remainder of 2017.

Segment operating income for Assembly Components was $13.1 million, about a 10.4% margin; compared to $14.2 million or a 10.6% margin a year ago. The lower margin contribution was driven by the lower sales in our aluminum business.

Turning now to our Engineered Products segment -- sales were up 33%, from $62 million last year to $83 million this year. The higher sales were the result of organic growth in our induction, heating and pipe threading equipment business; compared to 2016 and sales from the acquired GH business. Operating income in the segment was up 81% to $5.8 million, a 7% margin in Q2 compared to $3.2 million last year.

In our industrial equipment group, new equipment sales were up 64% over Q2 of last year and 24% sequentially versus last quarter. Notably, after-market sales were up 24% over last year and 17% sequentially.

Although certain end markets in the segment remain sluggish -- primarily rail and military aerospace -- we saw an increase in bookings during the first 6 months of 2017 in our capital equipment business in both new equipment and after-market parts and service. Specifically, bookings in the first half of 2017, excluding those related to GH, were 58% higher than the first half of 2016 and 32% higher sequentially compared to the last 6 months of 2016. We're optimistic that we have finally broken through the revenue trough in this segment and expect to continue to see incremental improvement throughout the rest of the year.

Moving back now to our consolidated results -- Q2 operating cash flows were $9.2 million. This amount included a use of cash of $11 million in the quarter to fund working capital levels in support of our higher sales. However, in terms of days of net working capital, we improved by approximately 5 days compared to a year ago. And we expect this improvement to drive higher operating cash flow from the second half of 2017. For the full year, we expect operating cash flows to be approximately $45 million to $55 million. In the second quarter, we had CapEx of $6 million, giving us just over $12 million for the first half of 2017. For the full year, expect to be about $35 million.

I'd now like to comment on the earnings guidance for 2017. Based on our results in the first half and our expectations for continued improvements, in several of our key businesses, we are reaffirming our full year 2017 guidance of adjusted EPS of $3.15 to $3.35.

In conclusion, our second quarter results were very positive and provided some confidence in our ability to achieve our 2017 goals. With the debt financing complete, we have the capital needed to support our various business initiatives, including investments in both organic growth and acquisitions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Matthew.

One brief comment -- the issuing of the bonds was a strategic part of our planning here at Park-Ohio. We want the company to be in position for substantial growth both organically and through acquisitions, and placing these 10-year bonds at a dramatically reduced rate. I think it was a good strategy. We're very happy to have it in place, and it gives the company -- new balance sheet gives the company a lot of flexibility.

At this time, I'd like to turn over the line to questions.

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from the line of Edward Marshall of Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

I saw you reaffirmed your guidance. I'm curious, does that include the 10% top line guidance that you previously stated?

This is Pat Fogarty. In prior calls, we estimated our full year revenue to be about $1.4 billion. And that's where we continue to expect to be.

Got it. So as I look at the midpoint of your guidance, first half, second half, it looks like there's a 10% increase in the second half earnings. I'm curious, is that more driven by the top line events? Or are you looking at something additional? [That it.]

Hi, it's Matt Crawford. No, I think that obviously the business strengthened sequentially, as I commented a number of times in a number of our businesses. So we expect to see some level of that continued strength flow through the latter half of the year. I don't know that it's anything unique; I think it's more sort of a new normal, if you will, relative to the current state of the business.

Got it. I just want to make sure that we're kind of through the cost-cutting initiatives of a large majority of the cost-cutting initiatives. And that's mostly behind us.

Yes. I mean, as we commented in the past, and it continues to be true, there's always parts of the business that we are focused on and are going through some level of restructuring. Having said that, it's a pleasure to be on a call where the vast majority of the businesses are growing again.

Right. Aerospace Missile Components again small. There's some larger competitors in that marketplace. And I'm just curious, maybe you can kind of talk about maybe what differentiates that product from the larger peers. Maybe you can give us a split on the defense versus commercial revenue programs, and then if there's any programs with revenue on the defense side.

