Orion Group Holdings Inc Q2 FY2020 Earnings Call

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Orion Group Holdings' Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Joining me today are Mark Stauffer, Orion Group Holdings' President and Chief Executive Officer; and Robert Tabb, our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Regarding the format of the call, we've allocated about 10 minutes for prepared remarks, in which Mark and Robert will highlight our results and update our market outlook. We will then open the call for questions. For the course of this conference call, we'll make projections and forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, our end-markets, revenues, gross profits, gross margin, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, backlog, projects, and negotiation and pending awards, as well as our estimates and assumptions regarding our future growth, administrative expenses and capital expenditures. These statements are predictions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those described in our 10-K, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. Moreover, past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. For providing this information, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any new projections or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. Also, please note that adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, EBITDA and EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Regulation G. Please refer to the reconciliations and definitions inclusive to the most comparable GAAP measures and reconciliation tables accompanying the earnings call within the press release issued this morning. The press release can be found on our website at www.oriongroupholdingsinc.com. Also, for additional discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations, please refer to our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC, which are also available in the Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mark Stauffer, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our call. Today, we will discuss our 2020 second quarter results and provide you with an update on the current state of our business as we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. I'll begin with a few comments on the quarter, then turn the call over to Robert to review our financial results in more detail, and then I'll make some concluding remarks before we turn to Q&A. First, I'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to those in our company and others who have been affected by or have had family members or friends affected by the COVID-19 virus. I'd also like to sincerely thank our team members who continue to safely work at our project sites, construction yards, shops and field support offices around the country. It's through the combined efforts of our entire team that we've continued to be able to perform during these unprecedented times. Our focus has been and will remain on ensuring the health and safety of our people. Even with the recent spike of COVID-19 cases in some of our markets, we've continued working on projects with only minor disruptions. To ensure the health and safety of our employees, all measures we implemented in response to COVID-19 will be kept in place for the foreseeable future. In the second quarter, we continued to post year-over-year improvements in both revenue and profitability and generated solid free cash flow, all of which reflects the benefits of the operational improvement initiatives we've implemented over the last 18 months. We remain encouraged by our elevated backlog, our continued productivity during this period, and the variety and resiliency of the end-markets that we serve. The wide array of end-markets that we serve enables us to pursue the most attractive bid opportunities in the end-markets that are performing best at any given point in time. This strategy has served us well historically and will serve us well in this environment, and we will continue to focus our efforts on targeting the end-markets and projects we expect to have the best opportunities to be profitable moving forward. We have also taken the necessary steps to ensure that our liquidity position is solid and enables us to continue executing on projects in backlog and pursue new bid opportunities. We believe we entered this pandemic from a position of strength and have met these challenges head on. I'm confident that we'll be able to navigate the effects of the pandemic as we move through the year, with the safety and health of our employees as our foremost priority. Now, I'll turn the call over to Robert to discuss our Q2 results in more detail. Robert?

