Good day, and welcome to the CTS Corporation Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I’d like to turn the conference over to CTS’s CEO, Kieran O’Sullivan. Please go ahead, sir. Kieran O’Sullivan: Thank you, Jessica. Good morning. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to CTS’s fourth quarter and full year 2015 conference call. We are disappointed with our full year sales performance. Despite this, we are confident in our strategy and the changes we are driving to position us for future profitable growth on products that sense, connect and move. We made solid progress in several areas. We received 560 million in new business awards, an increase of 16% year-over-year and added several new customers. We successfully completed the transition from Canada reducing our manufacturing footprint to 11 locations. We improved our cash flow from operations to 39 million from 32 million in 2014. We acquired Filter Sensing Technologies, which provides experience, knowhow and IP with an exciting new technology that we expect to be instrumental in driving new product growth in future years. Although lower sales and foreign exchange translation losses created headwinds in 2015, we were still able to improve our gross margin and control our operating expenses to deliver adjusted earnings that were only marginally lower than in 2014. Driving growth remains our top priority in 2016 and we continue to make targeted investments to support this initiative. As usual, Ashish Agrawal, our CFO is joining me on today’s call. Ashish will take us through the Safe Harbor statement.

I would like to remind our listeners that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties is contained in the press release issued today and more information can be found in the company’s SEC filings. To the extent that today's discussion refers to any non-GAAP measures relative to Regulation G, the required explanations and reconciliations are available in the Investors section of the CTS Web site. I will now turn the discussion back over to our CEO, Kieran. Kieran O’Sullivan: Thank you, Ashish. Today, we reported our fourth quarter and full year 2015 financial results. Fourth quarter sales were 93.3 million, down 7.1 million or 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sales were lower in certain end markets, including automotive, engineered frequency, and HTD. In addition, foreign currency impacted sales unfavorably by 1.6 million. Sales grew 2.6 million or 2.9% sequentially from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Full year 2015 sales were 382.3 million, down 21.7 million or 5.4% versus 2014. The drivers are much the same for the full year with lower volumes in automotive, engineered frequency, and HTD. Foreign currency impacted sales unfavorably by 7.8 million. Gross margin improved by 100 basis points year-over-year to 33.2%. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.93 in 2015 compared to $0.97 in 2014. Lower volumes and unfavorable foreign exchange impact due to balance sheet translation were the primary drivers for the decline in earnings. We held adjusted earnings to a small year-over-year decline by improving our gross margin and controlling operating expenses. New business awards were 105 million for the fourth quarter and 560 million for the…

Thank you, Kieran. I will start with the results for the quarter. Fourth quarter sales were $93.3 million, down $7.1 million compared to the same quarter last year. As noted earlier and consistent with prior quarter, sales were soft in certain end markets due to lower volume of older automotive products and weak demand for communication and HDD products. In addition, foreign currency impacted sales unfavorably by $1.6 million as the U.S. dollar appreciated against the euro and RMB. On a positive note, sales grew $2.6 million or 2.9% sequentially from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 32.3% versus 32.9% in the same quarter a year ago. Margins declined primarily due to lower volumes. Operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2015 were significantly higher than last year due to restructuring charges, primarily related to a non-cash charge for unamortized losses in connection with the wind up of our UK pension plan. SG&A expenses were $13.8 million in fourth quarter of 2015 compared to $15.8 million in the fourth quarter of last year. This decrease was primarily due to continued efficiency gains from restructuring projects, cost containment efforts, and timing of certain expenses. R&D expenses were $6.1 million in fourth quarter 2015 compared to $5.8 million in the same period last year. R&D expenses also grew compared to third quarter of 2015 in line with our plan to continue investing in new products to drive organic growth. Interest expense in fourth quarter 2015 was slightly higher than last year, due to higher debt balances and a slightly higher interest rate. Interest income in fourth quarter 2015 was slightly lower than last year due to lower interest rates in China. In fourth quarter 2015, other expense was $1.7 million. This is almost entirely due…

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. We’ll go first to Larry Solow with CJS Securities.

Hi. Good morning. Kieran O’Sullivan: Good morning, Larry.

