Firan Technology Group Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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October 9, 2024

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

I would like to welcome everyone to the FTG Q3 20 24 Analyst Call. All lines have been placed on mute. There will be a question and answer session following the call. Please note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr.

Operator

Brad Born, President and Chief Executive Officer of FTG. Mr. Born, you may proceed.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Brad Born, President and CEO of Fran Technology Group Corporation, or FTG. Also on the call today is Jamie Creighton, our Chief Financial Officer. Before I go any further, I must caution you that this call may contain forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

Such statements are based on the current expectations of management of the company and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties known and unknown, including economic factors and the company's industry generally. The proceeding list is not exhaustive of all possible factors. Such forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward looking statements made by the company. The listener is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when making decisions with respect to the company and not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The company does not undertake and has no specific intention to update any forward looking statements written or oral that may be made from time to time by or on its behalf, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Speaker 1

We set many records for financial performance for FTG in our Q3. We had record sales, record EBITDA and strong cash flow. I would like to thank everyone at FTG for their hard work and their contributions to our success. Our success is a team effort among all 6 70 employees across the company and around the world. And together, we know that there are opportunities to do even better in the coming quarters.

Speaker 1

In Q3 2024, FTG achieved some strong financial metrics, including our bookings of $45,900,000 were up 29% over Q3 last year. Our revenues of $43,100,000 were up 18% over Q3 last year. We achieved record net earnings in Q3 2024 of $2,800,000 which was up 109% over Q3 last year. We achieved record adjusted EBITDA in the quarter of $7,300,000 which was up 46% over Q3 last year. In the quarter, we paid $400,000 as the final holdback payment for IMI, now FTG Circa Table.

Speaker 1

There are no further payments outstanding on this acquisition. On a related note, the holdback payment for Holiday has been in escrow since closing, so that will not impact cash flow when released in October. That deal also has an earn out provision based on the financial performance of the business from the acquisition date through to October this year. We do expect some amount of the earnout to be paid in Q4. As a reminder, the earnout can range from $0 to $4,400,000 Other accomplishments in the quarter included, we reached another record backlog of over $121,000,000 Integration activities in Circuit Minnetonka progressed well in the quarter with continued improvements in throughput and shipment.

Speaker 1

Demand remained strong across its customer base and new customer activity progressed well. The site is fully operational in the FTG standard ERP system they transitioned to in Q2 this year. As the quarter ended, a new general manager was hired to lead that site into 2025 and beyond. Integration activities in Circuit Haverhill advanced with the installation of new drills and electrical test equipment. The expansion of the customer base continued in the quarter.

Speaker 1

The implementation of the FTG ERP system also progressed in our Q3. Jamie will provide more details on our Q3 2024 results shortly, but first let me turn to some external items. Our end market demand remains strong. Airbus delivered 735 aircraft in 2023 and through August 2024, they have shipped 4 47, which is below their target for this year. But for the past 3 months, they delivered at an annual rate of 764 aircraft, which is very close to their target.

Speaker 1

They are looking to ramp to almost 1,000 aircraft annually in the next few years, and this is a 35% production rate increase. Airbus has a backlog of over 8,000 orders, which is over a decade worth of production at current production rates. At Boeing, they shipped just under 500 planes in 2023 and it plans to ramp their production by about 40% to almost 700 planes in the next few years. Boeing's backlog is almost 6,000 planes, so also over a decade's worth of orders at current production rates. But the FAA has told Boeing to limit production while they ensure there is sufficient focus on quality.

Speaker 1

In the past 3 months, however, Boeing delivered 127 aircraft, which is up from the run rate for the 1st 5 months where they delivered only 131 aircraft in the 5 month period. Obviously, the current strike at Boeing will impact deliveries in the near term. It is uncertain how long the strike will last, so it's really impossible to assess its impact on demand seen by suppliers such as us. In the business jet market, Bombardier reported low single digit shipment growth for 2023. Their projections for 2024 are for a similar level of growth.

