Earnings Call Transcript
Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (CWCO)
Earnings Call Transcript - CWCO Q2 2021
Operator, Operator
Good morning. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Consolidated Water Company’s Second Quarter 2021 Results. Hosting the call today is the Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Water Company, Mr. Rick McTaggart, and the company’s Chief Financial Officer, David Sasnett. Following their remarks, we’ll open the call to your questions. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Before we conclude today’s call, I’ll provide some important cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during the call. I’d like to remind everyone that today’s call is being recorded and will be made available for telecom replay via instructions in yesterday’s press release, which is available in the Investor Relations of the company’s website. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to Consolidated Water Company’s CEO, Rick McTaggart. Sir, please go ahead.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Thank you, Vashnavi. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us on the call today. I hope everyone is well. Our second quarter 2021 results reflected continuing adverse impacts of the pandemic, uncertain segments of our business, as well as an adjustment to the carrying value of our manufacturing segment, necessitated by new order projections for Aerex’s historically largest manufacturing customer, improved performance of our bulk water segment, as well as growth of our services segment that partially offset these impacts. Our services segment revenue increased 8% to $3.8 million, which accounted for 23% of our consolidated revenues. This was up from 18% in the second quarter of last year. Our PERC Water subsidiary was responsible for this growth in our services segment. Based in Southern California PERC operates and maintains water treatment and reuse facilities under contracted engagements, which have renewable terms that range from one to five years, with the majority having renewal dates beyond this year. During the second quarter, PERC generated about 90% of its revenue from such contracts, with various entities in California and Arizona. Revenue from our bulk water segment increased 14% to $6.7 million in the second quarter, due to higher volume sales and electricity pass-through charges. Bulk water gross profit increased 21% to $2.3 million compared to the second quarter of last year. However, our retail water segment continued to be adversely affected by the pandemic due to a moratorium on tourism and border restrictions that the Cayman Islands Government enacted in March of last year to safeguard their population from COVID-19. According to the most recent statistics, only 651 reported infections and two Coronavirus related deaths have occurred in the Cayman Islands since the pandemic began. The Cayman Islands Government’s strategy to protect its citizens from the pandemic has been similar to that of other commonwealth countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia, which have enacted strict lockdown, extended quarantines and criminal penalties for breaches of pandemic protocol and regulations. Recently, however, government officials announced a five-phase border reopening plan through November of this year, which is available on the official Cayman Islands Government website. The final phases of the plan, which includes the reopening of the Islands to a limited number of vaccinated tourists, are contingent on achieving at least an 80% vaccination rate of the local population. The vaccination rate is currently at 68% and has not moved much in the past several weeks. Consequently, we would not expect to see any change in the performance of our retail water segment, due to the resumption of tourism in Grand Cayman until the first half of next year at least. Our manufacturing segment revenue declined due to the loss of orders from Aerex’s largest customer, as we discussed last quarter. However, while this customer informed us in July 2021 that they expect to recommence their orders in 2022 and subsequent years, we expect that these new orders will be at much lower volumes than in the past and less than what we anticipated previously. It was this change in projected future revenue, along with the continuing weakness in the economy arising from COVID-19 that required us to record an impairment loss in the second quarter for our manufacturing segment. Meanwhile, we continue to focus on other sectors and are building a good manufacturing revenue backlog from new projects and new customers, which we expect to offset some of the revenue lost from our largest customer. We expect to book revenue from these new projects in the latter half of this year and extending into 2022 as we begin production on these orders. At the end of the quarter, our cash levels totaled $41.2 million and working capital was $69 million, with only about $200,000 in debt. So we believe our strong balance sheet and liquidity position us to ride out the current adverse economic impacts of the pandemic, while enabling us to fund our growth initiatives. Bidding activity for new projects in our services and manufacturing segments has increased significantly over the last few months, and so we’re looking forward to future months and years with great anticipation. But before I talk further about this, I would like to turn the call over to our CFO, David Sasnett, who will take us through the financial details for the quarter. Dave?
