Thermon Group Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 3, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Thermon First Quarter 20 24 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand the call over to Yvonne Salon, Vice President of FP and A and Investor Relations.

Operator

Thank You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Dara. Good morning, and thank you for joining today's fiscal 2024 First Quarter Conference Call. Earlier this morning, we issued an earnings press release, which has been filed with the SEC on Form 8 ks and is also available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Additionally, the slides for this conference This call can be found on our IR website under News and Events IR Calendar Earnings Conference Call Q1 2024. During the call, we will discuss some items that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Speaker 1

We have reconciled those items to the most comparable GAAP measures in the tables at the end of the earnings press release. These non GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not a self substitute for measures of financial performance reported in accordance with us. I would like to remind you that during this call, we may make certain forward looking statements regarding our company. Please refer to our annual report and most recent quarterly report filed with the SEC for more information regarding our forward looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties that could impact our future results. Our actual results might differ materially from those contemplated by these Forward looking statements and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, Now, I would like to introduce Bruce Stains, our President and Chief

Speaker 2

Thank you, Yvonne. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll start today with a quick overview of Thermon. We're a world leader in providing safe, reliable And innovative mission critical industrial process heating solutions to customers in 85 countries from facilities on 4 continents. Our almost 1400 employees have an industry leading safety record and are dedicating to creating value for our customers and shareholders By executing our strategic long term plan, which I'll cover in more detail on the next slide.

Speaker 2

In order to create long term value for our shareholders, we're guided by our 3 strategic pillars. 1st, profitably growing our installed base 2nd, decarbonization, digitization and diversification to drive additional growth and third, disciplined capital allocation. As the global leader at the forefront of applying innovative process heating technology to solve critical thermal engineering problems for our customers, We benefit from a very large installed base. This enables us to capture recurring and drive growth across our traditional end market verticals, while our culture of continuous improvement Supports margin expansion. In addition to capturing share across our traditional end markets, We're also pursuing 3 new areas to drive additional growth around decarbonization, digitization and diversification.

Speaker 2

We're expanding our sales and marketing efforts in these areas that utilize our core heating technologies to diversify our end markets With a goal of having approximately 65% to 70% of our revenues come from end markets outside of oil and gas And our range of digital solutions that help our customers to optimize monitoring and maintenance across their facilities. We're also enabling the energy transition as we supply our customers with products and solutions that help them achieve their Finally, our commitment disciplined capital allocation strategy underpins our first two strategic pillars. Our robust balance sheet enables us to drive organic growth through reinvestment in our business to meet our fiscal 2026 goals.

Speaker 3

We're

Speaker 2

also well positioned to pursue inorganic growth through highly strategic bolt on acquisitions that meet our financial objectives. Turning now to Slide 5 on Thermon Solutions for Energy Transition. This quarter, we'd like to share with you some of the ways that Thermon's products and solutions enable the energy transition. On Slide 5, you can see the range of Thermon's current electric heating products that can be used in both green and blue ammonia applications. These include electric immersion heaters, electric heat tracing systems and electrically heated tubing bundles.

Speaker 2

Hydrogen is an important piece of a sustainable energy future, but it's difficult to transport via pipeline or other traditional means Due to a phenomenon called hydrogen corrosion cracking or HCC, HCC can embrittle and weaken steel resulting in shorter asset for unanticipated failures. By adding nitrogen to hydrogen, ammonia is created, which is much easier to transport Green ammonia uses renewable energy such as wind or solar power to produce hydrogen via electrolysis. Blue ammonia is produced when natural gas is cracked to generate hydrogen and CO2, where the CO2 is then captured and sequestered. In either case, produced hydrogen is then combined with nitrogen to create ammonia. The global ammonia market is estimated to grow at a 5.8% compounded annual growth rate through 2,032.

Speaker 2

Electric heaters play a crucial role in various stages of heating within ammonia plants. They're used to provide indirect heat at various stages Processed via heat transfer fluids such as molten salts or hot oils. They can also be used to directly heat reactants or to provide process heating for ammonia synthesis. In addition to their environmental benefits, electric heaters can also provide Cost savings for ammonia plants. They offer precise and efficient heating, reducing energy consumption and minimizing downtime.

Speaker 2

With their compact size and easy installation, electric heaters also have a smaller footprint than traditional heating systems, allowing for more efficient use of space. Thermon's existing range of electric heating solutions, combined with our in industrial process heating make us an ideal partner for ammonia producers looking to improve their sustainability and efficiency. Turning now to Slide 6 on new Thermon technology. Here we see the newest addition in our Calytec Immersion Heater line called the Quantum Tru Flow Heater. Our investments in research and development have yielded Patent pending design that represents a step change in heating technology.