Speaker 1

In their Q2, however, they delivered 39 aircraft, which was 10 more than their deliveries in Q2 last year. Gulfstream is also projecting high single digit levels of growth for 2024. This industry remains in robust growth mode. In the helicopter market, Bell Helicopter reported 31% revenue growth last year and are projecting near 10% growth for 2024. In their Q2, revenues were up 13%, however, their shipments of new aircraft were down slightly in the quarter.

Speaker 1

We remain positive as we look to future demand in the various market segments in the coming years. I also looked at results from key defense contractors. Of note, Lockheed's revenue in their Q2 were up 9% over the Q2 last year. The ongoing geopolitical challenges in the world are expected to keep defense spending high for a period of time. Looking at the longer term, Boeing's recent 20 year forecast shows long term industry growth in air transport, and it continues to show 20% of all new aircraft deliveries going to China and close to 40% to Asia as has been the case in their recent forecast.

Speaker 1

The business jet market has already seen traffic recover. Our recent business jet market forecast from Honeywell similarly predicts growth in this market in the coming years with near term double digit growth rates for the sector. The simulator market mirrors end market applications. But as we always remind everyone about this market, it is lumpy for us, so our year to year variations do occur. Year to date 2024 shipments of simulator products for FTG are about $2,500,000 as compared to $8,800,000 for the same period last year.

Speaker 1

As we have said for many years, FTG's goal is to participate in all segments of the aerospace and defense market as each moves through their independent business cycles. It does not often all segments are growing together as seems to be the case right now. Beyond this, let me give you a quick update on some key metrics for FTG for our Q3. First, the leading indicator of our business is our bookings and new orders. As noted earlier, our bookings were $45,900,000 in Q3.

Speaker 1

This resulted in a backlog of $121,000,000 at quarter end. Even with record sales in the quarter, we increased our backlog. In Q3 2024, sales were $43,100,000 which is $6,500,000 or 18% above Q3 last year. Year to date sales are $116,900,000 up $21,600,000 or 22.7 percent over the same period last year. Our Aerospace business was up $3,400,000 or 34 percent to $13,400,000 in Q3 this year versus Q3 last year.

Speaker 1

The backlog remains strong in the business. Year to date sales were essentially flat due primarily to the strike in our Toronto facility in Q1, lower simulator sales and delays in entering production on some new assembly level products from both Boeing and Airbus, offset by strong overall market demand. Our circuits business grew by $3,600,000 or 13.3 percent in the quarter due to strong backlog and strong operating performance. For the year to date period, sales were up $22,300,000 to $86,400,000 as a result of having the 2 acquisitions for the full 9 months this year versus 4 months year to date last year, strong end market demand and strong operating performance. At Circus Minnetonka, their annualized run rate in Q3 was approximately US29 $1,000,000 This is up from the US22 $1,000,000 run rate when we acquired them and getting close to their pre pandemic run rate of US31 million dollars They had strong bookings again in Q3 and have started to add customers to expand their customer base, particularly for defense applications.

Speaker 1

After a bit of a slow start to 2024, Circuit's Haverhill's run rate is above last year's rate by 6% to 7%. We do continue to believe that we can materially grow this business by adding new customers and investing in selective CapEx. Overall at FTG, our top five customers accounted for 60.1% of the total revenue in the quarter. This compares to 55.6% last year. Also interesting to note, of the top 10 customers, 6 are customers shared between circuits and aerospace.

Speaker 1

And of interest, 1 of the top 10 is the customer that resulted from the circuits Minnetonka acquisition. In Q3 2024, 30.4 percent of our total revenues came from our Aerospace business compared to 26.9% last year. The Aerospace business share increased due to strong demand and improved operating performance in the quarter. Would now like to turn the call over to Jamie, who will summarize our financial results for Q3 2024 and afterwards I will talk about some key priorities we are working on. Jamie?

