Tecnoglass Inc (TGLS) 2018 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Tecnoglass, Inc. Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rodny Nacier, Investor Relations. Thank you. Mr. Nacier, you may begin.

Thank you for joining us for Tecnoglass' Second Quarter 2018 Conference Call. A copy of the slide presentation to accompany this call may be obtained on the Investors section of the Tecnoglass website at www.tecnoglass.com. Our speakers for today's call are José Manuel Daes, Chief Executive Officer; Chris Daes, Chief Operating Officer; and Santiago Giraldo, Chief Financial Officer.

On Slide 2, before turning over the call to José Manuel, I'd like to remind everyone that matters discussed in this call, except for historical information, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future financial performance, future growth and future acquisitions. These statements are based on Tecnoglass' current expectations or beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ in a material nature from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors and/or other risks and uncertainties affecting the operation of Tecnoglass' business. These risks, uncertainties and the contingencies are indicated from time to time in Tecnoglass' filings with the SEC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information discussed during the call is presented in light of such risks.

Further, investors should keep in mind that Tecnoglass' financial results in any particular period may not be indicative of future results. Tecnoglass is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise.

I will now turn the call over to José Manuel, beginning on Slide #4.

Thank you, Rodny, and thank you, everyone, for participating on today's call. I will begin with a review of our operating highlights. Chris will then discuss our backlog, followed by Santiago who will take us through our financial results, market update and outlook.

We are pleased with our performance during the second quarter. Over the past several years, we have expanded our business into new geographies, captured an increasing amount of the value chain through our vertical integrated model, invested in our facilities and implemented cost-saving initiatives. These actions allowed us to achieve our 3 consecutive quarter of record revenues and deliver a stronger adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter 2018 with significant growth year-over-year. We experienced good pace of activity, which marked the continuation of a solid start to the year. We are confident that our strategy to continue penetrating the U.S. will continue to drive benefits to our results.

During the quarter, we completed the payment of GM&P in a highly accretive transaction as previously announced. We also completed the integration of this well-performing acquisition, including some business optimization efforts, which Santiago will detail further.

Into the back half of 2018, we look forward to continue delivering record levels of invoicing and adjusted EBITDA, which we anticipate, will largely be driven by U.S. growth. As such, we are encouraged by the strong line up of projects in our backlog and remain committed to delivering attractive results to our shareholders.

On Slide 5, net sales climbed by 10% to $89 million, led by accelerating construction activity in the U.S. We are confident that our strategy to continue penetrating the U.S. market will continue to drive growth. Revenues in the U.S. are (inaudible) close to 80% of sales. (inaudible) increased 16%, primarily reflecting market share gains and an upswing in construction activity. This expansion of our business in very attractive U.S. markets helped compensate the relatively stable performance in Colombia.

From May until the end of the quarter, we experienced relatively tempered activity in Colombia. We attribute this to greater than expected uncertainty associated with an unusually polarized presidential election. This put the construction activity on hold, awaiting what was ultimately a positive outcome. The incoming pro-business administration should be very positive for the Colombian construction in years to come. We believe the majority of our Colombian customers agree with us as demonstrated by the highest consumer and business confidence readings since 2012 [which was] presented for the month of June this year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $18.3 million, an increase of 36% from the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by almost 400 basis points year-over-year to 20.5%. The stronger sales certainly contributed to this improvement, and disciplined cost controls helped, too, reflecting better gross margin, excluding nonrecurring items.

We have not seen any material impact to margins from aluminum tariffs, but we expect to see a more favorable pricing environment as a result of the trade changes under the new administration. We remain excited about 2018 and the opportunity to generate additional value in our business.

I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide additional details on our backlog.

Thank you, José Manuel, and good morning to everyone on the line. Moving to our backlog on Slide 6. We continued to have a very strong backlog, which stood at $497 million at the end of the second quarter compared to $501 million at the end of the quarter 1. The Q2 backlog level represent more than 1.5x our trailing 12-month revenue. Backlog increased 2% year-over-year with attractive project wins, fully replacing 4 consecutive quarters of record invoicing.

