Earnings Call Transcript - SXI Q3 2025

Operator, Operator

Thank you operator and good morning. Please note that the presentation accompanying management's remarks can be found on the Investor Relations portion of the company's website at www.standex.com. Please refer to Standex's Safe Harbor statement on Slide 2. Matters that Standex management will discuss on today's conference call include predictions, estimates, expectations and other forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You should refer to Standex's most recent annual report on Form 10-K as well as other SEC filings and public announcements for a detailed list of risk factors. In addition, I'd like to remind you that today's discussion will include references to the non-GAAP measures of EBIT which is earnings before interest and taxes, adjusted EBITDA which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin. We will also refer to other non-GAAP measures, including adjusted net income, adjusted operating income, adjusted net income from continuing operations, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted operating margin, free operating cash flow and pro forma net debt to EBITDA. Adjusted measures exclude the impact of restructuring, purchase accounting, amortization from acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses and onetime items. These non-GAAP financial measures are intended to serve as a complement to results provided in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Standex believes that such information provides an additional measurement and consistent historical comparison of the company's financial performance. On the call today is Standex's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, David Dunbar; and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Ademir Sarcevic.

David Dunbar, CEO

Thank you, Chris. Good morning and welcome to our fiscal third quarter 2025 conference call. Following strong operating performance in the fiscal second quarter, we achieved several new records in our fiscal third quarter. These achievements include record sales since the divestiture of the Refrigeration business in April 2020, record adjusted gross margin of 42.3% and record adjusted operating margin of 19.4%. Our growth engine continues to develop with sales into fast-growing end markets, representing a greater percentage of total sales. I'm also encouraged that new product sales are increasing above our projections and have added approximately 3% to our sales year-to-date. Once again, our teams have demonstrated their ability to navigate through difficult market conditions and deliver strong operating margins with price and productivity actions. Now if everyone can turn to Slide 3, key messages. In the third quarter, sales increased 17.2% with contributions from acquisitions, partially offset by organic decline. Electronics book-to-bill was 0.98, indicating that markets are stable. And Electronics organic bookings were up more than 10% year-on-year. Sales from the Amran/Narayan Group were greater than $33 million with book-to-bill of 1.04. The Amran/Narayan Group continues to perform ahead of our expectations. In the quarter, we made significant progress in planning expansions in India, Europe and the U.S.A. In all regions, customer commitments extend years into the future and give us confidence to expand our existing facilities in India and the United States. At the request of the largest European electrical equipment OEMs, we are beginning work on a greenfield site in Europe and expect to be shipping product from that location by the end of our first quarter 2026, less than 6 months from now. Our fiscal third quarter sales into fast-growth markets increased to 29% of total company sales. Sales in the fast-growth markets were primarily driven by electrical grid, commercialization of space, defense applications and renewable energy. New product sales totaled $13.4 million in the fiscal third quarter which doubled year-on-year, contributing approximately 3% to top line sales ahead of our goal of 2%. I'm especially pleased that we continue to demonstrate a resilient operating performance from the execution of our price and productivity initiatives and from inorganic investments. As a result, we achieved record adjusted gross margin of 42.3% up 140 basis points sequentially and 230 basis points year-on-year and record adjusted operating margin of 19.4%, up 70 basis points sequentially and up 280 basis points year-on-year. The integration of Amran/Narayan and McStarlite are progressing well. On a sequential basis, in fiscal fourth quarter 2025, we expect slightly to moderately higher revenue driven by the impact of recent acquisitions, higher sales into fast growth end markets and realization of pricing initiatives. We expect slightly to moderately higher adjusted operating margin due to higher revenue and realization of productivity actions partially offset by tariff costs and targeted investments in selling, marketing and R&D. With 3 new products just released in the fiscal third quarter, we have released 13 products year-to-date, achieving our previously communicated target for over