Earnings Labs

Aecom (ACM)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, May 12, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to AECOM Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to inform all participants, this call is being recorded at the request of AECOM. This broadcast is the copyrighted property of AECOM. Any rebroadcast of this information in whole or part without the prior written permission of AECOM is prohibited. As a reminder, AECOM is also simulcasting this presentation with slides at the Investors section, at www.aecom.com. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call over to Will Gabrielski, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Will J. Gabrielski - Vice President, Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, operator. Before reviewing our fiscal 2015 second quarter results, I would like to direct you to the Safe Harbor statement on page 2 of today's presentation. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. These items may include projections of growth and future profitability. This outlook includes risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements. Please refer to our press release, page 2 of our earnings presentation, and our reports filed with the SEC for more information on the risk factors that could cause our results to differ materially from projections. Except to the extent required by applicable law, we take no obligation to update any of our forward-looking statements. We are using certain non-GAAP financial measures as references in the presentation. The appropriate GAAP financial reconciliations are incorporated into our press release, which is posted on our website. Please also note that the percentages refer to year-over-year progress, except where otherwise noted. Additionally, we may refer to certain metrics on a constant currency basis. In addition, our discussion of financial results and our outlook will exclude the impact of acquisition and integration-related expenses, financing charges in interest expense, and the amortization of intangible assets unless otherwise noted. Please turn to slide three. Beginning today's presentation is Mike Burke, AECOM's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mike? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Will. Welcome, everyone, to our fiscal second quarter earnings call. Joining me today is Steve Kadenacy, President and Chief Financial Officer. I will begin with an overview of AECOM's results for the quarter. Then Steve will review our financial performance in greater detail and provide an update on our full-year outlook. I will conclude with additional remarks on…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. And our first question comes from Jamie Cook from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Jamie L. Cook - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hi. Good morning. I guess just a couple questions. One, with regard to the free cash flow, the free cash flow is weaker in the second quarter versus the first quarter, which was expected, but a little weaker than I thought. So, can you talk about – I mean, do you think the lower end of your free cash flow is more likely than higher end, and is it more – is it evenly distributed throughout the second half or more fourth quarter-weighted? And then, I guess, my second question relates to the guidance. On an EPS basis, while you raised the midpoint – I mean, while you raised the midpoint, you implied it's just the $0.30 you're getting from acquisitions. So, can you just – is that just the Flint, or oil and gas business, and can you give us an update on how the cost synergies should flow in the back half of the year? Thanks. Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: Hey, Jamie. It's Steve. So, on the cash, cash is lumpy. Typically, AECOM historically burn cash in the first half, so we're pretty happy with the $277 million in free cash flow in the first quarter. But any one quarter can be lumpy just because if you collect it on the last day of the quarter or the first day of the quarter can make a huge difference to the quarter. So we're still very comfortable with our range of $600 million to $800 million. We're not ready to guide within that, just given the lumpiness of it, but we're…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Steven Fisher with UBS.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Thanks. Good morning. And sorry for the background noise here. Wondering if you guys could just clarify the organic growth rate in the quarter, constant currency and excluding acquisitions. Was that the 9.7% number? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes, that is organic constant currency, entirely exclusive of acquisitions.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. And is that – similar question for Construction Services, the 62%, is that on the same basis? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Ex-acquisitions and ex-currency? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: That's correct.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. So can you just talk a little bit about what specifically – there must have been some pretty significant projects driving that 62%, what it was, and then how we should think about what you've assumed in your guidance for overall company and for Construction Services for the rest of the year? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, first of all, the 62%, what's driving it is a very strong vertical commercial real estate market in the major metropolitan areas of United States, as well as other parts of the world. We're seeing a boom in tall vertical construction like we haven't seen since 2008, so – and that's right in the sweet spot of our legacy Tishman business, as well as our new Hunt business.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. And sort of how should we think about, say, that 9.7% for the balance of the year? I'm assuming that's probably a little better than what you're expecting, so far, year-to-date. So, how should we think about sort of what you'd expect for the rest of the year? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Listen, it was a little better than we expected for sure. But for the rest of the year, the important thing with regard to organic revenue is the DCS business. The DCS business on a constant currency basis returned to organic growth of 1%. It's our best organic growth in six years. And that is the big wheel within the machine here, right. If we can turn around the organic growth rate in that segment, that's what's going to generate the real growth of the organization. So, that's what we're focused on is getting the organic growth turned around within DCS and that 1% organic growth rate for the quarter was an encouraging step in the right direction.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. And then, you sort of raised a bit of a signal on the slowdown in the Middle East, but it sounds like you potentially have some bigger programs that could mitigate that. How material an impact do you think we're going to start to see in organic growth as a result of the slowdown of the Middle East or do you think the timing of some of the bigger programs will really kind of make that dynamic not that material overall? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: You know, it's – I mentioned it because I think it's something that's – is bit of a wild card, right. First of all, we did have a double-digit organic growth in revenue and the backlog in the quarter in the Middle East. So, I want to make sure I put it in the right context. But we are seeing a couple of projects that did stop. We had one stop in the quarter in Saudi Arabia and although the revenues weren't overly material, it's the demobilization cost that really hurt you. You bear all those demob costs in the quarter. So, we had one big project that stopped. There are a lot of large-scale infrastructure projects that are still on the horizon, but there's uncertainty. There's political volatility. There's concerns around defense, which is exactly what we are focused on there, where we think there's going to be a lot of money spent in the Middle East is around regional defense. And I just returned from a trip to the Middle East last month where we spent a lot of time talking to our clients and government officials there about the amount of money that they are going to be spending for regional defense is expected to greatly increase and the capabilities that we have to be able to design, build and operate those assets for the governments of Saudi Arabia and UAE in particular is something that's very encouraging to us. Now, whether that'll happen in the next two quarters or whether that's a 2016 issue, that remains to be seen. But we're watching that region very carefully and remaining very agile on the projects.