Furthermore, we have some additional projects in the pipeline that have not been yet closed by the end of the quarter. So overall, we have seen steady levels of quoting and bidding activity in the U.S. and Latin America. And we feel good about the composition of our project pipeline and the good visibility afforded by our backlog.

The U.S. market continues to represent our largest region, comprising almost 80% of the backlog on revenues. This reflects our ongoing efforts to expand our mix of business in very good markets throughout the U.S. We continue to experience favorable construction conditions and saw a number of major project additions, which is a credit to our growing client base, our strong reputation in South Florida and our [increasing number] of the U.S. markets.

In South Florida, where we have been exceptionally in a strong position, we further scale our market penetration by increasing the participation in the retail and residential market which previously was largely untapped by Tecnoglass. As we have mentioned, despite seeing a more moderate activity in the high-end condo market, we were able to win 2 of the largest projects to come to the market in the past months and are moving more into the mid-rise and open space, not only in South Florida, but also other geographical areas within the state.

In the rest of the U.S., we are sourcing project wins from a diverse number of regions where [structural glass] and Curtain Wall systems continue to lead the architectural glass trends. We will continue to focus on diversifying our revenue stream from attractive markets where, historically, we have not have had a dominant presence as we currently do in Florida.

In Colombia, the second quarter was impacted by polarized and extended presidential election process, which caused an overall slowdown in construction and economic activity as a whole. That said, the election outcome was very favorable in our view, and we expect an improving macroeconomic environment, which should allow us to capitalize on significant pent-up demand over time.

Overall, we are actively enhancing the quality of our backlog to expand our business in a disciplined manner. Beyond our strong book of business, we look forward to several additional catalysts, including a complete integration of GM&P providing opportunities for operating efficiencies.

The recently elected Colombian President determined to prolong a favorable business climate and a stronger pricing environment in the U.S. following the recently enacted tariffs on aluminum imports. We are excited to continue expanding our business and confident that we are poised for additional success. with our cutting-edge product portfolio, growing reputation in the architectural glass industry and the unique vertically integrated operations.

I will now turn the call over to Santiago to discuss our financial results and the markets.

Thank you, Christian, and good morning to everybody on the line. Beginning with our financial highlights on Slide #8. We improved results across nearly all metrics, including sales, adjusted EBITDA, margins and adjusted net income. We recorded our 15th straight quarter of year-over-year growth to deliver another record quarter of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased 36% to $18.3 million from the prior year quarter, driving an adjusted margin of 20.5%, up 400 basis points from the prior year quarter.

We remain confident in our ability to generate incremental margins on higher sales and will continue to source additional avenues to improve efficiencies and reduce our cost base. Our cash flow performance improved compared to the prior year with improved working capital management and the timing of spend following a buildup of inventory earlier in the year. CapEx remained fairly low at approximately 2.8% of sales as we continue to benefit from prior investments, which have created ample install capacity to address future growth.

We ended the quarter with a strong cash position of $30 million and a conservative leverage profile of 2.8x net debt to adjusted EBITDA, which have been stable over the last 5 quarters. We were especially pleased to complete the payment of GM&P on their highly accretive payment structure while slightly improving net leverage compared to the first quarter. This balance sheet strength supports our growth initiatives and operational enhancements moving forward.

Looking at the drivers of revenue on Slide #9. U.S. revenues increased by 15.8% to $69.9 million for the second quarter, primarily driven by strong commercial and residential construction activity.

Colombia revenues were approximately flat year-over-year, which we primarily attribute to the extended presidential election as previously mentioned. Year-to-date, we experienced a more balanced growth from the U.S. and Colombia, with a portion of growth in the U.S. also reflecting 2 additional months of additional revenue coming from the GM&P acquisition.

Looking at the drivers of adjusted EBITDA on Slide #10. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA expanded 36% year-over-year to $18.3 million, largely as a result of increased sales and higher gross profit excluding nonrecurring items. We experienced a 202 basis point of improvement in reported SG&A of 19.1% of sales. SG&A, excluding onetime items on a dollar basis, increased $1.3 million, primarily due to higher transportation and commission costs associated mainly to volume and to a lesser degree, price.