a dozen products in the fiscal year. Sales from new products are tracking ahead of expectations and are expected to contribute over 200 basis points of incremental growth. Now if everyone could turn to Slide 4, tariff and inflation update. Before we discuss our fiscal third quarter in more detail, I would like to address the recent tariff announcements and how we are navigating their impact. Our customer intimacy business model requires that our plants are near customers, limiting exposure to tariff and trade disruptions. We have in-region, 4-region operations and greater than 85% of our products are manufactured and sold within the same region. This serves as a natural buffer to any impact tariffs may have on economic activity. In addition, most of our customer relationships are based on a deep value proposition and long-term partnership that typically only gets stronger during turbulent times, positioning us well for the long term. To put another lens on this, imports of material inputs to U.S. operations are a relatively small percentage of total cost of goods sold. Approximately 6% of our cost of goods sold are due to imports of materials to U.S. operations from China. Approximately 4% are from India and approximately 3% are from other countries. We have started implementing additional productivity actions and select price increases and working to optimize our supply chain to mitigate the impact of tariffs. An intangible benefit of this uncertain economic environment is that our management teams around the world are coming together as they did in COVID to simultaneously protect margins, support strategic priorities and strengthen collaboration across the enterprise, a demonstration of our growing and strong culture. We plan to continue to invest in our key growth priorities and the new product development as we work with customers on their next-generation product platforms. We came out of the COVID downturn a much stronger company and I anticipate the same results during this disruption we are confident in our agility, resilience and business by business execution over the short and long term to continue to deliver for our shareholders. Now if everyone can turn to Slide 5, highlighting our recent acquisition. In early February, Standex acquired McStarlite, a leading provider of complex sheet metal aerospace components for $56.5 million in cash. With facilities in Harbor City, California, McStarlite designs and manufactures cold deep draw and bulge-formed aviation components, including single-piece lipskins, nozzles, complex metal assemblies and tooling to support production hardware. We have admired McStarlite for many years and this represented an ideal bolt-on acquisition for Engineering Technologies. The integration has been seamless since its customer base, product line and technologies are highly complementary to our Spincraft business. We are excited about our expanded product breadth and forming capabilities in commercial aviation, space and defense applications. With the addition of McStarlite, the addressable market within Engineering Technologies expands by greater than $300 million. McStarlite enables expansion into wide-body, military and MRO lipskin segments and into space and defense sectors. Likewise, it expands Spincraft lipskin addressable market by 3x and doubles addressable missile solutions while providing opportunities to cross-sell solutions to existing space customers.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Thank you, David and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Slide 6, third quarter 2025 summary. On a consolidated basis, total revenue increased approximately 17.2% year-on-year to $207.8 million. This reflected a 26.3% benefit from recent acquisitions partially offset by an organic revenue decline of 8.1% and 1% impact from foreign exchange. Third quarter 2025 adjusted operating margin increased 280 basis points year-on-year to a record 19.4%. In the fiscal third quarter, adjusted operating income increased 37.3% on 17.2% consolidated revenue increase year-on-year. Adjusted earnings per share increased 3.7% year-on-year to $1.95. Net cash provided by operating activities was $9.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025 compared to $24.4 million a year ago. Capital expenditures were $6.1 million compared to $5.2 million a year ago. As a result, we generated fiscal third quarter free cash flow of $3.5 million compared to $19.3 million a year ago. Our fiscal third quarter cash flow was impacted by onetime transaction-related payments, certain annual tax payments and longer customer credit terms related to recent acquisitions that affected cash conversion in the quarter. Now please turn to Slide 7 and I will begin to discuss our segment performance and outlook, beginning with Electronics. Segments revenue of $111.3 million increased 38.4% year-on-year as 48.1% benefit from acquisitions was partially offset by an organic decline of 8.9% and 0.8% impact from foreign currency. Adjusted operating margin of 29.8% in fiscal third quarter 2025 increased 760 basis points year-on-year as the contribution from recent Amran/Narayan Group