Thank you, Mark, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. Before I get into the quarterly details, I'd like to point out over the past 12 months, Orion has generated over $50 million of adjusted EBITDA and posted four straight quarters of positive earnings, something that is indicative of the hard work that all of our employees have contributed over this past year. Revenues for the second quarter 2020 were $183.7 million, compared to $166 million in the second quarter of 2019. The growth in revenue was driven by increased production in our concrete segment. Second quarter 2020 reported gross profit was $20.7 million, or 11.3%, as compared to $15 million, or 9%, in the second quarter of last year. The year-over-year increase in margin was driven by a 300-basis-point improvement to indirect project support costs. Now moving to the segments, excluding the gross-up impacts of accounting for uninstalled materials, the marine segment's margins increased by 95 basis points year-over-year, of which 245 basis points came from indirect expenses such as labor and equipment utilization, partially offset by a 150-basis-point decrease in project-level margins, which is attributable to changes in the mix of projects executed from period to period. Now, I'll turn to the concrete segment. The concrete segment's year-over-year margins improved by 135 basis points, of which 65 basis points came from indirect project support costs, and 70 basis points came from project-level margins. This improvement in our concrete segment's project-related margins was driven by an increase in labor efficiency. Moving to SG&A, for the second quarter 2020, SG&A expenses were $16.5 million, up from $15.1 million in the second quarter of 2019. The increase is driven primarily by the full ratable accrual of the annual incentive compensation plan during the current year period. As a percentage of revenues, second quarter 2020 SG&A was 9%, down slightly from 9.1% in the prior year quarter. We remain focused on SG&A being at or below 8.5% of revenues for the full year, recognizing that we may see quarterly fluctuation. Second quarter 2020 operating income was $4.1 million, compared to an operating loss of $0.4 million in the second quarter last year. Now to the bottom-line results. For the second quarter 2020, reported net income was $2 million, or earnings of $0.07 per share. These results compared to a net loss of $1.6 million, or a loss of $0.06 per share, for the same period a year ago. After adjusting for approximately $350,000 of pre-tax nonrecurring costs and $1 million of benefit associated with the reduction of certain tax valuation allowances, net income for the second quarter of 2020 would have been $1.3 million, or earnings of $0.04 per share. Second quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA was $12.6 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.9%, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $10 million, or a margin of 6.1%, in the second quarter of last year. In the second quarter of 2020, we've bid on approximately $1.2 billion worth of opportunities and were successful on $120 million. This resulted in a win rate of 10% and a book-to-bill of 0.65x. As of June 30, 2020, backlog was $528 million, of which $312 million was associated with the marine segment and $212 million with the concrete segment. Currently, the company has $1.3 billion worth of bids outstanding, including $73 million worth of which is the apparent low bidder or has been awarded contracts subsequent to the end of the second quarter 2020, something that we view is indicative of the strength of our end-markets. In total, we currently have over $600 million of projects between backlog and low bid. Moving into further COVID discussions, I'll provide an update on the proactive measures we continue to take. As always, we continue to monitor our CapEx needs and operating costs. As a result, we continue to be selective with certain capital and operational expenditures. Also, we continue to operate the heightened controls around cash management, broader risk management, and mitigation we announced on the Q1 earnings call. To that end, during the quarter, we entered into a new 360-day, $20 million revolver that adds to our existing credit facility. This increase provides us with more than sufficient financial flexibility to continue to pursue new awards and execute projects and backlog. Our current liquidity position is solid, which was further enhanced in the second quarter as we generated $16 million in free cash flow. We are pleased with our free cash flow generation over the last six months. In the first two quarters of 2020, Orion has generated more free cash flow than in any full year in company history. At the end of Q2, we had $10.3 million of cash on hand and access to almost $50 million under our revolving line of credit, which includes $20 million from the new revolver. We ended the quarter with $54 million in total debt, of which $18 million was related to the revolver and $36 million related to the terminal. This translated into a 1.13x leverage ratio and a fixed charge ratio of 3.66x. We are comfortable with our current leverage profile. However, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance our liquidity position, including continuing with the process of selling non-core assets. I want to reiterate my comfort level with the current liquidity situation, which will enable us to execute on our strategy, pursue new awards, and perform work in backlog. Now, I'll turn the call back over to Mark to wrap up.

Thanks, Robert. Turning to our markets, we continue to see bidding activity in both our segments. While some bid opportunities in impacted end-markets have shifted to the right, bid opportunities in other end-markets continue to move forward due to our diversified customer base and end-markets. Our focus is on profitably bidding these opportunities. We have a strong track record of adjusting between end-market bid opportunities, and we will also continue our pursuit of select larger and longer-duration projects. We continue to interface with our customers and monitor their spending plans, and we continue to target government bid opportunities across federal, state and local agencies. In the marine segment, we recently announced $32 million of dredging awards in both the public and private sectors, which will contribute to maintaining the utilization of our dredge fleets during the back half of 2020 and into the first part of 2021. One of these announced projects is as a result of Hurricane Harvey relief funding, and we expect additional significant bid opportunities related to Harvey relief funding in the coming quarters. We also continue to track any movement on a federal infrastructure bill either as a replacement for the FAST Act or that may be part of future stimulus spending plans in response to COVID-19. Any action on the infrastructure funding will provide significant bid opportunities that we are well positioned to capitalize on. In the concrete segment, we continue to execute on our strategy of expanding our structural business, as evidenced by the $30 million structural concrete project we recently announced. The competitive dynamics of structural projects have led to an increase in awards for this type of work, and our performance on these projects has significantly contributed to the improved operating performance of our concrete business. We continue to monitor the distribution and technology center growth in Texas, which continues to provide bid opportunities for our light commercial projects in addition to general business and industry relocations into the Texas market. We completed the first half of 2020 with solid and much-improved operating performance, and we enter the second half of the year with combined backlog and low bid at strong levels despite COVID-19 impacts. We currently have $1.3 billion of bids outstanding, slightly higher than we had in the prior year period. I'm confident that we have the team in place to continue to perform despite the challenges in the current environment. We are and we will always be focused on safely meeting our customers' needs, and we remain confident in the long-term drivers and sustainability of our markets. We will get through this pandemic, and we will be well positioned to take advantage of post-pandemic market conditions. Once again, our deepest sympathies go out to those who have been affected by the virus, and I'd like to again thank our team members for all their efforts. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions.