Speaker 2

The design has been validated in partnership with an industry leading heat transfer Our institute using advanced modeling software and lab testing to achieve optimal heat transfer and energy efficiency. The higher efficiency, reduced overall size and lower total cost of ownership make conversion from traditional hydrocarbon heaters to electric Even more economically compelling across a wide range of end markets. Turning now to Slide 7. Thermon's Genesis network and digital solutions provide our customers with Full operational awareness and supervisory control over their heat trace systems using industry leading wireless Mesh technology that connects all heat trace controllers to the controller. This facilitates increased operational efficiency and reliability With fewer maintenance hours and lower total costs, adoption continues to grow as customers recognize the significant benefits Provided by the Genesis network with 15% more new circuits added in the Q1 of fiscal 2024.

Speaker 2

Based on our pipeline of opportunities, we anticipate the number of circuits doubling this fiscal year. On Slide 8, you can see that we are continuing to progress our end market diversification strategy. Thermon's products and solutions can be used across a wide range of industries and we are seeing growth across several of these sectors. During the quarter, our bookings from rail and transit were up by 39% year over year, commercial was up by 29% And food and beverage was up 120%. Our order intake from high-tech sectors continue to grow as well With bookings from data centers up over 600% and bookings from semiconductor end market Up over 90% accelerated by the CHIPS Act.

Speaker 2

Importantly, we are also seeing growth in sectors related to the energy transition. Our bookings from electric power were up 4 89 percent and our bookings from biofuels and green diesel were up 89% during the quarter. We're encouraged by the steady incremental growth across these end markets as we capture additional market share. On Slide 9, I'd like to once again highlight the progress we have made around our end market diversification strategy. This chart shows the end market mix for the trailing 12 month period ending June 30, 2023.

Speaker 2

Since last quarter, we've increased the percentage of our revenue that comes from, for example, the commercial and renewables end markets. CapEx spending in LNG and petrochemicals has been a significant growth driver as well. We're also seeing growing demand related to projects in the specialty chemicals and gases, particularly related to semiconductor fabrication. There's also a growing pipeline of opportunities around alternative fuels such as biofuels, hydrogen and ammonia and another round of investment To winterize and harden the U. S.

Speaker 2

Power infrastructure across the South. Overall, with approximately 60% of our revenue generated from non oil and gas We continue to make steady progress toward our goal of fiscal 'twenty six diversification goals. Turning now to Slide 10 and our Q1 fiscal 2024 results. The Thermon team achieved another quarter of As a quick reminder, our business is highly seasonal with our Q1 typically being the weakest And the 3rd and 4th quarters being the strongest due to colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere. As a result, year over year comparisons are more appropriate than Sequential quarterly comparisons when measuring performance.

Speaker 2

We delivered record revenue of 106,900,000 Up 12% year over year over a prior year record, largely due to healthy growth in North America and Asia Pacific. Importantly, we saw meaningful growth in year over year revenue from resilient maintenance for OpEx activity. We saw even stronger operating leverage with adjusted EBITDA of $22,100,000 up 33% year over year, driven by higher volume, price realization and productivity gains. Free cash flow was negative in the quarter due to timing of certain payments after fiscal year end. Adjusted EPS was $0.40 per share, an increase of 58% over the prior year Finally, our book to bill ratio showed double digit order growth at 1.12 times, demonstrating continued strong demand

Speaker 3

from our customers.

Speaker 2

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin Fox for a more in-depth review

Speaker 4

Fiscal 20 24 financial performance on Slide 11. Performance this quarter was once again outstanding as the global Thermon team continues to Successfully execute our plan. Customer demand remains strong in the quarter. We reached $120,000,000 in incoming orders, up 16% year over year. Book to bill was a very robust 1.12 times.

Speaker 4

Spending remained strong across the U. S. And Latin America And we continue to see signs of a rebound in Asia Pacific. In terms of our end market orders, we saw the most growth in the power sector during the quarter With customer demand expanding across the renewables, food and beverage and commercial end markets, trailing 12 month orders reached $475,000,000 which we believe supports our raised full year revenue guidance. Revenue in the Q1 was 107,000,000 The year over year increase of 12%, primarily driven by midstream and downstream oil activity across the U.