acquisition, productivity initiatives and product mix were partially offset by lower core volumes. Excluding recent Amran/Narayan Group acquisition, our new business opportunity funnel increased approximately 50% year-on-year to $117 million. Further progress of our operational and commercial excellence initiatives drove commercial expansion in India, increased activity in the test and measurement end market supported by AI and data center expansion and higher activity and demand in mil/aero end market. Our book-to-bill in fiscal third quarter was 0.98 with orders of approximately $109 million, driven by stable orders in core businesses and contribution from Amran/Narayan Group acquisition which had a book-to-bill of 1.04. Organic bookings increased over 10% year-on-year. Since our products are customized in nature, our bookings take longer to convert into revenue but with stronger margins. As David mentioned, our expansion plans for Amran/Narayan within the U.S. and India are well underway to support additional demand. In addition, we are working on our greenfield site in Europe that should be operational within 6 months. Sequentially, in fiscal fourth quarter 2025, we expect slightly higher revenue and similar to slightly higher adjusted operating margin driven by the Amran/Narayan Group acquisition, higher sales into fast growth end markets and price realization, partially offset by higher tariff costs and continued strategic growth investments. Please turn to Slide 8 for a discussion of the Engraving and Scientific segments. Engraving revenue decreased 15.7% to $30.6 million, driven by organic decline of 12.6% and a 3.1% impact from foreign currency. Adjusted operating margin of 11.2% in fiscal third quarter 2025 decreased 720 basis points year-on-year due to lower revenue. In our next fiscal quarter, on a sequential basis, we expect slightly higher revenue and moderately higher adjusted operating margin due to more favorable project timing in Asia, slightly improved demand in North America and Europe, and realization of previously announced restructuring actions. To address the continued softness in end markets served by this segment, our previously announced restructuring actions are underway and are projected to yield over $4 million in annualized savings once fully implemented. Scientific revenue increased 8.1% to $18.3 million due to 16.1% benefit from recent acquisitions, partially offset by an organic decline of 8% primarily due to lower demand from academic and research institutions that were impacted by NIH funding cuts. Adjusted operating margin of 22.6% decreased 780 basis points year-on-year due to organic decline in product mix as a result of the acquisition. Sequentially, we expect slightly lower revenue and adjusted operating margin due to soft demand from academic and research institutions affected by NIH funding cuts and higher tariff costs. To counteract the impact of higher tariff costs, we plan to implement pricing and productivity initiatives while continuing to optimize our supply chain through alternate sources. Now turn to Slide 9 for a discussion of the Engineering Technologies and Specialty Solutions segment. Engineering Technologies revenue increased 36.2% to $27.4 million, driven by a 26.3% benefit from recent McStarlite acquisition and organic growth of 9.9%. This strong organic growth was due to more favorable project timing in the space end market and growth in sales from new products. Adjusted operating margin of 18.6% increased 110 basis points year-on-year due to contribution from recent acquisitions and higher volume. Sequentially, we expect similar to slightly higher revenue and similar adjusted operating margin. Specialty Solutions segment's revenue of $20.2 million decreased 13.9% year-on-year, primarily due to general market softness. Operating margin of 16.2% decreased 370 basis points year-on-year. Sequentially, we expect moderately higher revenue and operating margins. Next, please turn to Slide 10 for a summary of Standex's liquidity statistics and the capitalization structure. Our current available liquidity is approximately $170 million. At the end of the third quarter, Standex had net debt of $470.4 million compared to $10 million at the end of fiscal third quarter 2024. Our leverage ratio per our bank credit agreement currently stands at 2.8%. In fiscal fourth quarter 2025, with the addition of McStarlite, we expect interest expense to be approximately $9 million. Standex's long-term debt at the end of fiscal third quarter 2025 was $580.2 million. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $109.8 million. We declared our 243rd quarterly consecutive cash dividend of $0.32 per share and approximately 6.7% increase year-on-year. In fiscal 2025, we expect capital expenditures to be between $25 million and $30 million. Relative to our debt leverage, we will continue to focus on paying down debt and anticipate that our leverage ratio will further improve at the end of the fourth quarter and will continue to decline to 2026 as we announced with our acquisition of Amran/Narayan Group. I will now turn the call over to David for concluding remarks.