Our first question comes from Alex Rygiel with B. Riley FBR. Please proceed with your question.

Very nice quarter, gentlemen. Can you give us a little bit of an update on some of your real estate sales or listings and how that's proceeding? And then any other update on any other dispute resolutions or claims that could be settled sort of in the next six months?

I'll take the real estate update, and Mark will talk a bit about the claims. The real estate update is pretty much where it was before. We continue to push to move those properties. With COVID going on, the timing could be a little shaky, but I'm confident that we will be able to move on from the pieces that we've deemed as non-core assets.

On the other piece, remind me, Alex. I'm sorry, what was the other part of that question?

Just the claims dispute and resolutions.

I apologize. On the claims side, we continue to focus on that. We're making progress on some of these. I think it's probable that we'll have some of these resolved this year. I think on others, probably a little bit longer duration. So I'm not prepared to quantify what we think the impact of that might be, but I think, again, part of that will get resolved this year, and depending on how the other one goes, it could push off into next year.

And secondly, the commercial concrete margins were fantastic. Congratulations on that. How sustainable is that, and how has this business kind of changed over the last year or two as you pursue this structural business?

Well, I think, again, a lot of the things that we did, that we've kind of focused on in operational improvements over the last year, are bearing fruit for us. Our focus is on keeping that sustainable. The team in the concrete group has done a fantastic job. Again, we think we have the right people in place, in the right spot. And, again, part of the strategy there has been to expand our structural business. We're seeing that and seeing that pay-off. And we continue to be focused on improving from where we are today. We're very pleased. I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in the last year. But we think there's more progress that we can make, and, again, we're focused on bringing our projects in at or above what we bid them at and controlling our indirects, and we've done a good job in that division making progress on that, and we think we've got more progress that we can make going forward.

I want to revisit your comments regarding SG&A and the incentive compensation accrual. SG&A in the second quarter was slightly higher than I anticipated. I believe this was related to the bonus compensation accrual. Did you account for about six months' worth of that bonus accrual in the second quarter? Is that the reason it appears a bit elevated?

No. So the bonus is being accrued equally every quarter. SG&A was up a little bit just by the nature of the timing of different expenses and where they fall, but as I mentioned in my notes, we do expect it to taper off and be closer to 8.5% or below by year-end.

Our next question comes from the line of Marco Rodriguez with Stonegate Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

I would like to understand more about the gross margins in the segments. You mentioned the improvements in basis points related to indirect costs and project level margins. Could you elaborate on those indirect costs and what steps each group is taking to make further improvements?

It goes back to what I mentioned earlier. The process improvements we've implemented over the last 18 months have largely focused on labor efficiency and equipment efficiency, which has been a major priority for our teams. Additionally, last year, during our review, we enhanced some of the tools we provide to managers to help them make better and faster decisions. This has been a significant focus for us, and it will continue to be, and we are already seeing the benefits reflected in our margins.

Got it. I believe you mentioned that there were significant improvements year-over-year on the marine side and the margin side, but I noticed in your prepared remarks that the dredging equipment was offline for some maintenance. Can you quantify the impact that had on the utilization levels of the marine dredging equipment?

We generally do not disclose specific details on dredge utilization for competitive reasons, but in the first quarter, our utilization was above the 80% to 85% range that we aim for. We did experience a decrease in Q2, primarily due to scheduled maintenance. Although we plan maintenance, its timing can change based on our project schedules, which makes us quite adaptable. During this quarter, we addressed some scheduled maintenance on certain dredges, which impacted utilization. As I mentioned earlier, we've recently announced several projects that will help improve utilization, which is why we prioritized getting some of the maintenance completed in the second quarter.

Got it. Looking at the concrete segment, I want to highlight the impressive margins compared to the historical performance. I'm trying to understand more about your shift towards structural work. Is this leading to higher margins that improve the situation, or is the focus on managing indirect costs contributing to the recovery of margins compared to recent trends?