Speaker 4

S. And Latin America. The renewables, Food and beverage and power end markets also contributed to revenue growth in the quarter. Revenue from large projects was $27,000,000 up 21% versus prior year, while revenue from small projects and maintenance and repairs totaled $80,000,000 up 9%. On a trailing 12 month basis, 77% of our revenues were derived from customer OpEx spending and that is indicative of our business Shifting away from more volatile capital budgets.

Speaker 4

Adjusted EBITDA for the Q1 was $22,000,000 up 33% year over year With adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 3.30 basis points. On a trailing 12 month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $99,000,000 21.8 percent of revenue, representing a year over year increase of 48%. As we take a step back and think about the evolution of adjusted EBITDA over the past few years, it is important to acknowledge the contribution of our process heating business, Largely through the acquisition of CCI Thermal in December 2017 to that growth. The PHS business recently crossed the 100,000,000 revenue on a trailing 12 month basis. Profitability is slightly better than the overall company average, an important data point as we consider the Last but certainly not least is that the THS business is providing a return on capital 250 basis points over our current cost Capital demonstrating the team's ability to create meaningful shareholder value through a disciplined long term focus on driving inorganic growth.

Speaker 4

Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.40 in the quarter, a year over year increase of 58%. A quick modeling note, we are currently estimating a $0.21 per share impact from amortization expense in fiscal year 2024. As you can see by these results, we continue to drive our business forward delivering meaningful profitable growth despite the complex operating environment. On Slide 12, we will cover the updated balance sheet. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 0.8 times in the current quarter As compared to 1.7 times in the previous year, as we've both paid down debt and significantly grown EBITDA over that time period.

Speaker 4

Total debt at the end of June was down 25 percent to 114 1,000,000 in the quarter, an increase of approximately 10%, primarily due to the combination of strategic inventory and seasonality. Working capital as a percentage of trailing 12 month sales was lower coming in at 34.6% at the end of the quarter, mainly driven by improved collections activity. Turning to cash flow. Net income in the Q1 was 11,000,000 Up 67% year over year. CapEx spend was $2,800,000 and free cash flow was negative $1,900,000 Reflecting our typically weakest cash quarter due to the timing of certain payments and our ongoing investments for strategic growth, particularly around incremental capacity for our process heating business.

Speaker 4

We ended the quarter with cash at $33,000,000 And this represented a year over year decrease of 17% as we are improving our global cash management practices. While the broader macro environment remains uncertain, we are pleased with our strong start to fiscal 2024. We continue to see strong growth trends across our regions, end markets and financial metrics. As we move ahead through fiscal 2024, We will continue to achieve positive results, diligently control costs and create long term value for our shareholders. Finally, I would like to thank the entire Thermon team for their hard work, which enabled us to deliver such strong first quarter results.

Speaker 4

And with that, I'll turn it back over to Bruce.

Speaker 2

All right. Thank you, Kevin. I'd like to turn now to Slide 13. We're raising our full year revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2024. As we look ahead to the coming quarters, We're conscious of the ongoing macroeconomic volatility even as we continue to see growth across our business.

Speaker 2

At this time, we're raising The lower end of our revenue guidance from $455,000,000 to $462,000,000 and increasing the upper range to 488,000,000 For the full year, which at the midpoint represents approximately 8% top line growth over fiscal 2023. GAAP EPS is now expected to be in the range of $1.48 per share to $1.62 per share, which represents 55% year over year growth at the midpoint. Adjusted EPS guidance has also been raised $1.69 to $1.83 per share. We'll continue to evaluate this outlook as we progress through our fiscal year. We expect to continue to generate significant flat cash flow through the year to maintain a strong balance sheet, giving us the flexibility to reinvest in our business And evaluate bolt on M and A opportunities.

Speaker 2

On Slide 14, you can see more details about our Capital allocation priorities. As our top priority, we are committed to maintaining a healthy balance sheet across economic cycles With a leverage target of 1.5 to 2 times under normal conditions. Our next priority is to fuel organic growth in our business by Reinvesting in people, technology and continuous improvement. These investments enable us to pursue our 3 strategic initiatives Decarbonization, Digitization and Diversification. We also pursue inorganic growth by continually evaluating M and A opportunities.

Speaker 2

Our focus is on bolt on acquisitions that meet our strategic and financial criteria, and we have a healthy pipeline of opportunities. Finally, we continue to evaluate opportunities to return capital to our shareholders when appropriate. As we wrap up today on Slide 15, we want to reiterate that Thermon is a leading global brand Providing safe, reliable and innovative mission critical process heating solutions serving high value, diversified end markets with high barriers to entry. Our team relentlessly pursues operational excellence in order to deliver innovative products and differentiated solutions that create value for our customers. We believe that our large global installed base with long standing customers Across a variety of end markets is a significant competitive advantage, resulting in a resilient aftermarket franchise that generates high margin recurring revenue.