David Dunbar, CEO

Thank you, Ademir. Please turn to Slide 11. I'm very proud of our team for their continued operational execution and for the success of our recent acquisitions, both of which helped us achieve record adjusted operating margin for a second consecutive quarter. Sales into fast growth end markets are well on track for our fiscal year 2025 expectation of approximately $170 million. This was primarily driven by growth in data center demand, crude modernization and expansion. Outside of the electrical grid, we are seeing growth in commercialization of space, defense applications and renewable energy end markets. To support our future growth, we continue to invest in new product development and new applications across markets with growth potential. We have released 13 new products year-to-date and new products are now expected to contribute over 200 basis points of incremental growth this fiscal year. While we cannot predict the impact of new tariffs on global trade and economic growth, our regional presence, strong customer relationships and our disciplined approach to pricing and productivity actions position us well to manage through the current and short-term challenges. Most of our supply chain is strategically located to service regional demand. With China imports to the U.S. representing approximately 6% of the cost of goods sold. We plan to continue to invest in our key strategic priorities while implementing additional productivity actions and select price increases and working to optimize our supply chain to mitigate the impact of tariffs. We remain on track to achieve our fiscal 2028 long-term targets of sales of greater than $1.15 billion. Adjusted operating margin of greater than 23% and ROIC of greater than 15.5%. We remain confident in our ability to pay down debt and reduce our net leverage ratio. We will now open the line for questions.

Operator, Operator

Our first question comes from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Chris Moore, Analyst

Right. Maybe we'll start with tariffs. So 6% of COGS imported from China. Is that mostly scientific and Hydraulics?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes. So that it's split in about 3 parts almost equally. About 1/3 of that goes into electronics, 1/3 into specialty and the remaining 1/3 into scientific.

Chris Moore, Analyst

Got it. So, I guess the two main areas are searching for alternative sources and pricing. Do you have a bit more pricing power in either of those areas? How do you perceive that?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, that's a great question because it does vary business by business. So within Electronics and Specialty, we think because of the significance of the builder materials, the relationship with customers and the overall value proposition, we're confident we cover the China tariffs with price productivity actions, working with customers. Scientific is a little bit different. Now you have to assume what will happen with the tariffs. If the China tariffs stay where they're at right now, it's 145% on China. We think we can scientifically cover about 70% of that incremental tariff with price and productivity. And then longer term, we would have to look at some changes in supply chain and product design, and that would take about a year to make up the rest of that.

Chris Moore, Analyst

Got it. Very helpful. Right. So it doesn't look like Q4 will show any organic growth. I guess just the puts and takes for organic growth in fiscal '26 is obviously, visibility is where you'd like it to be at this point. But is that more of a back half conversation? Or just any thoughts there at this stage?

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Well Chris, it's Ademir. If you consider electronics, we are very pleased with the order intake rate in our core business over the last couple of quarters. Amran and Narayan have been an excellent acquisition for us, even if it isn't organic yet. As we approach fiscal year 26, assuming the current economic conditions remain stable, we believe we will start to see organic growth, with electronics being our driving force. Regarding other businesses, the Engineering Technology Group has a strong order book and robust end markets, making us very confident that they will continue to exhibit organic growth. Engraving is starting from a low point right now, especially in North America's auto market, so we believe we can improve that situation as well. The Scientific sector remains a challenge due to the factors David mentioned. However, we are optimistic about the Specialty segment's potential for organic growth.

David Dunbar, CEO

So well, I guess another way to look at it because you mentioned both Q4 and the upcoming quarter and the rest of the year. If you just zoom out a little bit and think about what's driving growth long term in the portfolio, those things that we're confident in that we know we can control. So the fast growth markets Amran/Narayan alone continues its growth, we'll add about $20 million of sales to the company over a year. That's over 2 points of growth. Our new products are running ahead of what we had said earlier this year, contributing just about 200 basis points of growth. So that's 400 basis points from all the investments and movements we've made in the last few years to focus more on organic growth. And now you have to make assumptions about underlying market. If you assume no recession and say we've returned to, say, 2.5% GDP. On top of that, we typically get about a point of price in 'normal times.' So you add those all up, making assumptions about the end market that bookend of growth expectations.