Yes, I believe it's due to several factors. First, our emphasis on managing our indirect costs has made a difference. Second, our structural team is performing well, and we face different competitive dynamics in that area, often dealing with larger competitors, which improves our bidding environment. In our light commercial segment, our teams are also doing well, and we've seen significant improvement across all markets. Good weather during the quarter contributed to strong production, which has been consistent in the first half of the year. Additionally, the changes and focus we've implemented in our light commercial work are beginning to yield positive results, allowing us to maintain better performance on projects and stabilize our margins. Overall, it's a combination of these factors contributing to our success.

Very helpful. And then a last question, just again on the concrete segment. I know in the past we've discussed pricing pressures in the bid markets that you've seen down in the Houston area specifically, so it kind of sounds like your movement towards the structural work is kind of alleviating that somewhat, but I was wondering if you could maybe comment a little bit more on the pricing environment for bidding contracts in Houston, Dallas and Austin, where your concrete works are now.

It is a competitive business, and we remain focused on pursuing light commercial work, which constitutes a significant part of our opportunities in concrete. The competition is still strong. We have a favorable view of the competitive dynamics in the structural business, but on the light commercial side, the competitiveness varies by project. As mentioned earlier, our overall strategy in both concrete and other sectors is to identify upcoming work, focus on sectors that are progressing, and pursue opportunities that we believe will allow us to win and execute effectively. We are being disciplined in our bidding process. While competition will always exist, we are making strategic choices about what to pursue to meet our objectives.

Our next question comes from the line of Poe Fratt with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

May I follow up on the claims? Can you quantify the amount of outstanding claims you have?

I think we won't quantify the total amount. However, in the quarter, we have booked approximately $1 million to $1.7 million in outstanding claims that are actually recorded. This represents only a small portion of the overall claims, but I prefer not to disclose the total amount of our claims for the sake of not negotiating in public.

Okay, great. But they'll be detailed in the Q?

Yes.

Thank you. Can we discuss your free cash flow generation? The operating level has remained relatively stable during the first two quarters of the year, partly due to your CapEx being below average at under $3 million per quarter. Can you provide an outlook for CapEx in the second half of the year? Additionally, on the working capital side, your net free cash flow has been positive thanks to favorable changes in working capital. Could you share your expectations for the second half of the year in that regard?

Yes, I'll take these. Yes, CapEx for the first half of the year was roughly $5 million. I do expect for the rest of the year somewhere between $5 million to $7 million, so bringing us to $10 million to $12 million full year. But we'll continue to monitor that and watch it, and we'll see what we need to get done this year. Obviously, we want to do what's right for the business and continue to keep our assets in good working condition. You're absolutely right, working capital liquidation has been good in the first half of the year. I know last year, at the back end of the year, we saw it really build up. So when I think about the second half of the year, I do expect a little bit of a buildup in Q3 and then see that liquidate into Q4 and Q1 of next year. But we talked about some of the heightened controls that we put in place around cash management and working capital management, so we're going to really, really try to minimize that uptick, but it's just the time of year where we see more cost burn and we see more AP runs, so you tend to see working capital buildup.

That's helpful. It seems that in marine, although the backlog decreased this quarter, there are still $60 million in low bids awaiting awards. Is the $32 million that has already been awarded included in that figure?

I believe it is. Yes, it is.

Okay. In the context of second quarter maintenance, do you have any maintenance that's scheduled for the second half of the year, Mark?

We do, kind of less in duration today. That could change, but right now it's kind of the normal quick hit stuff. The stuff we did in the second quarter was kind of a little bit more involved just to get ready for some of the upcoming work.

Okay, great. Have you quantified how much of Terminal 5 is still in your backlog?

We might have to get back to you on it. I think we're probably about 40% complete on that project right now, plus or minus.

So, maybe $100 million left.

Yes, we still have a ways to go on that.

Okay, great. And then, going back to the concrete business; really strong quarter, as it's been pointed out previously, but your low bids right now look like $13 million low bids pending award, and it looked like the win rate was a little bit below average. Can you just comment on those two metrics?