This is Pat again. We have always been active in the military space within Supply Technologies through a business that we acquired several years ago. This business is very complementary to that business in terms of its end markets and strategic locations. And so we believe that the combination of our two businesses provides strength to be much more competitive, especially as it relates to custom type fasteners and proprietary fasteners and Class C components.

Got it.

Let me give a little color to that also. We've been interested [in those] for some time in expanding our activities in the aerospace business. The barriers to entry have been in a lot of places the price points and the cost of entering this market. These are assets that are, [Ed, in] my opinion, overpriced a little bit in the last 3 or 4 years. So we have been very patient. But you'll see more of this. But this is a terrific opportunity, because it's where we want to be, with the right customers, with airplane platforms and engine platforms. So we will continue to enter this business at a very measured pace. Because it seems like the multiples of what these companies trade for has come down to the point where we can build a platform modestly over the next 2 or 3 years. But we want to be in this space, we've had very little of it. But we're going to have to be patient. And we have been patient. But this is a terrific start to add to what we already had in the Q.

Okay, thank you very much.

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Paige from Gabelli & Company. Please go ahead.

Just to build on the last answer there, could you maybe give us a little more insights into your M&A pipeline and what sort of valuation trends you're seeing in the marketplace?

Quite frankly, it's been the last 6 months. It's the crazy multiples of private equity haven't disappeared, but they've pulled back. But we don't see things out there at 8 and 9 all the time anymore. We see the industrial properties which we're very excited about. We see industrial assets coming back into the real serious opportunities. We like to buy things at 5.5 and get them to 4.5. We always try to buy something that we can bring something to the table other than just dollars -- some experience and so forth, and restructuring. But clearly, the private equity is not as -- we don't see it as intense as it was before. I think they've strung with the idea, what is a platform, what is not, what do they need. Well, they need things that are a lot bigger than where we're going to play. So they've moved upstream in the competition not only to multiples, but they can't invest the capital they have unless they're buying something $300 million or $400 million. And we're willing and operate very effectively in revenues of $50 million and $100 million. We can go bigger with a new balance sheet, but it's the same discipline. But has been a change, it's subtle. But it's going in the right direction for a company like Park-Ohio.

Got it. And just to follow up on that, are you comfortable with making an acquisition as you would continue to integrate GH into aerospace?

Well, we look at quite a pipeline of acquisitions on an everyday basis. I mean, (inaudible) particularly involved in that. We're looking at transactions every single day. There's plenty of opportunities for our company. We just have to be very careful in what we will pay and what we will bring to the table. So there's no shortage of transactions. Quite frankly, there's a little fatigue by people, they're selling companies, their families particularly, about the issues that come with private equity. And private equity customers are very concerned. If you're going to buy a company today, there are customers that are interested in not getting in a position where -- I've had a customer (inaudible) had supplier like Park-Ohio for 10 years and resell it, and the new supplier ups the prices and changes dramatically the relationship. They're very cautious about that. So we get a lot of positive wind from our back on the basis that this is a company that has a historical history of keeping assets and development over a period of time. So a lot of good things, subtle, no one big issue. But the balance sheet sure helps, when you've been able to get the capital we have and put in place over a 10-year period. We've got a long runway here, and we can be very patient. But there's plenty of opportunities. But we will probably stay -- I think big acquisitions is not in our DNA at this point.

Got it. Thanks, that's really helpful. And then, the last question for me is, could you remind us your exposure to raw materials as well as the pricing mechanisms that you have in place?

This is Matt. Obviously, we're in a diverse set of businesses. So it would be hard to address it in one comment. But I will take a few of the larger businesses. For example, Supply Technology has a variety of raw materials embedded in the purchase products. As you know, they do lots of machine components, metal components, fasteners; also non-rubber, plastic and label products. So it'd be hard to comment categorically. But I will say that some of the larger contracts with customers and long-term agreements include indexing based on whatever raw material or input might be prevalent in the items they acquire. So that is addressed in some of the larger contracts. I'll speak for a moment to the aluminum business, where the aluminum is an index also with the customer amount. So I think that in general, most of our significant relationships in the business include the opportunity to address pricing if there is significant inflation and important raw materials. Having said that, I would tell you that some inflation generally is good for our business. Obviously, our Engineered Components group, which has struggled mightily recently -- some of that is its direct exposure to some of the phasic industries including oil and gas an steel.