Good morning. On the revenue outlook, so essentially sales are I think growing 2% to 5% in your guidance range, but it’s basically about flat with what your guidance was for '15, so clearly starting from a lower base. I know you had expected mid-single-digit growth in '16, which you are getting of this lower base, but as you look out to '17, do you still see this acceleration coming towards – up to the higher single digits? And part two of that is most of your impact is obviously from legacy products in the automotive side and then some issues in the wireless infrastructure and disk drive market. Do you see all those things combined continuing to sort of impact you going forward? Kieran O’Sullivan: Okay, Larry, let me try to dissect the different pieces of that. The first piece is, obviously I said we’re disappointed in the revenue performance. We’re working through a transition in the business and repositioning of the company. If you look even on the external side of it, we’ve been going down in automotive in the last two or three years whereas the whole markets have been up. So you can see there’s a trend there that we’re building the backlog to turn that around. We haven’t changed any of our goals for growth. You might say we’re a little bit more tempered in 2016 given the economic outlook out there, but I would tell you as an indication, one of the things in our plan for 2016 is we’re upping our capital spend because we always said we’re going to get mid-single digits growth. Our target is to get to 10% growth with a combination of organic and acquisition and that’s still the path we’re very firmly on. We’re not changing strategy. And to the last part of your question, I would tell you that we obviously see softness, and we’re being very careful to make sure we understand it. Communications has not been good for us. HDD has not been good for us in the last two years. We’re not planning for increased sales in any of those areas, if anything slightly lower in this new guidance that we gave out today. And we’ll just step through doing all the things we said we’d do with the backlog and introducing growth that will come in '16 and further increases in growth in '17 with the backlog we have. I hope that answers your question.

Absolutely. And just one quick follow up just on – we discussed internal growth. How about external growth? I know you guys have been targeting acquisition and I realize it’s sometimes things just don’t come together or it’s – so it’s not easy to complete acquisitions. With that said, your thoughts – you haven’t been able to really do any significant or material acquisition for a couple of years. Is it price is too high, you have challenges finding exactly what you’re looking for, a combination of the two, any help there would be great. Thanks. Kieran O’Sullivan: When you look back over the last three years, Larry, the first year was really assessing the company and getting our strengths in place and redirecting the strategy going forward, and then obviously we went through a lot of operational changes in 2014 and at the end of '15 as well. So we started to refocus. We’re working the pipeline. I will tell you we’ve got very clear targets and we continue to work in that area. It’s going to be in sense, connect and move, and we’ve got a very clear priority of technologies. We want to get some regional expansion to strengthen our R&D and we’ve got the right mix of things to complement this strategy. Prices have been high, and I would tell you, I don’t know if that’s going to change because we’ve had economic expansion for the last five, six years, and it’s easy to look back at the last 12 months performance and is it going to be as good in the next 12 months, you’ve got to be careful. We always said we’ll do the right acquisitions at the right price and valuation. So we’re not panicked, we’re going to just do the right things.

Got it, great. Okay. Thanks very much. Kieran O’Sullivan: You’re welcome.

We’ll now take a question from John Franzreb with Sidoti & Company.

Good morning, guys. Kieran O’Sullivan: Hi, John.

I’d like to start with the automotive side of the business. You’ve been exiting certain programs, at least that’s my understanding in 2015. How much did that impact 2015’s revenue, and how much do you expect it to impact 2016’s revenue outlook? Kieran O’Sullivan: John, we had some older products and we had some products that were going end of life. That’s what we spoke to in the past. We had a range of just a few million. I wouldn’t say anything substantial; 3 million or 4 million range. But the biggest issue was the backlog from prior years wasn’t there, so that’s why we were challenged with that as well. And providing market conditions stay the same going forward, we’re pretty confident that our backlog will be increasing.

Okay. Just so I understand, Kieran, so 3 million to 4 million of 2015’s revenue was a result of lower end of life product lines? Kieran O’Sullivan: Yes. Actually, John, let me just add a bit of color to that in total.

Sure. Kieran O’Sullivan: If you look at – we said we were down 21 million rough and tough year-over-year. The total automotive impact of that was somewhere just over 10 million, 12 million, and then the balance of that was between HDD and frequency and communications end markets. That’s roughly how I break it up here.

Okay. I’m just trying to parcel out like how much of that headwind that was older products that obviously will occur again in 2016. That’s what I’m kind of looking for there, Kieran. So as long as we’re on the right page, you’re saying 3 million to 4 million.

Yes, John, that’s roughly the pressure we face from the older product lines in 2015 that we shouldn’t see in 2016.

Perfect. Okay. And on the communications side of the business, what’s the biggest headwinds you’re experiencing on that side of the business? Kieran O’Sullivan: Just the end markets are soft and the demand for the products, whether it’s OCXOs, VCXOs, where we’ve launched some new products, but we’re just seeing the end markets are soft.