Steven M. Fisher - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. Thanks very much. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Anna Kaminskaya with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Anna Kaminskaya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Hi. Morning, guys. I just wanted to go quickly back to the adjustment to the outlook. I'm just thinking about it as a non-cash charge. Why not just exclude it from the EPS outlook and the reported numbers, seems like it will provide less noise, for instance. Why was it in the first quarter and not in the second quarter, and how will you reflect it by segment? Is it on a particular – in one particular business, or will it be spread across three segments? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: We'll just take those in order, and if I forget one of the three, just remind me, but we didn't change our definition of adjusted EPS because we don't want to change it from quarter to quarter. So, we thought it was easily transparent just to add it to the overall outlook and quantify it for everyone. It's spread between all of the segments, and it impacts them differently depending on the quarter. The reason it had an impact in Q1 versus Q2 is there were multiple – we finalized all of our valuation in Q2, or not finalized, but we're predominantly farther along with our purchase price allocation in Q2, and there are multiple adjustments. We had the increase in normalized margin. We also had the increase in the backlog intangible, which affected the amortization increase, and then there was also an overhead rate adjustment that impacted going the other way, so that – in the Q2, that was a offset. For the overall year, it's $0.30, and we thought it was just as clear just to add it to the earnings guidance.

Anna Kaminskaya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

And how should we think about the charge into 2016, 2017? Is it at the same pace, or will it be coming down over the next couple of years? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: It will come down. The benefit will come down. I think, it's about $0.30 this year, probably cut in half next year.

Anna Kaminskaya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay. And then you provided some more positive commentary on the fact that America is improving in the quarter in your DC segment. Would you be able to quantify it? Is it the number of inquiries? Is it your backlog is finally growing in North American U.S. design business, and where are you seeing the strength? Particularly, are you seeing any improvement in civil infrastructure, any impact from the highway bill uncertainty into June quarter? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, certainly we're seeing the activity in pipeline picking up in the Americas and we're hopeful that the highway bill issues will bring a little more certainty to the civil infrastructure market. We are seeing bipartisan support to push forward with some creative ideas that would further fund infrastructure such as the repatriation of untaxed foreign earnings and so we're starting to see not only activity in the marketplace, but we're seeing some bipartisan support in Washington for more dollars to support infrastructure. We're also seeing a continued increase in sales tax revenues across the states. So there's a lot of leading indicators that are pointing in the right direction.