Yes, the $13 million figure is accurate. We have many bids currently outstanding and are pursuing significant work in both divisions. As mentioned, there are still opportunities in these areas. When assessing our win rate and book-to-bill ratio, we experienced some impacts during the quarter. Part of this reflects the normal timing related to win rates and bid submissions. Additionally, there were effects from COVID, particularly observable in the second quarter, where our win rate and work flow, especially in marine projects, were affected. Early in the quarter, some of our efforts were directed toward areas that ended up being influenced by COVID, resulting in project delays. Consequently, our win rate and book-to-bill ratio were lower at the start of the quarter. However, as we shifted our focus to other markets with active projects, we saw improvements as the quarter progressed. This situation was a mix of normal fluctuations and adjustments according to market conditions, especially related to COVID impacts and subsequent project delays. Looking ahead, I cannot predict our win rates for the second half, but I can assure you we have active bids. Our focus is on advancing those projects, targeting specific work to win, and we might increase our bidding to secure the projects necessary to rebuild our backlog. The primary aim is to replenish it with profitable work, which may lead to fluctuating win rates and potentially higher volumes. We remain committed to pursuing the available work and executing efficiently on it.

Backlogs remain above $200 million, so I am not particularly worried about the short-term win rate. I am more focused on the second half of the year, which is encouraging. Thank you, Mark. Robert, could you elaborate on your revolver availability of around $50 million and the additional $10 million in cash, giving you a total liquidity of approximately $60 million? Can you explain the reasoning behind seeking an extra $20 million of revolver capacity considering you paid down a significant amount of debt this quarter?

Yes. So when COVID kind of first broke out, there was a lot of uncertainty around would we see widespread shutdowns that would stop us from working on projects, would customers hoard cash as things slowed down. Those two things didn't happen, but out of abundance of caution, we wanted to get ahead of anything like that. And it hasn't happened, and as you've seen, we've been able to continue to generate solid free cash flow, which in turn we paid down debt on the revolver, so we have that availability in that capacity available to us still. So it was out of an abundance of caution. At this point, we feel good about our position and where we are, and we have some room to be able to weather any storm that might come. But as we sit here today, I don't think the country has the stomach for widespread shutdowns again, so I think the likelihood of that is lessened, but we do have some reserves, cash reserves, to be able to weather any storm that comes.

Okay, great. That's helpful. And then if you could follow up on the real estate question. Has the Tampa yard actually been listed, or have you engaged a broker on that potential sale?

I actually have a PSA in place, but I think it's too early in the process to get into the weeds of that. I am pushing to get that deal closed as soon as possible, but there are re-zonings and things like that, due diligence that needs to be completed. So we could see that late this year, or we could see that early next year. It's just really going to depend on COVID, the City of Tampa, and how quickly they can move. People are working from home in the government, so it's not as efficient as it usually is. So I don't want to lock myself into guiding to a timetable, but we're hopeful and confident that we can get that deal completed. It's just a matter of timing.

Yes. And Poe, I wanted just to reiterate too the real estate that we view as surplus, all of it has been listed. So it's listed, and we've had various levels of activity on all three. The Tampa property, as Robert said, is a little bit further along than the other ones, and, again, we're confident that that one is ready to move. It's just a question of timing, as Robert said, due to some of the inefficiencies we're seeing right now with COVID.

I appreciate the detail provided in the Q&A. Thank you. One more question if you don't mind. You suspended guidance when you reported the first quarter due to the COVID uncertainty. Can you share why you didn’t reaffirm or establish guidance for this quarter given the performance and the strong outlook for the second half? Why not set guidance again?

We are confident in our ability to perform. We believe we have the right team and are focused on executing the work in our backlog and securing new projects. Currently, we are assessing our situation and will provide guidance when we deem it appropriate. We aim for strong performance in the second half of the year, similar to our previous expectations, but we understand the challenges of the current environment. At this moment, we think it is wise not to issue guidance again. However, I want to stress that this does not mean we aren't committed to executing effectively and following the plan we previously outlined.

Our next question comes from the line of Gerry Heffernan with Walthausen & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Lots of good discussion going on here. Perhaps a couple things here that we'll look at it from a different way. In the last quarter, our concerns and our lack of knowledge of COVID were very high. I believe we spoke at that time of putting a stop to the new ERP system project out of an abundance of caution. I noticed in the adjusted EBITDA schedule in the press release that there was expenses for ERP implementation. So are we back on with the implementation? I know it's a very important system that you're looking forward to the improvements of management's abilities with it.

Yes. So the way I would answer that question is, yes, it's back on. The kind of way that we are approaching this is kind of a toll gate system. So we reengaged the project, and we're going through a detailed planning phase over the last month or so, and we're reevaluating our schedule, our timetables, our costs. And once we kind of get through that phase, we'll put together a new plan under the new world order, and then we'll make a decision on what the scope looks like, how far do we go, what's in, what's out, what will we do next year, what will we do this year, and we'll have a solid plan. So you're correct, we did start that process back up in Q2, and we'll have a lot more to talk about this on the next call.