Chris Moore, Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful. Maybe just the last one on Amran/Narayan. The planned expansion, it sounds like you said about 6 months before you start selling in Europe. But just is there a significant investment required to begin there? Or just kind of what the primary kind of milestones are over the next 2 quarters?

David Dunbar, CEO

Thank you for your question. We're very excited about this. Europe is the largest market for their products, valued at over $2 billion, compared to America's $1.5 billion. They have been serving European OEMs from India, and during the acquisition announcement, those OEMs expressed a desire for a presence in Europe. In the last quarter, we have made several trips to Europe and are making rapid progress. This will unfold in stages. Initially, the investment will be modest; we will need a facility to start stocking and testing, with plans to gradually add equipment. In the first year or two, we expect an investment of around $1 million to $2 million, and as the operations grow, we will expand from there.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes, Chris. It's not a very high capital investment required for us to get it started. So there shouldn't be a lot of cash outflows there.

Matt Koranda, Analyst

Maybe just continuing on with the electronics questioning. So Amran/Narayan, the order trend looks pretty encouraging. Just wanted to see if maybe you could unpack the end markets that are driving strength for them between data center or some of the electrical grid infrastructure expansion. And then could you talk about capacity utilization there right now? It sounds like I would imagine we're running quite high given that we're going to be adding a plant in Europe. And so what does capacity utilization look like right now? Is there a hit to margins as you kind of ramp for the new plant in Europe? Maybe just talk about the transition there over the next couple of quarters.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes. The sources of growth remain consistent with what we indicated when we announced the acquisition. We are seeing grid modernization occurring globally, along with an expansion of electrical capacity to support economic growth and improved living standards. Investments driven by data centers and artificial intelligence continue to be strong, and we do not anticipate any changes in that momentum. Our relationships with large electrical equipment manufacturers remain strong, with demand projected to extend for several years. We have not observed any shifts in the factors driving our growth. Currently, we are operating at approximately 60% to 70% capacity in our plants. We have recently added second shifts in India and Texas, and we plan to expand our operations in India and the U.S., along with establishing a new site in Europe. We have a clear visibility of customer demand, allowing us to ensure that additional capacity will be available in time to meet that demand.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes. And Matt, if I can add, from a margin standpoint, we don't anticipate that the margins in Europe will be any different than the margins of the consolidated group as they stand today.

Matt Koranda, Analyst

Okay, very clear. I appreciate that. And then maybe just on the core order book in electronics. I think you guys mentioned kind of flattish in terms of order trend quarter-over-quarter. What does that mean for sort of when we inflect to the positive in terms of organic growth in the Electronics segment? How soon could that come? What would that look like over the next couple of quarters?

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes. I want to mention, Matt, that we are about 10% up organically on orders in electronics compared to last year. We are at a reflection point now. As we enter the next fiscal year, specifically our first quarter of FY '26, we believe we are turning the corner and should start to see organic growth.

Matt Koranda, Analyst

Okay, great. And then maybe just the last one, if I could. Thinking about the sort of the overall deposition here, what are your thoughts on sort of leverage and where we'd be willing to take it if we found an attractive acquisition over the next few quarters? Or I guess, should we think about sort of leverage as coming down over the next few quarters and we're driving cash to delever the balance sheets with the macro uncertainty that we're dealing with? Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that front.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes. Currently, our leverage is approximately 2.8 based on our bank facility, and if we annualize our fourth quarter EBITDA, it would be around 2.5 to 2.6. Our main focus is to reduce debt, while also pursuing some exciting organic initiatives that David mentioned, particularly in electronics and other sectors. We aim to invest in organic growth in areas we are familiar with and can control, while simultaneously working to pay down our debt. We believe we will make progress in reducing leverage this quarter and will continue this effort through FY '26. We are a strong cash-generating company and will maintain our focus on both organic growth investments and debt repayment.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, let me add something to it. From a philosophical standpoint, we're at the level of leverage that we desire. We remain active in the market, with many of our acquisitions stemming from years of relationship building. We will continue this approach, and in the next year or so, we will be at a leverage point we can consider.