Speaker 2

Our products and solutions are aligned with key long term secular trends Such as the energy transition, increasing environmental regulations and growth in chemical demand. We believe that we are well positioned to capitalize Enormous opportunities created associated with the energy transition and decarbonization through the electrification of industrial heat And to help our customers meet their own sustainability goals. Our strong and flexible balance sheet with low leverage and high gross margins As well as our capital light business model has enabled Thermon to remain resilient across economic cycles and continue to provide significant optionality. I'd like to end today by thanking the entire Thermon team for their outstanding performance this quarter And dedication to our culture of continuous improvement and to meeting our customers' needs. As we look ahead to the balance Of fiscal 2024 and beyond, I'm excited to see what we'll achieve together and I'm confident we'll continue to deliver profitable growth and value for our shareholders.

Speaker 2

Darren, I'd like to turn the call back over to you, so that we can now take some questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. The confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question Our first question comes from the line of Brian Drab with William Blair. Please proceed with your questions.

Speaker 3

Good morning. This is Tyler Gooten on for Brian. Congrats on the solid results by the way. Orders in backlog are looking really healthy. Thanks, Tal.

Speaker 3

Yes, no problem. And just starting out, I want to know just what factors went into your full year guidance raise? And then Just any general comments that you have on the view of the balance of the year?

Speaker 2

Yes. So As we kind of look at the order intake and where we are, I think a key thing that we anchor on is our trailing 12 month orders That's sitting right at $475,000,000 and that's kind of at the midpoint of our guide. And I think then as you kind of turn and look to the EPS side of the guidance. We're looking at margins and backlog and a lot of our continuous improvement efforts As well as just kind of what we've seen is moderation of some of the input costs, they give us confidence We have earnings power going forward.

Speaker 3

Got it. And then Just moving some more end market commentary. I think it'd be good to hear any update that you have on your renewables opportunity. Do you have any comment on what the Annual revenue opportunity could be and how that's been trending?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we're developing And improving our ability to attract these types of opportunities, but we're seeing we continue to see nice growth. In fact, Within the quarter, we booked somewhere north of $8,000,000 in those opportunities. And so we continue to see the opportunities grow there and the pipeline continues to grow. And we'll provide updates On those opportunities as well as the incoming order rates on a go forward basis.

Speaker 2

So overall, We continue to see investments that are moving in the direction of these new opportunities. And certainly, Some of the new product launches like we referred to as the Quantum Heater improves our ability to be able to provide Differentiated solutions in this space and win

Speaker 4

share. Tyler, this is Kevin. Maybe just to build on Bruce's response as well, Quite strong, generally above the company average as well. So, it's something I think as we look at the earnings power of the business, We feel pretty confident about the profitability with those revenues as well.

Speaker 3

Great. Yes, above $8,000,000 sounds like a great quarter for that end market. And I'm just wondering, as your pipeline grows, like, what kind of goes into transitioning the opportunities into wins Fertil's end markets.

Speaker 2

Yes. So I think some of the wins are just Timing, but certainly on the competitive front, we've done a lot. New technology, we're launching that to give us a differentiated position. But a lot of what we're doing is making investments in capacity because, quite frankly, the industry is a pretty Supply constrained at this time. And so we're making some pretty sizable investments, which is why our CapEx is up Over a typical year, we're up 3.5%, 4% of revenue, and a lot of that is really being directed towards growing our Capacity and reducing lead times in the marketplace.

Speaker 2

So we see all of those as really ways in which we can win and convert.

Speaker 4

And Tyler, the technology is agnostic at the end of the day. So if you think about the sales cycle, if you will, the front end of our business understands the technology Do really well. So it's really just applying that to end markets and making sure we're putting those leads in front of the right people to get them converted. So Yes, there's not a huge investment on that technology side. It's more on the capacity side as Bruce alluded to, so we can meet the demand in the market.

Speaker 2

And one last comment about that. Really the key differentiator we have in the marketplace It is in our technical competence around particularly around electrification and being able to work with customers On applications that have traditionally been hydrocarbon fired and converting those to a very different We have not only the technical knowledge and competence, but also all of the software tools And the capabilities to be able to help them make that transition successfully. So I think those are kind of the key things that Are driving our ability to win in this space.