Additionally, while most of our business is hedged in some manner to currency fluctuations, our SG&A built up some FX exposure in portions of our expenses in Colombian pesos that are [now] linked to U.S. dollar. Since 2017, we have seen an appreciation of the Colombian peso resulting in an unfavorable impact on SG&A comparable to the prior year quarter.

Gross profit increased 9.3% on a strength of higher sales. Reported gross margin in the second quarter 2018 was 27.7% and essentially stable year-over-year. On an adjusted basis, gross margin, we have improved to 31.8% excluding the nonrecurring acquisition transition expense of approximately $3.6 million. This expense was related to certain projects signed by GM&P prior to the acquisition, which experienced operating inefficiencies caused by changes in GM&P's supply chain in connection with the integration into Tecnoglass.

The overhaul of GM&P supply chain and other business optimization costs in connection with the now completed integration resulted in the $3.6 million onetime charge. The original GM&P purchase agreement included a provision to adjust the price based on such integration cost, and accordingly, the acquisition purchase price was retroactively reduced by $3.6 million through a combination of the previously announced implicit value of the Tecnoglass shares awarded to the seller and a $1.5 million reduction in the final amount of the seller's note, which, as a whole, offset the impact of the onetime charge to Tecnoglass.

On an adjusted basis, we were pleased with the approximately 400 basis point improvement in gross margin, which represented favorable incremental performance on higher sales and cost controls. Given our raw material efficiency and disciplined purchasing economics, we believe we are well positioned to improve our profitability moving forward as U.S. developers and contractors face inflationary construction cost across a variety of products and services. Overall, we remain focused on additional efficiencies and productivity initiatives to further enhance profitability while preserving a strong platform to support expected growth.

Turning to our Colombian market update on Slide #12. We believe activity in Colombia has entered a period of stability with leading indicators pointing to an ongoing recovery. One of the most recent catalysts is the positive outcome of Colombia's presidential election, which we expect to expand a pro-business climate over the next several years. As an encouraging sign, immediately following the election, the Colombia Consumer Confidence and Colombia Business Confidence Indices for the month of June each reached their highest readings since 2012. These readings are consistent with other [update] data points, including low interest rates as the new normal and a healthy GDP growth rate both year-over-year and what is projected for 2019.

While the bidding activity in Colombia remains at firm levels since mid-year of 2017, our backlog is also stretching deeper into 2019. Therefore, a sharp upturn in 2018 is unlikely. In turn, we anticipate a long gradual recovery as developers take increasing advantage of the favorable macroeconomics over the next several years.

Looking at the U.S. construction market on Slide #13. We are seeing growth in the U.S. as commercial construction activity continues to benefit from good levels of demand. The Architecture Billings Index forecast business conditions to remain strong overall, particularly in the South and Northeast where we have our largest presence. We are carefully monitoring the diverging trends in the West, but based upon the current backlog composition, we view the ABI readings as a positive for our exposure. Additionally, we view the need for energy-efficient buildings, increasing environmental regulations, rapid advancements in coding technology and demographic shifts to urban centers as long-term catalyst for our business. Expansion into new markets and new product innovations are additional catalysts for Tecnoglass, which we continue to emphasize within our growth strategy.

Moving to our 2018 outlook on Slide #15. Based on our progress year-to-date, our outlook for the full year is unchanged. We reiterate our outlook for revenues to grow to a range of $345 million to $365 million, with our mix of revenue growth still expected to be weighted towards the U.S. As we have said on prior calls, we expect year-over-year growth to be higher in the first half compared to the growth in the back half based on the anticipated timing of invoicing in 2018 compared to 2017 and the anniversary of our GM&P acquisition in early 2018. We continue to expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $71 million to $81 million.

Favorable operating leverage on higher revenues and an improved mix of sales from manufacturing operations along with tighter cost controls should allow us to drive higher margins.