Anna Kaminskaya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

But would you be able to quantify and maybe, I don't know, percentage growth in your inquiries second quarter versus what you saw last quarter. Is it accelerating, is it converting into firm backlog in the U.S. just for overall U.S. design business. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: I don't think I'd want to be able to guess on the number of inquiries increase. I could tell you anecdotally, it – we feel there's a lot more activity in the market but I really can't give you a specific number.

Anna Kaminskaya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Great. Thank you very much. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Tahira Afzal with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Unknown Speaker

Management

Good afternoon, gentlemen. This is Shawn (34:58) on for Tahira for today. So, in the prepared remarks, you guys commented on some customer spending nuances in the power market among others. So we are just wondering with the potential scope reductions on the power gen side, have you guys increased the amount of construction risk you're willing to take on versus, say, this time last year? So any change on your construction risk appetite there would be helpful. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: No, we have not changed our construction risk appetite. As I think, you know, we're fairly low-risk business model. We always have been. We have – less than 2% of our business is hard-bid contract types, 22% of our business is fixed price contracts. So we're a fairly low risk business model, and we don't see that changing.

Unknown Speaker

Management

That's good color. Thanks very much. And secondly, on the M&A side and with the oil and gas valuations potentially coming down, are you guys sort of staying on the sidelines there or are you considering some of these acquisitions in the space? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: We are not considering any significant acquisitions at this point. We're focused on successfully integrating the transaction we did last year. We think there's just a lot of opportunity to bring this organization together and capitalize on those markets and we think we can do that without undertaking a significant acquisition at least in the short term.