Mike Shlisky, Analyst

So leverage at 2.8, it sounds like it's coming down. That's certainly good to hear. Besides just rolling in Amran/Narayan and the McStarlite EBITDA into the numbers that you implied, Ademir, do you have any other lever you're looking to pull on the debt side, I mean I wasn't sure if you needed to or clearly liquidate any working capital in the near term or if you even have to. Just curious as to how you feel about other parts of your balance sheet at the current time.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes. Look, we certainly have some opportunities in our working capital metrics. As an example, some of the businesses we recently acquired generally have a longer credit terms with some of their customers, those credit terms are sometimes over 90 days. So obviously, we'll be working with our new acquisitions as well as the customers to try to improve those terms and get them a little bit more balanced, if you will. So we clearly have opportunity on receivables. We'll obviously continue to manage inventory as well. So yes, I mean, there's clearly an opportunity to get more operating cash flow in the upcoming quarters and we plan to do that.

Mike Shlisky, Analyst

I wanted to revisit some of your earlier comments on tariffs. Considering that Scientific is currently a minor segment of the overall company, and even smaller in China, do you think the total potential impact from the tariffs you're experiencing today is minor and that nothing is changing moving forward? It appears that the efforts needed to address this through pricing and productivity are relatively small and not overly challenging at this moment. You don't seem to be overly concerned or in a state of panic about it.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes, I believe that's a reasonable summary, Mike. Our focus will be on maintaining strong relationships with suppliers and customers while also protecting our margins. Overall, as David mentioned, we are primarily focused on regional supply chains and customer relationships. Therefore, the impact on us is certainly not significant.

David Dunbar, CEO

We laid out pretty clearly early on that of that 6%, it's about $10 million, $10 million, $10 million. Just the $10 million of scientific that's going to require some more. So it's not to minimize the work that they have to do. So in that business, there's plenty of work but they've got line of sight to actions to contain that as I described earlier.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

It's our job to worry, Mike, right?

David Dunbar, CEO

But no, you're right. The overall impact at a corporate level is de minimis.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes, that's correct.

Mike Shlisky, Analyst

Thank you. I'd like to discuss your comments regarding the new products expected to launch in fiscal 2025. Given that fiscal 2026 starts in just two months, could you share your plans for new products in 2026? Will they be similar in scale to those in 2025? Additionally, is there any momentum from products introduced in 2025 that will carry into 2026, or is the growth expected to be limited to small organic increases next year?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, those are great questions. I think we've talked before that because of our business model and our products are sold to OEMs who are incorporating that into their next-generation platforms. It typically takes about 3 years for any application, any new opportunity we win to ramp to full volume. So that's true of new products as well as just the applications of our existing products. So everything we released this year will continue to ramp in the coming years. We also have a pipeline that we would expect order of magnitude, the same number of products to be released in FY '26 as in FY '25.

Ross Sparenblek, Analyst

Just kicking off with core electronics. Can you maybe just update us on where we are with the broader restocking phase? And what's underwriting confidence for a return to growth in 2026 on the organic side, just against the core business?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes. So if you look at the underlying business, we're seeing strength in Asia. North America is ticking up. Europe remains soft. Most of the stocking destocking impact was in Asia and China for us and that is a few quarters ago, we said it was bottoming out, that's picking up.

Ross Sparenblek, Analyst

Okay. Well, then maybe just help us size the automotive and general industrial exposure again, trying to think about the admin flow of China picking up with North America and Western Europe getting a little weaker there at least from the auto side.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes. Historically, the automotive sector has accounted for about 20% of the electronics business, though that figure is a bit lower now due to softness in the market. Recently, it has been closer to 15%. Electric vehicles have remained flat while other combustion engine sales have decreased, so we are currently at about 15% of total electronics.

Ross Sparenblek, Analyst

And then just on the scientific side, can you just maybe help us frame the risk here from the NIH funding? I mean, based off last quarter, it looks like a couple of million and that probably comes for the next 3 quarters going forward. And then I believe on the pharmacy side, that's pretty much at trough? Are you seeing any signs of recovery there?