Speaker 2

Thanks Brad. Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to provide some additional detail on our performance for Q3. On sales of $43,100,000 FTG achieved a gross margin of $11,600,000 or 27 percent compared to $8,800,000 or 24 percent on sales of $36,600,000 in Q3 2023. The increase in gross margin dollars and rate is driven by the growth in sales volume and related operating leverage, productivity improvements and favorable foreign exchange.

Speaker 2

The average exchange rate experienced in Q3 'twenty four was $1.36 as compared to $1.33 in Q3 2023, which is a 2.2% increase. We continue our focus on operational efficiency to improve financial performance for our shareholders and operating performance for our customers. For Q3 2024, annualized revenue per employee is approximately $251,000 which is an increase of 19 percent over the comparable quarter of 2023. From a geographical standpoint, FTG experienced revenue growth in all of its primary regions. In dollar terms, Q3 'twenty four sales to U.

Speaker 2

S.-based customers grew by $4,100,000 and sales to Asia based customers were up by $1,900,000 as compared to the prior year quarter. We track sales data by our ship to location. Activity in Asia is increased as the integrated supply chains for the commercial aerospace sector continue to grow offshore. SG and A expense was $5,100,000 or 11.8 percent of sales in Q3 'twenty four as compared to 4,100,000 or 11.1 percent of sales in the prior period. Increased expense level includes headcount, higher expenses related to the overall growth of FTG and higher levels of performance compensation.

Speaker 2

R and D costs for Q3 'twenty four were $1,700,000 or 4.0 percent of net sales compared to $1,600,000 or 4.4 percent of sales for Q3 2023. R and D efforts include product and process improvements at the circuit segment and efforts to develop and qualify products for future aerospace program. The exchange rate at the Q3 2024 close was $1.35 as compared to $1.36 at Q2 'twenty four, which means a slightly stronger Canadian dollar. FTG's balance sheet includes assets and liabilities denominated in U. S.

Speaker 2

Currency with a net balance net asset balance of approximately US12 $1,000,000 The translation of our US dollar assets and liabilities to Canadian currency at the end of Q3 resulted in a foreign exchange gain for the quarter of 200,000 compared to a loss of 100,000 in the prior year quarter. EBITDA was 6,900,000 for Q3 2024 as compared to $4,800,000 in Q3 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $7,200,000 for Q3 2024 or 16.7 percent of sales and $5,000,000 for Q3 2023 or 13.6 percent of sales. Please note that commencing with our Q3 2024 filings, we no longer deduct stock based compensation for our EBITDA metric. However, we do deduct these costs for adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing 12 month period ended Q3 2020 4 was $24,400,000 which equates to an adjusted margin of 15.5 percent on sale. The only adjustment to EBITDA for the trailing 12 month periods is for stock based comp. For Q4 2023, FGG had EBIT or earnings before income taxes of $4,300,000 or 9.9 percent of sales as compared to $2,300,000 for Q3 2023 or 6.4 percent of sales. The Q3 20 24 income tax provision of $1,400,000 or 34 percent of pre tax earnings reflects that the corporation's Canadian and China operations were profitable and that deferred tax assets on certain foreign operating losses were not recognized in the quarter. Cash flow from operating activities in Q3 2020 4 was $5,300,000 as compared to $3,500,000 in Q3 2023, primarily due to higher net earnings.

Speaker 2

Cash used for lease liability payments was $1,000,000 in Q3 2024 as compared to $900,000 in 2023. Year to date cash flow from operating activities was $10,000,000 in 2024 as compared to $7,300,000 in the same period in 2023. Excluding $3,800,000 of ERC employment retention credits included in the year to date period in 2023, year to date cash flow from operating activities increased by $6,500,000 this year. Capital expenditures were $800,000 in Q3 2024 as compared to $1,800,000 in Q3 2023 and were primarily for new equipment in the Circuit segment. Capital expenditures in Q4 2024 will include close to $1,000,000 for infrastructure upgrades at Circuit's Toronto facility.