Speaker 3

Yes, that sounds great. Just kind of moving on from the renewables and end market and just kind of finishing my last question just being Besides renewables, what end markets and geographies are you seeing the most like unexpected upside?

Speaker 2

I mean, the U. S, I mean, we expected to see growth, but it was really quite strong in this Q1. And we saw We're seeing some recovery in Asia as well, which I would say is it was expected. But As we look at the bookings, I think it's important not to be lost that bookings this year were up 16% over prior year. Now if you go back to prior year, that was a record in incoming orders as well, And that was up 43% over the prior year.

Speaker 2

So we just look at the bookings growth, it's pretty significant, And that's not to be lost. And so we're seeing a lot of activity And investments in the U. S. Particularly, we've had some nice petrochemical wins. There's a lot of LNG opportunities.

Speaker 2

Just as a reminder, we're a little later cycle. So we're we have won some of those, but we see additional opportunities In the pipeline for both and then certainly the opportunities that we've seen around renewables whether that's carbon capture and storage or The ammonia and hydrogen that we've highlighted today, those are driving additional upside and growth Above and beyond what we would traditionally see in our space.

Speaker 3

Got it. And that's all I have for today. Congrats on the quarter again and solid work.

Speaker 2

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Speaker 4

Thank

Operator

you. Our next questions come from the line of John Braatz with

Speaker 5

Just Sort of a point of clarification, I think you in the press release, you mentioned that organic growth was 11%. But if I'm not mistaken, Last year, you had $7,000,000 about $8,500,000 from A combination of a large completion of a large contract and some revenue from Russia. Am I correct in that?

Speaker 4

Yes. So John, maybe to kind of rewind it back a year, we had about a little over $7,000,000 from that large one time project that would be in the organic number. Right. The acquisition was about $1,000,000 of revenue and then Russia was about $1,000,000 as well. So a few pieces on each side of the line there to factor in.

Speaker 5

Okay. So ex those items, Kevin, it looks like your, what I would call it, adjusted Growth rate was near 20%. Is that do you look at it that way?

Speaker 4

That's about right, John. Okay.

Speaker 5

So it look from that using that as sort of a reference point, the going forward into the next 3 quarters, you're looking obviously for a little bit of a moderation from that. Was there something in the Q1 That was unexpected or somewhat transitory in nature, if you want to call it Ted?

Speaker 2

Yes. John, this is Bruce. No, not really. And I'll tell you, the incoming order rate was quite positive. So we That actually gives us some confidence going into the year.

Speaker 2

It's early. And certainly, we like to get A couple of quarters under our belt before we call the 1st year the full year. I'll tell you though, it certainly gives us Confidence and I'll point you back to kind of the midpoint of our revenue guide being that 475 $1,000,000 which is right on our trailing 12 month incoming order rate. So I kind of point to that. And then some it was a modest move Certainly in the EPS guidance, but I think it's important to note that we see some strength in margins and backlog, which And quite frankly, a lot of our continuous improvement efforts that we began probably in the Q4 of 22 are really beginning to yield some very positive results and give us some Performance and productivity gains.

Speaker 2

So that would be kind of how I would frame views. But there was nothing just one time in the Q1, And we're cautiously optimistic about the balance of the year.

Speaker 5

Okay. That's fair. Kevin, The operating expenses were quite heavy in this quarter. And Obviously, you're investing in resources, personnel and infrastructure to reach these new markets. But Let's say as we look forward, maybe even a year from now, let's say, do those does that spending begin to moderate?

Speaker 5

Do we just see that buildup this year and then maybe some easing next year?

Speaker 4

Yes, John, I think you're thinking about it the right way. If you look at the SG and A line, I'll call it maybe close to $4,000,000 that's primarily driven by the resources that you're Alluding to and I think as the business continues to grow, we kind of look at that on a TTM basis as a percentage of revenue And targeting that in the call it mid to low 20s is where we're really going for as we think about the model of getting Business to 23%, 24%, potentially 25% of EBITDA. Given the historical gross margins of the business, that's a pretty easy math problem to back solve what we're shooting for over Time. So I think the way you're thinking about it's right. Will that investment decelerate as the business continues to scale?

Speaker 4

That's absolutely the plan. Okay.

Speaker 5

All right.

Operator

Thank you very much.

Speaker 4

Thank you, sir. Thanks, Tom.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further I would now like to turn the floor back over to Bruce Banks for closing comments.

Speaker 2

All right, Darren. Thank you. And thank you all for joining here today. Appreciate your interest in Thermon and enjoy the rest of your day.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day.

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Thermon Group Q1 2024
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