Thank you. You mentioned having $1.3 billion in outstanding backlog bids. Can you help me understand if that amount is typical for bids in this context? I've heard from various construction companies that while there are still bids available, the completion process is taking significantly longer. Does this $1.3 billion indicate a substantial potential for business, or is it more about the fact that our backlog has changed because these bids are taking longer to finalize?

Well, it's a little bit of both. To answer your question, yes, it is normal. We've had over $1 billion worth of outstanding work that was quoted in previous quarters. As I mentioned, the $1.3 billion is slightly up from the same figure in the previous year. Some of this increase is due to work we quoted during the quarter, particularly at the beginning, in areas that have been more affected. This suggests that some decisions are being delayed or prolonged. However, other markets and projects are progressing. So, while some of the backlog fits that description, I believe that the majority of the quoted work is in active markets. It’s not unusual to have this amount of quoted work outstanding.

Okay, great. In regards to the maintenance on the dredges, Mark and Robert, you guys have been very good, particularly over the last year when I think about it, of really kind of preparing us for what is going on in the upcoming three to six months with your business. I don't recall you talking about a step up in maintenance expense for the dredges for the main business last quarter, so I'm wondering in these bigger maintenance projects, yes, they may occur every so often, but the actual implementation of the maintenance can vary between a couple of months, depending on how you see windows. Did something change as far as the way you saw work lining up that said, hey, you know what, we better get this done now so we can really be hitting these upcoming projects with all cylinders sparking?

Yes, you are right that we mentioned this in the last call. The scheduling for capital repairs can be quite variable based on when we actually carry out the work. It also depends on the specific type of projects we are handling. We may have planned work, but we can also get new projects that may require different preparations for the dredges. For instance, if we're working on deeper dredging projects, the setup of the dredge may need to be modified. Sometimes we know about these changes in advance, but other times new work comes in and changes our plans, affecting either the timeline for scheduling or the actual physical work needed on the dredges. It’s a bit of both that makes it dynamic. When we spoke at the end of April, our outlook on the schedule was different, and we didn’t provide comments then. However, circumstances shifted regarding the work we had won and were set to carry out in the latter half of the year, which influenced our approach to completing maintenance in the second quarter.

It seems like you have a lot of optimism regarding the margins in the marine business for the second half. Robert mentioned that the adjusted EBITDA was over $50 million in the last year, and I calculated it to be $50.2 million, while the non-adjusted EBITDA was around $45.6 million. Poe's question about guidance made me smile because, if I remember correctly, you are already surpassing your guidance from six months ago. This raises the question of why you haven't stated that you are comfortable with your previous guidance or made a similar announcement. You're performing better than most expected, and you're exceeding the rate at which you initially set your expectations.

Yes, I understand and agree that things are moving in a positive direction. While there are still some uncertainties, I share Mark's view that we do see a path back to the range we discussed. However, at this moment, we believe it is not wise to reissue guidance. Our confidence is growing because we have the right team, resources, and market conditions in place to achieve that range. Although we still have challenges to address, we feel optimistic about our current position and the future outlook for the company in both segments.

That's great. And one last thing, on the bonus accrual that you spoke of in SG&A. Did you accrue for bonuses in the first quarter?

Yes. We accrue our quarterly bonus expense, and I want to emphasize that when comparing year-over-year, our SG&A has increased mainly due to this bonus expense. In the past few years, we haven't fully accrued the bonus expense, but based on our performance, we are on track to meet our incentive plan halfway through the year. It's important to point out the year-over-year increase because we are in a position where we could potentially pay out bonuses this year.

Sounds good. I just wanted to make sure I understood whether that was a year-over-year comparison or sequential comparison.

Yes, it's a year-over-year comparison.

Business is coming along well, much as we expected. We just need the market to recognize it. Thank you for keeping up the good work, and hopefully we continue and everybody stay healthy.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our time allowed for questions. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Tabb for any final comments.

Thanks for joining us today. As a note, I want to let everybody know that management is planning on attending the Jefferies virtual conference next week. We have a few available slots left open for one-to-ones with management; so if anybody wants to pick those up, reach out to our IR people and we'll get those scheduled. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we look forward to talking to everybody in late October as we report Q3 earnings.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.