Great. Appreciate the time, and thanks for taking my call.

Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from the line of Marco Rodriguez from Stonegate Capital. Please go ahead.

I was wondering if maybe you could talk a little bit more about the AMC acquisition. Obviously, it doesn't seem to be a very large transaction, as far as not altering your guidance. But maybe you could give a little more color as far as if they have any sort of revenue concentration, what their kind of seasonality might look like, and if they're more commercial or military.

Well, they're both. We look at this as we begin this trip into the aerospace business -- each of these customers has a list of customers. And they're kind of all the same customers. There's not a lot of people making airplanes and are [not] in the parts business. So what you're basically doing is through an acquisition like this one is you're securing relationships with these companies that are in place. All these -- the aerospace is quite unique from the standpoint that there a lot of rules and regulations to the supply base. You have to be certified, you have to be in a certain building. It's very complicated, it's not as easy as going into the industrials place. If you're supplying (inaudible) airplane engine manufacturing for example, and you have a facility, you can't just move across the street to a new facility and decide that. You can't do a lot of things, because it's a certified site. So there's lots of loose ends. But this is all about building a relationship or starting building a relationship with these major companies. I mean, when it's all over, there's only 20 or 30 of them doing this. And they're [begging] -- obviously Boeing and others. But the military part, we are pretty solid there because of our long relationship with Kropp Forge in Chicago with the military with the landing gears and so forth. So that's -- we have that part in, we'll move with that. This is really the beginning of our effort into the Boeings of the world and others.

Got you. And what does the revenue run rate look like? And I'm assuming that their margin structure is relatively similar to Supply Technologies?

Yes, it's very small, Marco, from [purpose that we took] we don't disclose that type of information. But it's very immaterial to the total business.

Got you. And if you could comment a little bit more -- I know you made a few comments on the GH integration. I think I believe you guys said it was on target. How is that sort of progressing from the expense aspects? And how are you thinking about that as far as meeting your targets for this fiscal year? And then also, lastly -- I apologize -- what was the revenue contribution for that? Are you kind of looking for the organic growth rate for Engineered Products?

Well, let me comment, and I'll let Pat address the specifics. I want to first make clear that we try very hard to speak at a segment level. We do obviously speak to occasionally businesses inside a segment. We're probably largely trying to refrain from talking about a business inside a business that's inside a business within the segment.

Sure.

Because I think it really would potentially be misleading relative to how a business is consolidated and how it really looks going forward. The revenue numbers get blended, cost numbers get blended. So I don't think we can answer the first part of your question very accurately, other than to say that business is performing in the first half of the month, as it relates to our acquisition model, on target. So I think that what you're seeing, what you saw in our forecast and what you see in our updated forecast is consistent with our objectives around that business. Obviously, it's a pretty small part of the overall picture.

Yes, Marco, this is Pat. To answer your question on how much of the incremental sales related -- I would say 50% of that pickup we saw in revenues was organic, and the other related -- the rest related to GH.

Got you. Very helpful. And then, just last quick question here -- if maybe you can kind of talk a little bit about the gross margins here? You've seen some fairly nice improvements here sequentially, and a decent one year-over-year. Obviously volumes are picking up, and that's very helpful. How are you guys thinking about that movement on the gross margin line for the second half of the year?

As we mentioned earlier, we don't see huge increases in our revenues in Q3 and Q4. We should see some pickup in the gross margin, just based on the mix of products. But I would expect margins to be very similar in Q3 and Q4 compared to the second quarter.

Got you. Appreciate your time, guys.

(Operator Instructions). Our next question comes from the line of Steve Barger from KeyBanc Capital. Please go ahead.

This is Ken, on for Steve. I wanted to touch on Assembly. You had mentioned that the aluminum business had transitioned back to stability and back to profitability. Maybe give some color on the demand trends within that business, and how are you thinking about assembling to the back half given that you do have some relatively easy comps?

