Earnings Labs

Malibu Boats, Inc. (MBUU)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 4, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the Malibu Boats Conference Call to Discuss First Quarter Fiscal 2015 Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. Please be advised that the reproduction of this call in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorization of Malibu Boats. And as a reminder, this call is being recorded. On the call today from management are Mr. Jack Springer, Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Wayne Wilson, Chief Financial Officer. I will turn the call over to Mr. Wilson to get started. Please go ahead, sir.

Wayne Wilson

Management

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Ritchie Anderson, the company's Chief Operating Officer is also on the call today. Jack will provide commentary on the business and I will discuss the first quarter results. We will then provide some commentary on the Australian acquisition and our outlook for fiscal 2015. Before we get started, I wanted to remind everyone that a press release covering the company's first quarter fiscal 2015 financial results was issued this afternoon and a copy of that press release can be found in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.malibuboats.com. I also want to remind everyone that management's remarks on this call may contain certain forward-looking statements including predictions, expectations, estimates or other information that might be considered forward-looking and that actual results could differ materially from those projected on today's call. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today and the company undertakes no obligation to update them for any new information or future events. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with SEC, and we encourage you to review our SEC filings for a more detailed description of these risk factors. Please note that we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call, such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin and adjusted fully distributed net income. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release. Now, let me turn the call over to Jack Springer.

Jack Springer

Management

Thank you, Wayne. And welcome, everyone, to our call. We had another very solid quarter and this represents the fourth consecutive quarter since our IPO that we have delivered on results inline or better than our plan. Given the late start to the boating season this year because of weather, we did see an extended selling season which befitted the quarter, however this was offset by a couple of global crisis events and weak currency evaluations in Canada. Now all factors were great in the quarter, but Malibu continues to perform at very high levels. We face another difficult comparison in the first fiscal quarter but our results were right inline with our expectations and our outlook for the full year is unchanged. We are tracking right in line with our full year budget and believe we are very well positioned to continue delivering against the annual targets that we have laid out to the investment community. The first fiscal quarter is always a challenging time of the year. Dealers are focussed on moving previous Malibu inventory and many are not accustomed to looking at new boats and planning for the next model year. This year Malibu did an exceptional job of getting dealers acclimated to and knowledgeable about the new boats and the new features early and this has translated into dealer adoption very quickly. Initial demand for our new Malibu 22 VLX and the Axis A 22 model has been great and we have also been seeing continued strength in the Malibu 23 LSV. There has also been a high level of excitement for our new features including the Power Wedge II and the G4 tower as well as several other of our new features. The new Viper 2 technology base dash in control system with redesigned dash…

Wayne Wilson

Management

Thank Jack. Net sales in the first quarter increased 10.1% to 47.7 million. Unit volume increased 1.8% to 673 units. And net sales per unit increased 8.1% to 79,815 per unit. As Jack said we plant to ship 693 boats in the quarter and they were approximately 20 boats that did not get picked up by the dealer make international shipping schedules for the quarter. And therefore the sale of these boats moved into the second quarter. Both Malibu and Axis performs well in the quarter, and unit breakdown was 215% excess boats and 458 Malibu Boats. Gross profit in the quarter increased 8.7% to $12.1 million and gross margin decline 8 basis points, but remained strong at 25.4%. This was consistent with our expectation given the modest volume increase and increase depreciated associated with our recent capital Investment. Increased Australian sales and Axis mix were slight headwind to gross margin in the quarter with higher optional feature selection helping to offset that pressure. We continue to expect slight year-over-year gross margin expansion that will be driven by year-over-year volume gains. First quarter selling and marketing expenses increased 14.4% to $1.6 million from $1.4 million last year. As a percentage of sales, selling and marketing expenses increased 10 basis points to 3.4%. The increase was primarily the results of increased sales volume, and timing of numerous promotional events. First quarter general and administrative expenses excluding amortization were $66.4 million. However this included $2.9 million of non-operating expenses related to litigation, the Australian acquisition and follow-on offering. Excluding these non-operating expenses, G&A expenses increase to $3.4 million from $2.0 million [15:25]-- and officers, insurance and additional professional fees. First quarter adjusted EBITDA decrease $100,000 to 8.1 million and adjusted EBITDA decreased to 119 basis points to 16.9%. This result was consistent…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from the line of Tim Conder from Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Thank you, gentlemen. Can you hear me, okay.

Jack Springer

Management

Yeah. Hello Tim.

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

First of all, thank you for the slide deck, it is helpful answering some of the questions and your explanation also so far has been very good. Couple of clarifications if I may regarding as you’ve pulled in Australia, how does that change the cadence of what you’ve outlined regarding the sales ramp and then the margin – the margin commentary that you had there?

Wayne Wilson

Management

The margin commentary it’s not going to change dramatically. In terms of the sales ramp, the first -- our first fiscal quarter is the largest quarter for the Australian business, and so that’s the quarter ended September. The rest of the three quarters historically for Australia have been pretty consistent. So they’ll be spread pretty evenly across each of those quarters. And so from margin perspective it’s not going to play the [recap] on the guidance that we gave, the guidance that we gave more specific to your models of the U.S business and the other, the Australian stuff is meant to be added up on top of that.

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Okay. We’ll follow-up on that. And then Jack if you can just maybe give us an update on Nautique and the potential for some rejudgment very going to trial, and then embedded with your legal guidance any -- you had the settlement clearly on the windshield side which saved you some trial expenses. I guess if you do not go to trial should we anticipate that that $3.5 million to $5 million for fiscal 2015 and legal could high by $1.5 million or so?