We continue to expect to generate positive cash flow from operations for the full year taking into consideration that there are certain seasonal factors mainly related to tax payments during the first half of the year. We are extremely confident in our ability to achieve our growth objectives while further improving our industry-leading margins.

We thank you for your continued support in Tecnoglass. We will be happy to answer your questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Dougherty & Company.

This is actually David on for Jeremy. So I just have a couple of questions today. First, I wanted to ask about this nonrecurring acquisition expense of $3.6 million. Can you just kind of walk us through what happened here again so we can better understand it? And then can you give us a sense of how we should be thinking about gross margins for the back half of the year?

Sure. So this was related to a couple of specific projects that GM&P had already been executing prior to the acquisition. Under the purchase agreements, we have agreed that any inefficiencies or overrun in costs related to any of the projects that they have already booked will be compensated in the acquisition price. So basically, what happened is that they had some inefficiencies in the subcontracting schemes that they had in some other third-party purchasing of some of the materials. Those 2 projects have been closed, and all of the projects ongoing are basically under our new supply chain structure. So we see that as something that is nonrecurring. And to your second question, gross margins. If you look at the history since the acquisition, have been really stable at the low 30s type margin. We expect that to be the case and possibly pick up a little bit of leverage on the second half of the year on what we have projected as higher revenues. So all in all, since the beginning, we have mentioned that, with the acquisition integrated into Tecnoglass, we would be looking at low 30s type gross margins.

Okay, great. And then next, just wanted to touch on Colombia and kind of what happened in Q2 given some disruption. It sounds like around the election. And then also, I want to -- also, it seems like you're a bit more positive moving forward. So could you just talk about what you saw in Q2, your outlook moving forward and then how we should be thinking about kind of growth rates in Colombia, specifically kind of in the back half of this year?

Yes. So essentially the Q1 was very strong. If you look at growth year-over-year, we experienced substantial growth in Colombia. And then it is coincidental in the sense that during the second -- or during the first quarter call, we were actually getting closer to the presidential elections and the leftist party was getting closer in the polls. And what that caused was for a lot of people to kind of get a worried sentiment that there was actually a strong possibility of this leftist candidate becoming the President. Since then, obviously, the outcome was very favorable. But during May and in June specifically, a lot of the activity really got put on hold until people got a better understanding on what was going to happen with the outcome. And then, as I said, overall, once the -- it was said and done, a pro-business candidate ended up winning the election. And what we're seeing right now is confidence in both residential and commercial sentiment, with the indexes actually being the highest since 2012. So more to come in the next 100 days as the new President talks more about his macroeconomic policies. But on a preliminary basis, he has indicated that he intends to lower corporate taxes, so we see that as a positive. We're being cautious with the remaining of the year as far as how fast we think that's going to pick up. I think there's certainly a lot of pent-up activity. So what we're thinking as far as revenues for the rest of the year is probably stable over what we saw in Q2 with any upside to that coming really as an upside as opposed to just kind of being overly optimistic on the timing of what the new administration, new regime is going to flow into the market space.

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Rygiel with B. Riley FBR.

A couple few questions. I did miss a moment or two during the call here, so I apologize if there's any duplication here. But first, can you kind of address the mix in your backlog that's associated with residential, office and multifamily? I think what I'm trying to get here -- get to here is kind of understanding more what your mix is in multifamily today. And then maybe talk about sort of the outlook that you think about over the next 12 months in the U.S. associated with each one of those end markets?

So basically, in the backlog, there's really no residential components. That's really very short lived [and intra-quarter]. That segment is performing very well and actually above expectations. So what you see in there is essentially commercial work. Out of which, I would tell you 80% is U.S.-based. And out of that portion, probably I would tell you 80% multifamily and the rest probably rentals and other [2] commercial. And on your second question on projections, you meant what we see as part of the execution of the backlog or the composition from a geographical perspective?

I think I was looking for your particular kind of view on the multifamily market versus the office market over the course of the next 12 to 24 months.