Speaker 2

The strong cash flow in Q3 2024 allowed us to make a discretionary US0.75 million dollars payment against Bank Day. Our net debt position as of Q3 2024 is $2,200,000 as compared to $3,600,000 at the end of last year. As at quarter end, the corporation's primary sources of liquidity totaled $77,000,000 including cash, accounts receivable contract assets and inventory. Working capital was $47,800,000 as compared to $41,100,000 at the 2023 year end. Accounts receivable DSO are 58 days at the Q3 quarter end compared to 64 last year.

Speaker 2

Inventory days are 112, one better than last year and accounts payable days are 64 compared to 78 at the 2023 year end. We completed the quarter with a backlog over $121,000,000 with approximately 86% of this expected to be converted to revenue in the next 12 months. We will continue to focus on profitable growth, cash management and operating efficiency. Our filings are on sedar.com. And with that, I will turn things back to Brad.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Jamie. Let me delve into some important items in the quarter and or for future performance of FTG. We continue to believe our staffing levels are at about the right levels to support our current demand. While we might tweak it slightly from site to site going forward, the majority of our staffing challenges are behind us. As noted earlier, we have hired a general manager to run the Circuit's Minnetonka site for the long term.

Speaker 1

While Paul Godbold did an amazing job at that facility, and I am grateful for his contributions, he was an interim GM and we needed to find a long term solution, which we have now done. And at the same time, we have hired a new general manager to run our circuit's Fredericksburg plant. This will free up some of Leo Lacroix's time to provide more oversight and strategic direction to our 4 U. S. Circuits facilities.

Speaker 1

We always remember that we make money by building a shipping product, so we do spend significant time and money driving process and productivity improvements at all the sites. This can include manufacturing process improvements, but it can also involve things like automation. We now have a number of robotic systems operational at our Circus Toronto facility, maybe surprisingly at our Aerotianjin facility. We are adding robotics process in our Aerospace Toronto facility and it is now installed in that facility. But automation goes well beyond robotics.

Speaker 1

We have a lot of very automated equipment across our circuit site that help drive both productivity and process control. Automation will continue to be an area for investment across the company. Also as a manufacturer, we use a lot of materials that can harm the environment if not managed carefully. As part of FTG's overall ESG commitment, we look for ways to minimize our impact on the environment and we have started a project with a small government grant to investigate using water based paint in our aerospace or cockpit products business. If successful, we would significantly reduce our use of solvents in this business to the benefit of the environment.

Speaker 1

Looking forward, a key item for us remains the integration of our new sites. For Haverhill, we acquired them to grow our presence in the RF circuit board market for aerospace and defense applications. While they are small with a historic run rate of about $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 we like their capabilities. The integration is relatively straightforward and we intend to continue to operate it in its current facility with its existing staff. Our focus will be to engage our sales team with them to find new customers and to grow the business.

Speaker 1

This is not an overnight process, but one where we can generate incremental margins and profitability to the benefit of FTG. Going along with this will be some focused CapEx to address a few production constraints to enable the future growth. 2 new drills and electrical test machine have been added to the site. We did achieve some targeted material savings, which will benefit us going forward. And finally, we will move them on to the FTG standard ERP system in the future, and this project is now underway.

Speaker 1

FTG Circus Minnetonka was a larger acquisition. Their sales were over US31 $1,000,000 before the pandemic. They were hurt by the pandemic like we were. We see the long term positioning of the Minnetonka site to be a source of high technology circuit boards similar to our Toronto facility, but with a U. S.

Speaker 1

Footprint. This U. S. Footprint is critical as we will look to grow our share of the U. S.