Jack Springer

Management

Yeah. I’ll address your first question, Tim, as it relates to where we’re at with Nautique, our best guess on the summary judgment motions would be that they could occur as early as December. Currently, we are in the process deposition that I started in the month of October. They continued in the month of November, and then the trial remains schedule for February. So, certainly the summary judgment motion gets towards [indiscernible].

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Okay.

Wayne Wilson

Management

In terms of the spend, yeah, there is definitely the potential for our guidance for our annual cost to come in inside of what’s out there if there were a settlement and that could easily be a seven figure number.

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Okay. And then if I may gentlemen, lot of consternation given the strength of the U.S. dollar versus other currencies. Now you’ve added on currency here, any color Wayne as to how that will be handle and whether we’ll see a material increase here in your currency exposure or should we think of you guys are still so a fairly pure dollar play.

Wayne Wilson

Management

I think you should think of us still as a fairly curved U.S. play. There is a little of exposure there, but the business has dealt with it over the years in Australia and we don’t see that changing.

Tim Conder - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Great. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

Jack Springer

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line Joe Hovorka from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Thanks guys. Just a couple of quick questions, first, can you talk a bit about what your retailer growth was in September quarter.

Wayne Wilson

Management

What we’ve seen – so retail for the September quarter, the numbers that are available from SSI are obviously September number that’s flashed out there is really attractive high number that’s easy to member in the 30% range. The July and August numbers came in the single-digits, so when you blend those out, because the July and August growth rates were in the single-digits and those months are lot more valuable. We expect that quarter to come in the very low double-digits, just north of 10%. And so for us, we think that our retail registration growth was matching the market there in that low double-digit range.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

And on the last call you talked about your EBITDA margins potentially being down slightly in this quarter, and you ended up down a bit more than 190 basis points, what’s the delta between down slightly and down to 190s? Is there something that you didn’t contemplate, because I wouldn’t think 190 was down slightly?

Wayne Wilson

Management

I think there were some more – there were definitely incremental cost that going through our first reporting cycle with the 10-K and the proxy and all of those items especially what we went through after the last earnings call, and revamping the 10-K at that point. Those probably were little bit higher and negatively impacted that adjusted EBITDA margin.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay. And it sounds like that would just come out of some -- it would have been a timing cost until you’ve changed the overall kind of thoughts from a guidance standpoint from an EBITDA margin?

Jack Springer

Management

That’s correct.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay. And then on your guidance, you talked about your mid to high digit unit volume for the full year. What kind of industry unit volume that retail is implied in that number?

Jack Springer

Management

I think what we’re hearing and seeing is there’s still going to be somewhere around 10% or so.

Wayne Wilson

Management

And I think its important to look at, so if our expectations for that September quarter is that its in the – I mean, just given the mathematical waiting we’ve done so far to put it in that 11% ish range. I think we need to keep in mind that that’s the domestic market and when you look at what’s going on Canada and rest of the world that that’s a drag on that domestic growth rate. So I think when we try to paint the full picture, we’re not trying to be heroes and say, the U.S. markets going to accelerate or we aren’t trying to say its going to massively decelerate, but we also are not making huge assumptions around the growth rate outside of United States either.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay. I guess I’m trying to out. So if I think your mid to high-single as just 6% to 8% right, that’s kind of mid to high single. And so that imply taking what you just said, saying okay, U.S. is going to grow maybe 10%, Canada maybe grow something slower and the other international number maybe slower than that, what would your blended kind of retail number, like I’m trying to say is that if you think you’re going to up 6% to 8% you think the market is up 5% to 7% and so you’re grown a little bit of percent, little bit of market share and if the market only grows for, that number comes down a little bit off the market actually grows blended 9% to 10% that your mid to high goes up?

Wayne Wilson

Management

I think what you’re – we’re looking at the market as a whole and I think that the projection that we have out there is likely really closed to what we expect the market to do. And incremental moves in market share are only going to move that growth rate and adjust ever so slightest, because what the markets doing is just so much more impactful in that overall growth relative to smaller market share moves that we’re expecting.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Right. So your mid to high single-digit volume would anticipate in industry that was at mid to high?

Wayne Wilson

Management

Yeah, pretty much mid to high, maybe just a slight discount to that.

Joe Hovorka - Raymond James

Analyst

Right. Okay. That’s all I have for now. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Mike Swartz from SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Jack Springer

Management

Hello, Mike.

Operator

Operator

Pardon Mr. Swartz, if you please check your mute button.

Mike Swartz - SunTrust

Analyst

Sorry, about that. Could you maybe provide some more context around the commentary in your prepared remarks, Canada, Europe and what you’re seeing there, are you seeing the market decelerated, is it more of a currency issue or macro economic?

Jack Springer

Management

For Canada there is a currency issue. We’ve seen a little bit deceleration, nothing alarming. But I think that currency is under [90 to the dollar] and so we’ve seen a little, although the Canadian dealers do not seem to that effected by, so that’s a positive. On the Europe side, it really comes back to a lot of news coming out of Europe and it continues to be what we’ve heard over the last 12 to 18 months. So we’re not seeing growth out of Europe, but we’re seeing it for the most part remained flat.

Mike Swartz - SunTrust

Analyst

Okay. That’s helpful. Can you remind just what percentage of your business or unit volume done in Canada? Are you selling those boats into that market in U.S. dollars?

Jack Springer

Management

Yes we are it is an U.S. dollars and that Canadian market for us is somewhere in the 12% to 15% range.

Mike Swartz - SunTrust

Analyst

Okay. Great. That’s helpful. Thank guys.

Jack Springer

Management

Thank you. Operator Thank you. And at this I’m not showing any further and I’d like to turn the call back over to Jack Springer for any closing remarks.

Jack Springer

Management

Great. Thank you very much. I want to thank everyone again on behalf of the management team for joining the Malibu earnings call today. And we wish you a very good evening. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.