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes. I think Ross for the NIH, I think you just size that well in terms of the potential impact. Yes. And for the pharmacies, yes, you're right, it's kind of at the trough. We are waiting to see if the new capital equipment requests are going to come in. Maybe some of that is a little bit impacted now with some of the economic uncertainty. But certainly, those units that we placed years ago are due to be replaced and we do expect we're going to see some uptick in the near future.

Ross Sparenblek, Analyst

I mean, are you having active conversations there?

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, both Boeing and Airbus, they're both on the wide-body programs in both those players.

Ross Sparenblek, Analyst

All right. I mean, is this primarily sole source single sourced or what they are?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

A couple of questions here. In the guidance that you gave us for Q4, in terms of the organic decline, is it going to be very similar to the organic decline in sales that you saw in Q3?

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

No, it will not because we do believe electronics will perform better than they did in Q3. We anticipate some improvement there. The only area I would highlight that might lag slightly in comparison is scientific, for the reasons previously discussed. But yes, we do expect that.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

No. When you say sequentially up and I'm just back of the envelope, Amran, let's say, you bought it, had $100 million of revenues, you had $25 million there. McStarlite about $8 million, that's $33 million. So I'm just trying to get an idea of when you're talking about the changes you're seeing in or contemplating or the growth you're contemplating just what we have to work off there. So we really shouldn't be looking at about an 8% organic decline in Q4 as we saw in Q3.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

No, no.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

Okay, that's good to hear. I just want to ask, in terms of fast growth markets, were your sales last quarter about $26 million, I think I went back and looked at that and you were about $60 million this year. Is that kind of correct for this quarter?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, that's right. About $60 million. The $26 million you quoted, what period were you referring to?

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

I was looking at last year's Q4, Q3.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, that's right. Yes. And you recall this last quarter, we kind of bridged kind of recasting. We have an old number, new number because the Amran/Narayan sales are all into fast growth. So we're including that in the $60 million, of course.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

If I can ask the question this way, considering that Amran had a solid margin profile, how has that impacted the adjusted operating margin profile for your sales in the fast-growth markets? Can you provide an estimate of the basis point increase compared to last year?

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes, that's a great question. Our margins in the fast-growth markets have always been higher than our average margin due to newer products and a strong value proposition. The Amran/Narayan margins are still above that average, contributing a couple of hundred basis points to our fast growth margins.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

Okay, a couple of hundred basis points. As this grows, it's going to become very accretive.

David Dunbar, CEO

Yes.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

Okay. One of the things you mentioned was the tariffs, and you talked about how some of this relates to price increases. I understand this is relatively minor compared to other companies. Have you informed your customers about the price increases yet? I would like to know their reaction to this.

David Dunbar, CEO

It varies widely. There are numerous discussions happening with customers across several of our businesses regarding price increases. Overall, we believe we can manage the tariffs. However, the main challenge will be in the scientific business due to the competitive landscape and their pricing power. For our other businesses, a combination of price adjustments and improved productivity should offset the tariffs.

Ademir Sarcevic, CFO

Yes, Gary, we're not just approaching this purely from a price standpoint, we're looking at productivity, sourcing, savings as well. So and then the way we're approaching this with our customers, we are kind of all in this together and we're going to come with the best optimal solution for us as well as for our customers. So it's a combination really of 3 things: pricing, productivity and sources of supply.

Gary Prestopino, Analyst

Can you revisit your current sources, specifically in China and India, and discuss how they can share some of the burden? Are you sourcing from Mainland China or Taiwan?

David Dunbar, CEO

The 6% we mentioned refers to Mainland China. We have had discussions with all the suppliers there. Some have been willing to participate to some extent, while others have not. It really varies based on the specific business and the supplier.

Operator, Operator

And we have no other questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to David Dunbar for closing remarks.

David Dunbar, CEO

All right. I want to thank everybody for joining us for this call. We always enjoy reporting on our progress at Standex. And finally, again, I want to thank our terrific employees for their hard work, continued support of our strategic objectives and delivering another solid quarter. And thank you for the shareholders for your continued support and contributions. We look forward to speaking with you again in our fiscal fourth quarter 2025 call.

Operator, Operator

Thank you, presenters. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.