Okay. So the general view for the Florida market specifically is that the high-end condo market is cooled off. We did win a couple of large projects, but as we said in the past, we are shifting more into midsized office space and other pockets within Florida. So if you talk about Miami specifically, we did see a little bit of cool off on the high-end condo market. However, the focus right now is to replace that with other asset types and also focus on work on Curtain Wall in the Northeast and other places within the U.S.

And then could you address the impact, if any, to yourselves and your competition as it relates to rising raw material costs and the tariffs?

Well, this is Christian. At the beginning, there was an impact of a few dollars, but now, after all, oil prices have been going up and we have been able to pull into the costs, the tariffs. And they are being paid by customers without any complaints because there is just a shortage of aluminum due to the new tariffs. And -- so at the end, it ended up being convenient. And we see that the best is yet to come in the year, and that's why we are very optimistic for the second half of the year.

And turning to sort of future growth opportunities, where do additional acquisitions fit into your strategy in 2018? Are you building a book of M&A targets? Or is that something that we should think about more so in 2019?

No. I think we just completed the integration of GM&P, Alex. And what we're looking for given our backlog (inaudible) is to execute that and continue to help organic growth for the time being. So obviously as opportunities arise, we are going to be kind of listening and mindful of valuations, but nothing on the horizon. We just want to basically continue to execute the backlog on hand.

Our next question comes from the line of Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company.

So I just want to first start out with the 10% revenue growth in the quarter. Can you maybe give us the breakout in regards to how much of that was price, how much of that was volume and how much was mix?

Basically, volume, Julio, we have not baked in or seen a substantial price inflation yet. So what you are seeing is basically the result of the U.S. growing about 16% year-over-year in volume, just incremental work.

Got it. Got it. And you mentioned residential was performing above expectations. We're 2 quarters of the way through the year. How do you feel about that full year target of $20 million to $25 million on the residential side?

We still feel very confident to end up toward the higher end of that target, Julio, and I think that is going to compensate what we were seeing for Colombia to start off the year. We're being more cautious about the second half of the year. But residential and the new products that we launched last year are certainly being well perceived, and we feel very good about getting toward the higher end of the original target there.

Understood. And I wanted to piggyback on Alex's question earlier about rising input costs. I mean, certainly, freight and labor have also been rising across the industry. Can you just talk about what you're seeing in the market from a competitive perspective? And when it comes to maybe freight specifically, given that you have 1 site -- one vertically integrated site, can you talk about Tecnoglass maybe versus your competitors and? Can you maybe try to quantify the incremental gains you might be seeing as a result?

This is José. Listen, the tariffs and the increasing salaries have been good for us because most of our products we buy and we source in Colombia. And the previous product does not have a tariff coming into the states, but the raw materials. So we see all of our competitors increasing their prices from 6% to 10%, and we haven't increased the price to keep gaining market, and we see that as a good sign. Maybe next year, we'll increase a little bit, but not as much as the competition because we want to keep penetrating new markets and gaining a foothold in the U.S.

Understood. And then maybe my last one here is just on the cash flow. Definitely an improvement year-over-year, but still slightly negative in the quarter. Just given your lower CapEx requirements going forward, should we expect positive free cash flow in the back half of the year?

Yes. There's a seasonal effect here, Julio. All taxes get paid in the first half of the year, so you do have a seasonal effect. What you see in relation to operating cash flow is mainly related to buildup of inventory as we see higher activity in the second half of the year. AR is actually -- from a DSO perspective, it's trended down, but obviously on a higher amount of sales, you are also going to have a little bit of usage there. That being said, given that seasonal effect that I just mentioned, we are foreseeing the second half of the year as being cash flow positive. And as a follow-up, CapEx should remain very mute and in line with what we have guided for, for the year at about -- at approximately $10 million, which if you see 6 months into it, we're basically trending right on at about $4.8 million or so.

There are no further questions in the queue. I'd like to hand the call back to management for closing comments.

Okay. Thank you everybody for taking the call. And as we said, we are expecting much better results in the second half and continued growth into 2019. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.