Okay. And are your customers telling you when they want you to ramp up at all or is it still kind of a murky outlook there? Kieran O’Sullivan: On the whole component side, John, we’ve got several customers working with us on the RF side, on new products where we’re gaining traction. We’re adding new customers and we’re seeing some increases. But just the overall end market is still pretty mixed. That’s probably the best way to answer it.

Okay. And in your expectations for 2016, do you expect gross margin improvement as a result of a, you’re exiting older products, b, you’ve consolidated facilities, and c, I – my understanding is that by the end of 2016 we’ll have some of these new business awards we’ve been talking about over the years come into play. So would we expect better gross margins in 2016? Kieran O’Sullivan: John, we’re always looking to improve gross margins but I will tell you we’ve constantly said, hey, we see ourselves in near term to a few years out just in the low 30s and that’s still our presumption. You got to have – even when you launch new products in automotive, there’s pricing pressures in different product lines. So we’re comfortable with the low 30s. We’re slightly above that at the moment you might say. Maybe we’ll do better as we’re always focused on it, but if you’re modeling us, keep us in that range.

Well, I mean you’ve consolidated facilities so I guess what you’re telling me, Kieran, is that the new programs, the gross margin profile is lower than your current gross margin profile, because you would think with the consolidation you would have a better gross margin profile going forward. Kieran O’Sullivan: I would say there’s no big change. We have some products that are higher than that, some products that are lower than that. It’s just different mix of products. We’re pretty comfortable with the low 30s on the gross margin. And of course we’re always looking to improve it and if we outperform, it would be great.

Okay, all right. And one last question. When you talk about or considering Filter Sensing Technologies, the acquisition, sounded like you alluded to the R&D spend will be going up to support growth opportunities in this new IP, intellectual property. How much incremental R&D spend are we talking about in the year ahead; 2 million, 4 million, what are we thinking? Kieran O’Sullivan: Rough and tough, John, in the range of 1 million overall. That would be where I put it. And that will obviously continue for a period of time, so not just one year.

Okay. And does that have to accelerate in order to capture that market opportunity you talked about, or is that incremental 1 million steady-state kind of a number? Kieran O’Sullivan: I’ll tell you we’re having a lot of interest, a lot of engagement on that area and by bringing the two parties together, you’ve got the innovation side of it coming from FST, you got the commercialization capability and the R&D capability and customers that we have and there are new customers that are talking to us. So, as we win programs we said we’d expect the first new business awards in '17. As we add business there, you’d expect two things. Number one, we would actually increase our R&D spend in that area and of course because of the IP and certain things, we may get funding from customers as well. So that’s yet to be played out but it will increase as we went.

Okay, all right. Thanks for taking my questions. I’ll get back into queue. Kieran O’Sullivan: You’re welcome, John.

We’ll now take a question from Ian Gilson with Zacks Investment Research.

Good morning, gentlemen. I’ve got a few small questions.

Hi, Ian.

Are we done with the termination of the UK pension plan as far as extra costs are concerned?

Yes, Ian. For all practical purposes, the UK pension plan transition is completed. We handed it over to the insurance company in December of 2015.

Okay. In your currency adjustment, does that include any devaluation of the current reserves held in China or outside the U.S.?

Yes. In 2015, we recorded the translation impact on both the euro as well as the RMB and the largest part was as a result of the balances, the net asset exposure we have in China.

Okay. So having repatriated or paid yourself a dividend from China, would we expect the currency impact to be slightly less going forward?

That is our expectation. I mentioned in my commentary that we are going to dividend money from China to the extent permitted under the local law. There are limitations on what we can dividend. So to that extent, yes, we will be exposed to a smaller number but there will be still some exposure to currency rate movements.

Okay. So we would expect, say, a continuation of a higher tax dollar number as we look into 2016?

Yes. As a result of moving money out of China, we will see a slightly higher tax rate going forward. On an adjusted basis we are around 30% in 2015 and I would expect that rate to go slightly higher in 2016 in the neighborhood of 31% to 32%.

Okay. Looking at the numbers, the tax is accrued on the income statement for almost $13 million, correct?

It was actually 8.8 million and that relates to the cash that we are moving out of China as well as the repatriation of money from Canada and the UK. The China portion is not the entire 8.8 million. So basically the Chinese earnings will be subject to a 10% withholding tax.

Okay. So a portion of the 13 million tax must have been based on some profits outside the U.S., or where does the extra tax come from?

Ian, I’m trying to get to the 13 million number that you are considering.

But I’m looking at the income statement for the three months ended December.

Okay.

And I have an income tax line of $12.974 million.