David Sasnett, CFO
Thanks, Rick, and good morning, everyone. As Rick mentioned, the pandemic has continued to create some significant challenges for us as it has for many companies. But despite these challenges, we have maintained a strong financial foundation as we pursue new opportunities to grow organically and inquisitively, and we have continued to pay dividends. Revenue totaled $16.7 million in the second quarter, which decreased 13% from the same quarter the prior year. This decline included decreases of $292,000 in our retail segment revenue and $3.2 million in manufacturing segment revenue. The decreases in these two segments were partially offset by revenue increases of $846,000 in our bulk segment and $287,000 in our services segment. Retail revenue declined due to a 2% decrease in the volume of water sold by Cayman Water. The sales volumes for both 2021 and 2020 have been significantly below the historical volumes for the retail segment prior to 2020 due to the continued moratorium on tourism in Grand Cayman. The increase in bulk segment revenue was due to an increase in CW-Bahamas revenue of $844,000 due to higher energy costs, which correspondingly increased the energy pass-through component of CW-Bahamas rates. The increase in bulk segment revenue is also due to a 9% increase in the volume of water sold by CW-Bahamas. The decrease in manufacturing revenue in the second quarter of 2021 was due to the decrease in orders from Aerex’s former largest customer, as discussed previously by Rick, which informed Aerex in 2020 that they were suspending their purchases of a specialized product until 2022. In late July 2021, this customer again communicated to Aerex that it expected to recommit their purchases of the specialized product from Aerex in 2022 and subsequent years, but it also said such purchases would be at substantially reduced annual amounts in terms of both the amounts they purchased from Aerex in 2020 and prior years and from the amounts we previously believed they would purchase from us. We continue to expect, although cannot guarantee that the orders discussed will resume as they have indicated. However, as Rick will cover later, they are also discussing with us other products that Aerex could potentially manufacture for them. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2021 was $6.1 million or 36% of revenues, compared to $7.3 million or 38% of revenues in the second quarter of last year. This decline was largely due to lower revenue generated by retail water operations and manufacturing segments. Even though total revenue decreased, our bulk segment gross profit increased 21% to $2.3 million. For the second quarter of 2021, net loss attributable to Consolidated Water shareholders, which includes the results of discontinued operations, was $1.7 million or a loss of $0.31 per basic and fully diluted share. If you exclude the manufacturing segment impairment loss of $2.9 million, net income attributable to Consolidated Water was $1.2 million or $0.08 per basic and fully diluted share. Turning to our balance sheet, our accounts receivable balances related to our Bahamas business amounted to $21.3 million at the end of the second quarter, which was up from $16.8 million at the end of last year. We believe this increase in accounts receivable resulted from the adverse impact of the pandemic on the revenue sources for the Bahamas and its government. Such delinquent accounts receivables we have experienced in the past were eventually paid in full. Also, given our recent contact with the Government of the Bahamas' Ministry of Finance, we believe that reducing this balance is a priority for them. Based on their payment history, our majority-owned subsidiary CW Bahamas has never been required to provide an allowance for doubtful accounts for any of our accounts receivables, despite the periodic accumulation of significant liquid balances. As of June 30, 2021, we had not provided an allowance for doubtful accounts receivable to Bahamas accounts receivables. It is important to note that so far in 2021, we have received $14.4 million on our Bahamian accounts receivable, including two payments in the last two weeks totaling $5.7 million. We believe their recent payment history is a clear indication that the Bahamas Government is moving towards reducing the balance of these delinquent accounts receivables. As of June 30, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $41.2 million and our working capital totaled $69 million. We believe this position affords us more than sufficient financial resources to maintain our normal operations while still pursuing our strategic initiatives. And this completes my financial report. I’d like to turn the call back over to Rick.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Thanks, David. In our manufacturing segment, one of our key strategic initiatives has been to build a diversified book of business for Aerex. It is not concentrated on one specialized product or large customer. With this in mind, we have continued to develop our sales channels in order to create a more diversified customer base and product line. Since we acquired Aerex, its revenue has been predominantly from the sales of a specialized water treatment product to one customer. In the first quarter of 2020 last year, we increased resources on our sales team and began to focus on other sectors and customers to diversify our revenue base. As a result, in the first half of this year, we generated manufacturing revenue of $2.2 million from new customers and/or products, which was equal to all of the revenue generated last year from customers other than Aerex’s major customer. We presently have a contracted project backlog of approximately $9 million from new customers and/or products, which have begun to impact revenues in the second half of this year and will carry into 2022. In addition, we have recently bid for $4.8 million of additional work which we hope to receive news on in the near future. Our manufacturing sales team is doing a great job of diversifying Aerex’s revenue stream, but it will still take more time to hopefully replace the significantly reduced revenue stream from Aerex’s historically largest customer. It is important to note that Aerex maintains an excellent relationship with its largest customer and has recently sent us requests for proposals and quotes for other products. Earlier this year, Aerex passed a highly technical and demanding quality assurance examination performed by another major customer for the purpose of qualifying Aerex for various highly technical manufacturing projects, and thus we now have that customer's clearance to perform this work. As a result, we expect to continue to receive orders for products other than the specialized product we’ve historically made for this customer over the last few years. Given