Obviously, we work through most of last year to adjust their cost structure in that business -- this is Matt, sorry -- to address the cost structure. I think that we have been successful in doing that. So we're running a business at a much lower revenue rate as we wait for new business to come. And we're able to do so at positive EBITDA and cash flow perspectives. So I think we're in a pretty good spot, as you mentioned. Now that we expect to see incremental revenue as we continue to see new product launches, we would hope to see positive comps going forward. So I think that we feel pretty good about that forecast. We think the revenue number has troughed. It's been a rough 12 months.

Got it. And then, I wanted to talk about your comment on better aftermarket sales in industrial. Can you maybe just give a little bit of color as to where has demand picked up in the aftermarket versus the OE side of the business?

I think we're seeing it across the board. I think we're seeing more activity in our key markets. Now, that's not saying much, because these were incredibly depressed end markets. But no, we're seeing across the board. And I think particularly of note, although nowhere near where it was historically, there's some activity in oil and gas.

I think the other -- this is Pat -- Ken, I think the other point, just to add onto Matt's comments, is our aftermarket parts and service business is global. And we're performing those activities around the world, in Asia, in Europe. And so we are seeing strength in various end markets. It's a very diverse product mix. And the aftermarket parts and service supports that. So as diversified as it is, we're seeing pickup across the board and around the world.

That's good to hear. Last question from me -- it was great to hear the color on the organic orders within Engineered Products. As you think about and you look at the order growth rate and the backlogs that are in front of you, how are you thinking about incremental margins within that business for the back half? And where could incrementals go versus the first half?

I'll give Pat a minute to think about that. We are reluctant to be very aggressive in this business right now. As we mentioned in my comments, we feel very good about the backlog in the business. We haven't see this type of backlog in quite a while. But the business is still disproportionately reliant on margin enhancement in the new equipment side of the business and how we execute against the backlog. So we would be very careful to be too aggressive at this time, while we, as I mentioned in my comments, expect to see improvement in the back half.

Yes. And the only other comment I'd say is that it depends on the timing of how that equipment flows through the operation. Once you book a project, you're somewhat under the -- with your suppliers, you're waiting for them to deliver to the equipment. To the extent that we can get good flow-through, we should see higher margins. But we're optimistic, but we're also going to wait and see.

Good color. Thanks for the time, guys.

Operator: Our next question is a follow-up from the line of Edward Marshall from Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

I just want to follow up on -- it wasn't asked, but you touched on it a few different times, in different ways. As July, as strong -- I guess I'll tell you what I'm getting at. I want to look at the cadence through the quarter -- was April the weakest and May the stronger, and June even stronger than that? Does that carry on into July? Just trying to get a sense as to what the demand scenario looks like.

The only comment I would make, Ed, is that July traditionally is a slower month in our business, just because of various shutdowns that occur. But we see an improved schedule compared to a year ago, less shutdowns than we saw last year that roll into the month of August. But I don't want to comment on relative cyclicality within a quarter.

Okay. And then finally, I just wanted to ask about your thoughts broadly speaking on Section 232 and what that might mean -- I assume you're a consumer of aluminum, and what that might mean to maybe margins on a go-forward.

This is [Ed]. That's a term I've heard before. But I can't bring the relationship to the aluminum. Would you help me out on that?

Sure. Section 232 is the tariffs, broadly started with iron ore and now smoothing over to aluminum, the discussion within Congress and the Executive branch.

Well, from the aluminum viewpoint, our main supplier from the aluminum is a Canadian company. And I don't know if they're entangled in that or not, or would be a target of that issue. I'll have to do some research on that and get back to you. But they haven't signaled that to me. I've heard the term, but maybe I'm just -- we're talking to Canadians, maybe they are involved, and they don't feel any impacts (inaudible), I'm sure we'd be talking about it.

Okay. Thanks very much, guys.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no further questions in queue at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your continuing support. And have a good day.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude our teleconference for today. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.