Speaker 1

Only advanced circuit board or the defense market. In the short term, we have 3 priorities as we integrate Minitalk. First, we need to ramp their throughput and revenues. We have closed over 75% of the gap to get back to their pre pandemic run rate. We continue to see strong demand, so ramping throughput remains a priority item for that site.

Speaker 1

The second priority is to reduce material costs. We have identified cost saving opportunities that can benefit the site, but they are now part of a larger company. It is taking time to achieve these savings as in some cases, it requires customers' approval and internal engineering efforts. But when complete, we expect to achieve savings on the order of about $1,000,000 annually. Our third priority is to improve pricing.

Speaker 1

We have had successes already, and we will continue to address this. We want to ensure that any inflationary costs incurred at that site over the past few years, whether material, labor or other, are passed through to our customers and not squeeze our margins. With the FTG ERP system in place and in use, we are getting much improved data on our costs, which we can now use to ensure we are pricing parts more precisely going forward. And lastly, while not an immediate integration item, when we bought the site, we believe that we could expand and grow their customer base focused on the U. S.

Speaker 1

Defense market. This has already started. We are seeing real interest from numerous customers in adding this site to their approved supplier list. That's the good news. Bad news is it's typically a long process to get a new site approved, but we will stay the course on this to grow the site in the coming years beyond their pre pandemic high point.

Speaker 1

In Q3, we continue to see strong demand across most sites. Our total backlog is $120,000,000 with over $60,000,000 due in Q4. While not a good metric, we ended the quarter our Q3 with over $14,000,000 in past due orders, up from $12,000,000 at the end of Q2, but down from $18,000,000 at the end of Q3 last year. About half the past due orders are at our Aeroad Toronto site. The site was hurt by the strike in Q1.

Speaker 1

They also show some past due orders on assemblies where our customers ask for design changes. So while they are showing weight, it is driven by customer decision. For other work at Aero Toronto, to help drive down the past dues as fast as possible, we have worked with our customers to shift some production from Aero Toronto to our other aerospace sites, at least for the short term, and we have decided to add some additional staff. This should help the site recover back to strong on time performance. We are growing in 2024 as compared to 2023.

Speaker 1

The easiest aspect of our growth will be having the acquisitions for the full 12 months this year as compared to 7 months last year. This should add an estimated $12,000,000 in sales for 2024. If we can ramp production and sales at the newly acquired sites, this would further add to the growth. And we continue to win new programs across the company that will layer on yet a third layer of incremental organic growth. At our U.

Speaker 1

S. Sites, we have won some initial orders for new defense program where the qualification orders are valued at about $1,000,000 deliverable this year. This program should ramp into full sale production next year. And we will still see further benefit from the higher value assembly orders first booked last year after we complete the customer requested redesign. These assemblies belong on both Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Speaker 1

And we will see the benefit of the C919 program in China moving into production. We shipped our first production orders last year and we have booked over $17,000,000 in production orders due in 2024 through 2026. We expect our 1st shipment against this contract either this week or next week. With the more complex geopolitical situation in China, there might be concerns about our activity there. But in 2023, both our operations in China had the best sales year ever.

Speaker 1

This continues through the 1st 9 months of 2024 with the site seeing a 14% and 41% growth, respectively, compared to the same period last year. As I have mentioned in previous quarters, we repatriated cash back to Canada in 'twenty two and 'twenty three, and we brought more cash back earlier this year. In total, we have now brought back $3,000,000 in cash. By doing this, we don't have surplus cash stranded in China and it reduces our exposure if things ever deteriorated between China and the West. We are working to bring back more cash by the end of this year.

Speaker 1

We are being cautious about our operations in China as any further increase in tension between China and other countries could impact our operations there in the future. We continue to assess possible corporate development opportunities that could fit with either of our businesses. There are opportunities out there that fit our strategic priorities, and we are working to see if we can conclude the deal in line with our priorities and with an attractive financial return. With a focus on operational excellence in all parts of SDG, our strong financial performance last year and the 1st 9 months of this year, our recent acquisition, our key sales wins, we are confident we are on a strong long term growth trajectory. This concludes our presentation.