our success in diversifying our product and client base, increased product bidding activity, and the magnitude of our current contracted project backlog, we expect a significant increase in manufacturing revenue in the second half of this year compared to the first. We are able to sustain and build on the successes over the next couple of years, and we further expect our manufacturing revenue to return to historical levels with less customer and product risk concentration. We are also seeing an increase in bidding activity for new design-build projects and operating contracts in our services segment through PERC Water. In fact, PERC is now at its busiest level since we acquired the majority ownership interest in this subsidiary in late 2019. Prospective customers in California and Arizona are seeking cost-effective solutions to their wastewater treatment and potable water challenges, particularly those caused by the unprecedented drought in the region. PERC is currently awaiting decisions by clients on design-build projects and operating contracts, which were recently bid, valued at more than $55 million and could result in recurring revenues of more than $2 million per year over the life of these agreements. After a long dry spell, we are currently pursuing two significant seawater desalination projects in the United States. One is a 30-year design-build-operate project and the other is a manufacturing project. Our more than 45 years of experience in designing, building, and operating these seawater desalination plants allowed us to prequalify for both of these very important projects. If we are successful in obtaining these contracts, these will be our first seawater desalination plants in the United States. As David mentioned, our strong balance sheet and greater liquidity supports our efforts to expand our business organically and through acquisitions and new projects. This includes further broadening our water solutions offerings in target markets, as well as pursuing acquisitions and strategic partnerships in seawater desalination and for our services business. So while we’ve faced many challenges over the past year due to the pandemic, all our opportunities and growth prospects are very encouraging. We expect improved financial results in the second half of this year compared to the first six months due to our successful efforts to diversify Aerex’s revenue and customer base, as well as PERC’s strengthening business activity. Given the strong industry tailwinds, potentially enhanced by the major increase in federal infrastructure spending recently passed in the U.S., we will continue to focus on those opportunities that will provide increasing value for our shareholders, and we remain confident that we will emerge from this long pandemic better and stronger than ever. So, with that, I’d like to open the call for questions. Vashnavi?
Operator, Operator
Our first question comes from Gerry Sweeney with ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah. Good morning, Rick and David. Thanks for taking my call.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Hey, Gerry.
David Sasnett, CFO
Hi.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
I would have started on the service side. Rick, I believe you said, I think, that $3.8 million. Let me make sure I have the right number for services. Did you say the majority of that is from contract work, sort of OEM type structures today and not from project work?
Rick McTaggart, CEO
I didn’t break down…
David Sasnett, CFO
Yeah.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
I mentioned that we currently have about $55 million in outstanding bids for services, which includes a combination of design-build projects and operating contracts.
David Sasnett, CFO
So you were talking about the existing revenue right, Gerry?
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yes. Yes. Yes. Sorry.
David Sasnett, CFO
Yeah. Yeah. About 90% of that is OEM work.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Okay.
David Sasnett, CFO
Operations in maintenance contracts, PERC’s been very successful and growing that part of the business. We’re now seeing…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
... an increase in bid activity for design build projects. So we hope to increase that…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah. But that $55 million that, Rick, you were just mentioning about, do you know when some of those award timelines are scheduled to be released or updated?
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Yeah. I wish I did. I mean, a lot of this stuff is moving around because of budgeting things…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Around…
Rick McTaggart, CEO
... on the client side. It’s difficult to project.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Got it. Okay. But then, I mean, in that $55 million, there’s a potential for upwards to $2 million more of additional OEM mark, is that…
Rick McTaggart, CEO
And recurring work. Yeah.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah. Got it. Okay. That’s great. On the manufacturer side, I appreciate the actual little bit more detail on the backlog, it’s helpful. You discussed some of the technical aspects of what Aerex is being qualified. If we look at the backlog we see building today and the projects we’re going after, is there a material difference in margins of this work versus the work that they’re chosen to do for the former customer?
David Sasnett, CFO
Well, Gerry, the former customer is still going to buy from us and is still going to buy that product from us.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Former largest customer.
David Sasnett, CFO
Former largest customer, yeah…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Former…
David Sasnett, CFO
But the thing is…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
It’s always challenging to obtain information from them as they are quite reserved. However, that business involved work with very high margins. We believe there are several projects available, including with this former customer and others, where we can leverage Aerex’s distinctive manufacturing capabilities and achieve healthy margins exceeding 30% on those contracts. The primary objective of the business is to expand in areas where margins are high, where Aerex stands out and can capitalize on its capabilities, which typically yield higher margins. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of more basic work that Aerex is also seeking. Yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
And that does not generate the kind of margin that this former business did. So if you’re looking at historical margins, 2020 and 2019, it’s going to be hard to get back to that quickly. But we still think…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Okay.