Right. So 8.8 of that is the taxes related to China and UK and Canada. And there was an additional charge that we took for some provision on NOLs that we will not be able to utilize going forward. So there was a charge of $2.5 million related to that, which I mentioned earlier in my script. And the rest of it is the normal tax that we would have on our earnings.

Okay, okay. As we look in the progression of business during the year and the discussions about the automobile industry coming out of Ford, General Motors and they are looking for a – poorer business climate, is your growth likely to be biased towards the second half of the year? Kieran O’Sullivan: We’ve modeled the year rough and tough if you look at the automotive markets, I would say North America in the region of 3% rough and tough and Asia; China, China have more like 4%, Europe somewhere in that range as well. That’s how we’re seeing it. I think if you look at North American markets you’ll see that the days on hand have increased up to about 60 days of inventory and we know and we’ve talked about it before that the automotive industry has obviously been on a run for some time and we think it’s still not going to fall off the cliff this year but it’s certainly getting to the point where some transition will happen in the years ahead.

I believe that Ford, although they did report an excellent fourth quarter, was talking about 2% growth for this year. Kieran O’Sullivan: That maybe Ford but when you look at through consensus of all the different customers and market analysis out there, it’s more in the 3% plus range.

Okay. Maybe they’re just being conservative. All right. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions]. We’ll go now to Hendi Susanto with Gabelli & Company.

Good morning, Kieran and Ashish. If I may revisit the previous question, what growth profile do you assume in your 2016 guidance as we go from one quarter to another in terms of overall sales? Kieran O’Sullivan: Hendi, could you repeat your question?

What growth profile do you assume in your 2016 guidance as we go from one quarter to another in terms of overall sales? Kieran O’Sullivan: I’m with Hendi, okay. We would see just second half being a little bit stronger than the first half overall. And usually we have softness in the third quarter due to shutdowns with OEMs and different things. And as you heard earlier on, we’re putting in some extra capital this year as we prepare for launching products and things we’ve been working in the pipeline.

Okay. And then, Kieran, CTS has been working hard to reposition its growth starting in 2017. How should we think of your business awards comp positions and growth opportunity among the three areas; sense, connect and move? Are they equal in terms of growth opportunity or were there one or some are bigger growth drivers that we can expect in 2017? Kieran O’Sullivan: I would say that the biggest growth area is sense and it covers a few of the different product lines not just automotive and the other side of it is motion or move, which really refers to actuation and they’re probably the strongest two areas. And the connect is taking a little bit longer.

Got it. And then you mentioned that investment in R&D will go up in 2016. What should we expect on sales and marketing? Should we expect higher investment in that space as well and then a higher dollar amount? Kieran O’Sullivan: Maybe some very minor increases but typically I think we’ve run just around 4% sales and marketing.

Hendi, overall, the SG&A expenses are going to be somewhat in line with 2015 numbers, which may be some small increases but nothing significant for your modeling purposes. And R&D expenses, as we talked about, will be higher in 2016. Typically, we have looked at 6%-ish of sales as our guideline for R&D. We’ve been running slightly lower but we are talking about increasing spend for 2016.

And then, Ashish, how much cash do you intend to bring to U.S. and how should we think of the timing and allocation towards share buyback? How do you make that decision?

Yes, so UK and Canada are the countries where we have given up permanent reinvestment assertion. I’m expecting somewhere in the range of $30 million to $35 million of cash coming back to the U.S. Hendi, the cash will be available to us, as I mentioned in my script, for acquisitions, buybacks, repayment of debt and we’ll continue to look at the best opportunities for us to utilize that cash.

And then when you bring that 30 million to 35 million, how much tax do you expect – like will you be able to utilize NOL against that full amount or should we expect some tax payment?

So this particular amount will be pretty much mostly non-cash tax charge for the U.S. We have already approved those expenses but they are mostly non-cash as far as it relates to the U.S. taxes. We will be in a zero NOL position going forward. And as we change the assertion of foreign taxes paid from deductions to a credit in the second quarter, we will still not anticipate a cash tax liability in the U.S. in 2016.

Okay.

Does that answer your question, Hendi?

Yes. Thank you, Ashish. Thank you, Kieran.

[Operator Instructions]. It does appear there are no further questions at this time. Mr. O'Sullivan, I’d like to turn the conference back to you for any additional or closing remarks. Kieran O’Sullivan: Great. Thank you, Jessica. Obviously, I just want to repeat again. We were disappointed in our top line performance but we are very much still on strategy in terms of repositioning and growing to the targets we’ve talked about in other earnings calls. And we look forward to giving you an update on the next quarterly report. Thank you for your time today.