Speaker 1

I thank you for your attention. I would now like to open the phones for your questions. Nina?

Operator

Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Nik Kor Koram from Acumen. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Brad and Jimmy, congrats on the record quarter.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Just a few questions for me. Fran posted a record $43,000,000 of sales. Any indication how close you were to catastrophe in the quarter?

Speaker 1

Yes. I guess I go back to kind of an annualized look at this. On an annualized basis, we did an assessment of what I consider real capacity, not a theoretical capacity. And for sure, our real capacity on an annualized basis is over $200,000,000 So if you look at $143,000,000 maybe that's $170,000,000 or so, we definitely see room to grow with our existing capacity. And I guess what I'd add to that as well is, in any production site, and I'll use Circus Toronto as an example, because Circus Toronto is running at the highest utilization rate right now.

Speaker 1

It's not a uniform capacity through the plant. There's always 1 or 2 bottlenecks that constrain the overall capacity. And so, I've asked the guy who runs that site, Hitek Salati, to look what it would take to add another 10% or so to capacity of that site. It's not build a new plant for sure. It's going to be a handful of specific pieces of equipment that then opens up the bottleneck and drives capacity.

Speaker 1

So I'm comfortable that we do have capacity to continue to ramp revenue for the next number of years.

Speaker 3

That's helpful. And we're almost halfway through the Q4. Any indication what the sales pace in the 4th quarter is relative to the 3rd quarter and what the potential risks of a Boeing strike continuing would be?

Speaker 1

Yes. To answer your first one, I have no answer. I'm a lagging indicator in the company. So I'm wrapping up my discussion of Q3 today on this call. And so I have truly not been paying attention to how things look in Q4, but also to be fair, we typically aren't providing guidance.

Speaker 1

But we have strong demand, as I said, we have strong backlog for the quarter. If we continue to perform operationally, it should be a good quarter. Regarding the Boeing strike, as of today, we've seen no real impact on demand as a result of the strike. But if it continues and drags on, at some point, they're going to slow down their supply chain, which would include us. Have not seen that yet, not sure when that would happen, can't really predict what that impact would be.

Speaker 1

But I would also say that a Boeing strike impacts the overall U. S. Economy. It's a significant company. And just by reading stuff in the news, there's a lot of pressure on both sides to find an agreement, reach a settlement.

Speaker 1

The pressure coming from the federal government in the U. S, from the Department of Labor, there's a lot of pressure and support and interaction going on to try to bring that to a conclusion.

Speaker 3

Great. And maybe a couple more questions, if I can. The balance sheet is in a very strong position right now. How are you thinking about your capital allocation priorities between M and A, the share buyback and other organic growth initiatives?

Speaker 1

Sure. My capital allocation priorities are number 1, invest in the business organically to drive technology or capacity as we talked about to grow the business organically. Number 2 is M and A and then number 3 is things like a buyback, but I would do it in that order in that priority.

Speaker 3

And then one final question with the completion of the ERP at Circus Averhill and Minnetonka, what will that mean for margins going forward?

Speaker 1

It doesn't impact well, just implementing the system does not impact margins, but having a system that gives us better data definitely gives us an opportunity to impact margins in a positive way. We were really running blind at both sites in terms of what our costs were on a part number level or the detailed level, our ERP system will give us cost data down to part numbers and that we can use that to make sure our pricing is logical and in line with what the costs are. So it's a benefit in that regard that we will really see happen, but it will take time. As parts run through the system, then we get data, then we can react appropriately.

Speaker 3

That's great color. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll pass along.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks, Nick.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Bourne, please proceed.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you all for attending. A replay of the call will be available until November 15 at the numbers on our press release. The replay will also be available on our website in a few days. I thank everyone for their interest and participation.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Firan Technology Group Q3 2024
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