Unknown Speaker

Management

Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate your time, gents. Take care. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Adam Thalhimer with BB&T Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Adam Robert Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Hi. Good morning, guys. Nice job in the quarter. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you. Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: Thank you. Adam Robert Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Mike, I'm just trying to parse through your comments as you went around the world, I mean does it feel to you like backlog is kind of leveling out here at this current level? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: No, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like our backlog, although it appears level from quarter to quarter, we did have a couple subtractions from that and we also had a foreign currency adjustment, so even though it's flat quarter-to-quarter, we did have a 6% impact from foreign currency. So, it would have been up 6% on an organic basis if you took out the currency. So, the growth in backlog feels pretty good to us. Adam Robert Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. But you're not overly concerned about lack of the highway bill in the U.S., what you're seeing in the Middle East, the near-term headwinds in Australia, there's offsets to that? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Listen, one of the great benefits of our business is we are very diverse, and so we participate in a lot of strong growth markets. But the other – so the flip side of that diversity is we are also have challenging markets at any given point in time. And so we take the good with the bad, and generally we feel more positive than negative. So, yeah, we do have some challenged…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Chase Jacobson with William Blair. Please go ahead. Chase A. Jacobson - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hey, guys. Good afternoon or good morning to you. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Chase. Chase A. Jacobson - William Blair & Co. LLC: First question, Steve, on the cash flow. I know you're not going to give specific guidance, and I don't expect you to, but can you maybe talk about, when we look into the second half of the year, the improvement from here? How much of it is – how much of it are things that are in AECOM's control versus things that are more market-related, to new awards or just ongoing operations? Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: Well, on cash, most of the things are in our control other than clients just cutting off payment. I don't see anything specific to that. I mean, I've not seen slowdowns in payments. In fact, our DSOs are down. Historically, as I mentioned, we burn cash in the first half, and historically, that's – we produce about 80% of our cash in the second half, and we're doing better at modulating that on a more even basis throughout the quarters. So, the other – obviously, we've been funding some A&I in our free cash flow as well and that would peel off as the year goes on and the FY 2016, of course, will have only 20% of the total A&I cash expenditures. So, going forward, it will be a little bit of a tailwind from that, from a comparative standpoint. But there's nothing specific that I can point to, it's just our typical execution and we're a very cash-oriented business. Almost every senior executive in the…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from John Rogers with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead. John Bergstrom Rogers - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Hi. Good morning. Just a little follow-up. First of all, in terms of the URS business, can you give us a sense of what sort of year-over-year growth you saw there? Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, year-over-year growth, so I'll just try and give you anecdotally. John Bergstrom Rogers - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Yeah. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: If I think you look at it by their segments. I mean, clearly, the URS federal services business is down largely due to the peel off of chem demil, that was expected, but that business is performing very well. Oil and gas, the former Flint business is down significantly and in terms of our full year outlook, it's immaterial to our EPS guidance range because we're restructuring that business and assuming that things don't get better in FY 2015. And then EC overall is down a bit, although, in general, I would say you could describe it as just slightly down. John Bergstrom Rogers - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Okay. I'm just trying to contrast it with the strong organic growth that you reported, 10%. I mean, is that just the end markets exposure there? I mean, obviously, the oil and gas... Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: That's entirely it, John, is end market because you think about where are we seeing organic growth. We're seeing it in Asian markets, we're seeing it in Middle Eastern markets, and we're seeing it in the private sector vertical construction markets. Those are all markets which URS had virtually no presence in. The markets where they had a…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Andy Wittmann with Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead. Andrew John Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi, guys. Steve, I wanted to dig a little bit in the margin fair value liability benefits for the quarter. Was there any particular projects that those are associated with predominantly that drive those, it looks like it's a little heavier in the DCS segment. But I guess, just understanding the project health and how those could – how long those could be lasting to the P&L, I know, you gave us some comments earlier. But just some color on the types of projects that these are associated with, I think, should give us some context. Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: It's hundreds of projects, Andy. We look at every single project and it's part of the valuation analysis that we hire the big four firms to help us with. And they look at every single project and make some sort of judgment. Now, I mean, this is a very unique accounting formality here that is non-cash and relatively non-impacting to our GAAP earnings. So for us, it's very much a valuation exercise, it's not material to the fundamentals of the business. It passes right through on GAAP. So, it doesn't affect adjusted GAAP or adjusted EPS which is why we changed it at the adjusted guidance level. Andrew John Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Yeah. Okay. That's helpful. And then just you mentioned chem demil and Libya combined, I guess that was on a sequential basis, that it was a $0.12 hit. Can you quantify what the benefit was from Libya? Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: Libya was – there was…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Sameer Rathod with Macquarie. Please go ahead. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess other than what's been mentioned, have there been any other notable changes in the purchase price allocation? I'm asking because we don't have the Q yet. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: No. The big ones were – what I mentioned was the normalized profit, and the other one is the change in the backlog intangible. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Great. I guess more a conceptual question, how do we think about the tax rate? Is this the tax you would have paid if you added all the adjustments back? Is it somehow connected to actual tax rate or cash tax rate? Just trying to figure out the tax rate guidance. Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: No, it's a good question. It's meant to be a estimate of what a normal tax rate would be given the fact that we have all of these costs flowing through and losses in the first quarter. The GAAP tax rate can look very unusual. So, we put together something that's a bit more normalized. And the uptick in the quarter is really just relative to the roll off of the R&D credits and the WOTC credits that expired in Q1. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Right. Right. Last question, more housekeeping. What were the net distributions to non-controlling interests in the quarter? I know, they were like $35 million in the first quarter. How much was it in the second quarter? Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: I believe, $20 million. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Is there any way of estimating this number as we put our cash flow estimates together? Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: It's – well, I think that was the P&L that I just gave you. It's difficult to estimate. You're looking for cash? Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Yeah, I'm looking for on the cash flow some financing portion because obviously these are kind of required payments. Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: I'm just wondering how to (54:29). Stephen M. Kadenacy - President & Chief Financial Officer: It's difficult to go quarter-by-quarter because you don't know how much cash is going to be flowing through those, but over time, it will approximate net income on the cash side. Sameer Rathod - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Perfect. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over the Mike Burke for closing remarks. Michael S. Burke - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, operator. I hope that from today's call you got a sense for our enthusiasm and passion for the future. We really believe that we're only starting to scratch the surface of the total capabilities of this combined organization and some of the best days are certainly in front of us. We – as I said earlier, we are very happy with the merger integration, how it's gone both culturally, both combining the opportunities and capabilities of the two organizations. We're happy about the synergies and our progress there. And we participate in challenged markets and we also participate in some very positive markets, and we're excited about the private sector markets outside of oil and gas. And we're excited about the opportunities and pipeline in front of us in the U.S. civil infrastructure market and that's the one where we think we have some of the best days in front us. So, hopefully, you got a sense of all that from today's discussion. So thank you for participating today and we look forward to talking to you in the next quarter. Have a great day.