David Sasnett, CFO
... the business out there that Aerex is pursuing will be the healthy margins.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Got it. So maybe to summarize, targeting higher end margin work, however, that’s a little bit longer lead time and you’re going to backfill potentially with some lower margin work until…
David Sasnett, CFO
Yeah. Bread and butter kind of stuff…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
... going on, yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
Aerex is actively bidding on a variety of projects, but since these are more commodity-type products, the margins are lower. We want to maintain the…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
... operation fully utilized to the extent we can. Part of the issue…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
... we’re in the first quarter or the first six months for Aerex is that its margins are down because we kept all the manufacturing people on staff. We made a commitment to keep them even though the production activity was low for the first six months. So you’ll see margin improvement in the second half of the year as production activity increases.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Got it.
David Sasnett, CFO
It’s not easy to play, it’s not, yes, it’s not easy to build a workforce, and we didn’t want to lay off a bunch of people just because there was a delay in the work that we were getting to the second half.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
No. I completely understand. I completely agree. I mean, if they’re talented, you got to keep them and manage it. So they wouldn’t have any issues with that. And you did say, we’re looking for a substantial increase second half versus first half. And I don’t know if you substantial, but I want to make sure we’re looking for an increase.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Significant.
David Sasnett, CFO
Significant.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Significant. Okay. Got it. I want to make sure. Finally, maybe just…
David Sasnett, CFO
We have…
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Yeah.
David Sasnett, CFO
We have a better second half than the first half, Gerry, especially on manufacturing.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Okay. Got it. And then just turning to the sell side, obviously, it looks like the Bahamas looks reasonably well and it looks like the retail side in the Caymans, we’re just looking at obviously there’s some bulk there, but retail operations in the Caymans, they’re going to be slow to rebound with this five-phase opening and that 80% sort of vaccine rate. Back to the envelope looks like retails probably about $1 million of gross profit drag through this pandemic. Is that sort of a fair assessment?
David Sasnett, CFO
You can review the results for the last two quarters of last year. Unless there's a significant change in rainfall patterns, the core group of residents using the water can expect the second half of this year to be quite similar to the second half of last year.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
I got it. I mean what I was really driving towards was your manufacturing rebounding, you have opportunities in PERC, bulk water seems to be doing fine. At some point we would expect the Caymans to open up and there’s $1 million plus of gross profit dollars that could eventually flow through. So there are several levers of profitability that can flow through over the next 12 months, 18 months?
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Correct. Yeah. Now once more moist didn’t Caymans opening that as during, hopefully, that’ll be something.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Right. Yeah.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
... sooner rather than later.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst
Got you. Got it. Okay. That’s it for me. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Thank you, Gerry.
David Sasnett, CFO
Thanks, Gerry.
Operator, Operator
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. McTaggart for any closing remarks.
Rick McTaggart, CEO
Yeah. Thank you. I just like to thank everybody who joined this morning and stay safe and we’ll talk to you again in November. Bye-bye. Vashnavi?
Operator, Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Before we conclude today’s call, I would like to provide the company’s Safe Harbor statement that includes cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during today’s call. The information that we have provided in this conference call includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to statements regarding the company’s future revenue, future plans, objectives, expectations and events, assumptions and estimates. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words or phrases usually containing the words believe, estimate, project, intend, expect, should, will or similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are based on the company’s current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates, forecasts and projections for its business and the industry and markets related to its business. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, continued acceptance of the company’s products and services in the marketplace, changes in its relationships with the governments of the jurisdictions in which it operates, the outcome of its negotiations with the Cayman Government regarding a new retail license agreement, the collection of its delinquent accounts receivable in the Bahamas, the possible adverse impact of COVID-19 virus on the company’s business, and various other risks as detailed in the company’s periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with the company’s business, please refer to the Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions or Results of Operations and Risk Factors sections of the company’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on the Form 10-K and quarterly reports for Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements made during the conference call speak as of today’s date. The company expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements made during the conference call to reflect any changes in its expectations with regard thereto or any changes in its events, conditions or circumstances of which any forward-looking statement is based, except as where it may be required by law. Before we end today’s conference call, I would like to now remind everyone that this call will be available for replay starting later this evening. Please refer to yesterday’s earnings release for dial-in replay instructions available via the company’s website at www.cwco.com. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect.