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Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTX)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Oct 24, 2014

$72.60

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Minerals Technologies Incorporated Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. 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. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference to our host, Mr. Rick Honey. Sir, you may begin.

Rick Honey

Management

Good morning. Welcome to our 2014 third quarter conference call. Today, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Muscari will provide some insights into our third quarter 2014 performance, as well as a brief update on the integration of the former AMCOL. He will then turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Doug Dietrich, who will give you a detailed report of our financial results for the quarter. Before we begin, I need to remind you that on Page 8 of our 2013 10-K, we list the various factors and conditions that may affect future results. Statements related to future performance by members of our management are subject to these cautionary remarks and conditions. Now, I will turn the call over to Joe Muscari. Joe?

Joe Muscari

Management

Thanks Rick. Good morning everyone. MTI had an outstanding third quarter recording $1.25 per share, which is a 98% increase over the same quarter in 2013. This financial performance, which is the first full quarter of contribution from the former AMCOL businesses illustrates how highly accretive this acquisition is. All five of our segments contributed double-digit operating margins with the entire company maintaining over 14% operating income as a percentage of sales. As we continue to integrate the Performance Materials, Construction Technologies, and Energy Services businesses, we are ahead of the synergy targets that we set when we announced the acquisition. Those targets of $25 million in the first full year of the acquisition and $50 million in two years have been surpassed to the point that we are now almost nine months ahead of schedule on these savings. Doug Dietrich will give you some additional detail later in the call. The company also had strong cash flows of $87 million during the quarter, which has allowed us to make a debt repayment of $38 million, and we also continued to maintain the stability of the acquired businesses, while at the same time restructuring various aspects of our business segments and functions. I believe it's fair to say that we are a much stronger company today with even greater prospects for the future than a year ago at this time. This Slide provides a graphic, and I say fairly dramatic illustration of the acquisitions impact on MTI earnings in the third quarter, nearly a doubling over our earnings per share over the $0.63 we recorded in the third quarter of 2013. And as I said, each of the businesses as well as our focused integration team contributed to this excellent performance. MTI's two main strategies of geographical expansion and new…

Doug Dietrich

Management

Thanks Joe, good morning everyone. Now let's go through our consolidated and business segment results for the third quarter. This is the first full quarter results post-acquisition for our five reporting segments; Specialty Minerals, Refractory's, Performance Materials, Construction Technologies and Energy Services. I will touch on the key market and operational elements of our results in each of these segments. Our third quarter earnings per share from continuing operations were strong at $1.25 excluding special items and 98% increase from the $0.63 recorded last year. Reported earnings were $1.06 per share which included a special charges of $0.19 related to the acquisition. I will provide some additional details on these special charges in a moment. Our sales for the quarter were $544 million which is 114% higher than the third quarter of last year and increased 4% on a pro forma basis. Operating income excluding the special items increased 135% to $76.8 million and represented 14.1% of sales. Each of the five business segments achieved double-digit operating margins again this period. EBITDA for the quarter was $103 million which represented 19% of sales. Return on capital was 9% which I will note is the return including the stepped up value of assets from the acquisition. Sequentially, consolidated sales increased 29% as the third quarter included a full quarter of sales for the acquired business compared to only 52 days in the second quarter. Cash flow for the quarter was $87 million driven by the strong operating results and continued improvements in working capital from the acquired businesses and we made a debt principle payment of $38 million. As Joe highlighted, the synergies from the integration are tracking ahead of target, I will go deeper into our progress in a few minutes. First, let me reconcile our reported earnings from continuing…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Daniel Moore of CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

Good morning.

Joe Muscari

Management

Good morning.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Good morning, Dan.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

First congratulations obviously on the tremendous progress you’ve made, and thank you once again for all the detail that you provide each and every quarter.

Joe Muscari

Management

Thank you.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

Wanted to maybe focus a little bit on segments in PCC, obviously, maybe you can quantify the impact in the quarter of the closure of Courtland, Alabama and given that the multiple projects or multiple satellites scheduled to come online later in 2015, when would you expect that segment to turn back to positive growth?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Yes. Dan, the impact from Courtland was about 100,000 tons as we had expected some of that volume to be absorbed throughout the IP system. We didn't see that this year. As Joe mentioned and I mentioned earlier, we are adding about 350,000 tons of capacity in China throughout 2015. So, we will probably see that offset occur sometime in the first or second quarter. But, well, let's say we have a couple of facilities coming online in the second. So, you’re probably going to see the second, third quarter of next year, we will start to see the inflection point. But, we should be fully up and running within about 9 months after that.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

Very good. And then shifting gears, Energy Services business remains very strong, maybe just elaborate again, you mentioned some of the improvements you made in coil tubing and profitability. And elaborate on what's – drivers of those businesses and then with oil prices falling out of bed, is there a concern that might have an impact on demand going forward?

Joe Muscari

Management

Yes. Dan, I would say to your later part of your question, potentially if oil starts to fall below $80, we could see some softening that would impact us. Right now, that's been holding fairly strong at the $81 to $85 level. Part of what you are seeing is, I would say improvements that have been focused on to increase the equipment utilization, increase the personnel utilization in the business, but also being able to get some jobs that have been targeted and in terms of with some of the larger companies and some of the larger projects such as I mentioned in my remarks, there is a strong focus on both Brazil and Mexico that's still in front of us. So I would say it's the beginning of a number of things that are coming together in the business. We are still subject to the good deal of volatility just by the nature of the business. And I'd say so far we have been able to -- Mike Johnson and his team have been able to work on improvements particularly in coil tubing, which had been in a loss position, I guess parts of last year, the first quarter of this year, when we did the – started the acquisition, it was in a loss position, and so that was a very focused effort to move first to breakeven quickly, and they were able to do that within two to three months and now it's moved to a slightly positive level. So that's been a major accomplishment for the business. I'm going to ask Mike Johnson to share a few remarks with you as well. Mike?

Mike Johnson

Analyst

I guess the strength that we have seen in Q3 was due mainly in Gulf of Mexico and filtration of well testing and also we are seeing strength on land. We are also seeing significant improvements in Latin America and Brazil specifically, but also some improvements in Malaysia and Australia. So…

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

Very good. And lastly, and I will jump back in queue. Last quarter, the railcar issues that you had in terms of margin pressure, you talked about quite a bit. It seems like that's abated, how much of that is market related and what are some of the steps that you have been able to take internally to reduce that as a concern as we go into the peak season once again next year in 2015?

Doug Dietrich

Management

So Dan, we had about the same impact in the third quarter as I mentioned in the second, about $1.2 million of higher costs. That was really incurred early in the quarter, and I mentioned the business unit held a number of process improvements,, kaizen events made some substantial progress. They took hold late in the quarter, have helped to reduce some of the backlog and position ourselves much better for handling issues as they come up going into the winter. So, we still did have an impact, margins were impacted in the third similar to the second, but I think we are looking for that to improve going forward.

Joe Muscari

Management

I think it's fair to say within the last two to three weeks, Gary, we have gotten the backlogs down, and the rail availability and turnarounds to I'd say pre-winter of last year levels. It's been about as low as – as we have seen. And so, that's why as Doug mentioned in his remarks, we are well positioned going into the winter. And a good part of that was controlling the things that we had control over a little better through the kaizen events, but very focused things that were geared towards ensuring that more cars are born into the system, turned around faster, attract and monitor, so it was a combination of five or six things that came together well. Gary, you want to add anything to that?

Gary Castagna

Analyst

Yes. Especially in what came through the kaizen process was really the order management, and we went several locations within the company as well as to customers where we have to organize the fleet and essentially optimizing the best we could to where we could move the fleet most quickly to serve the markets as well as alleviate the cost happen. But also, we were able to get more cars in the fleet and through a task force that we have organized with the rail service carriers well to also look at points where we can improve the overall process. The rail line there now is in much more responsive for – with these kind of approaches that we have taken, and to this day, even into the fourth quarter, we have continued to sustain that improvement in the process. And we were also just -- probably also to mention was also taken steps to assure that we could move more products closer to our end markets – key end markets. So we have more distribution and storage capability downstream to take advantage of this time of the year, so that we are more positioned for any other winter related interruptions.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

Very good. Lastly, just quick clarification Doug, the $20 million annualized cost savings that you alluded to in the press release and your comments that in addition to the $50 million initial synergies that obviously you laid out?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Dan that's part of the $50 million.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

That's part of the initial $50 million. Okay. Thank you again.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Silke Kueck from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Good morning. How are you?

Joe Muscari

Management

Feeling good. How are you Silke?

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Good. I had a similar question on the cost savings. That is I was trying to figure out based on the initial targets that you gave reaching $25 million by the second quarter of 2015 and $50 million by the second quarter of 2016. The incremental headcount reductions and the closure of six to eight manufacture facilities, what is that incrementally contributing? And does it just mean that you hope to get an additional – that you try to get to – I don't know like $70 million of run rate basis now by the second quarter in 2016. Is that the way to think about it?

Doug Dietrich

Management

The way to think about it, we are trying to give you is as much granularity as possible relative, it's sort of a scorecard to where are we versus where we said we would be both in terms of dollars and synergies and time, okay? So from a time standpoint we are head of target to achieve the $50 million. I also touched on that we are identifying additional savings and as we have also related when we had our acquisition conference call that we were looking and felt that we should be targeting beyond $50 million. And as I touched on, we were beginning to identify some areas that will take us beyond the $50 million. But, it's premature to focus on it. Right now we are very focused on achieving the $50 million. And as we are doing that we are identifying other areas to go further.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Right. So it looks like that you are going to get to $50 million by mid-year 2015, right, and so the question is since you probably going to be – I mean that's sort of – I mean if you just look at the progression of savings and so it seems by the time you get to mid-2016, you would be like $70 million already.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Oh, well…

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Is that reasonable to say?

Doug Dietrich

Management

So as Joe mentioned, if you hold on to the $50 million, yes, it probably third quarter were about nine months ahead of schedule, at least on our target for achieving the $50 million. Joe mentioned we are starting to identify other areas, but it's premature, so good to tell you that that's what that's going to be beyond the $50 million.

Joe Muscari

Management

I think Silke, the thing to keep in mind; some of these things when we say identify take time to make happen some may require some investments. Others may require further planning. So would be items that could get us on the road from the – will get us on the road from the $50 million to the $70 million. But its premature to talk about exactly when that's something, I think again, as we go through each quarter, we are getting, better and better position to give you more visibility as to when these are going to come in just as we went out two quarters on this call, we're going to try to go out a little further with you on the next call.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. How long do you think it may take to shutdown the six to eight facilities and to absorb some of the manufacturing elsewhere. And that is what you are trying to do or you are trying to move – are you trying to close underutilized facilities and move production elsewhere or you entirely closing down certain projects and product lines?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Silke, so we are just going through that process right now. We haven't determined anything or made any decisions on what we are doing. But, it would be more tied toward – looking at offices, administrative offices where there is redundancies and looking to combine them, two yes, looking to creating more and more efficient operating platform. At this point, we are not talking about just discontinuing product lines. So there is more around the efficiency related areas and redundant areas and administrative offices.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

And is that like a 6-month process, like a 9-month process, how long do you think it may take to consolidate the facilities?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Consolidate about – we are looking at this through our strategic review of the three new businesses. As far as how long it will take that to happen – we don't have – we are not that far long in the process. It probably throughout in at least 12 months plus to do something like that.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

And how do you think about like on capital allocation like the next 12 months, do you anticipate that you make additional debt payments in forcing the first quarter?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Yes. Absolutely, we are looking at using the majority of our operating cash flow to steer toward paying down debt. We have been looking at increase strict capital allocation. We have always have in the legacy MTI business really seeing a hard look at capital spending and we are doing that across the company now to really tighten things working on working capital improvements as I mentioned we made some progress there in the past five months. But that cash flow that operating cash flow – free cash flow will be steered towards debt repayment.

Silke Kueck - JPMorgan

Analyst

Thanks very much. I will get back into queue.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Ivan Marcuse from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Hi. It's great quarter. Thanks for taking my questions.

Joe Muscari

Management

Thanks Ivan.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Real quick, most of it has been answered. If you look at in the PCC business, how much I understand you get some – the sales related volumes came down in North America and Europe. But how much did new business sort of your expansions into the regionals, add to sales or add to volume and how much was Fulfill contributed in the quarter what sort of the run rate there or how to think about it?

Doug Dietrich

Management

To answer the first part, so we had the Courtland volume in North America and Docelles in Europe plus just lower paper production volumes in the third quarter, I mentioned 7% North America. Really the growth has come from 2 satellites, our JK paper satellite which was ramping up about this time last year, so that added to our volumes in India. Second quarter, late in the second quarter, we had mentioned Jianghe satellite ramp up in China and so that's picked pace. We haven't – those two satellites have not offset the loss at Courtland and Docelles and as I mentioned earlier as we have the five other satellites, four other satellites in China ramp up mid-to-late next year, we should see the growth resume on the top line of PCC.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. Then for Fulfill?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Did I miss another question from you? Oh, sorry, Fulfill. Fulfill is a contributor in the quarter. We had similar performance to last year in terms of Fulfill so it's continuing to progress engaged with 20 additional facilities with 17 contracts. But, we have faced a couple of issues in terms of – with the plant shutdowns as curtailed some of the volume and some of these just for Fulfill this year compared to last year.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. Got you. And then in terms of working capital, you are doing a really nice job there. The $100 million that you have identified when you announced the deal or the campus call about the deal. Where are you in terms of achieving that $100 million?

Doug Dietrich

Management

We are about $25 million to $30 million, I mean it's a – when you look at – if you are going to look at the balance sheet you are going to see the higher sales and so there is going to be some high working capital. But on an apples-to-apples basis kind of adjusted we are probably about $25 million to $30 million of improved working capital.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Great. In the fourth quarter of the season, is this a – would you expect working capital continue to be a source of cash?

Doug Dietrich

Management

While we are going to continue to look at working capital improvements we made some very quick improvements in the second and third, some of those improvements are going to continue to be the ones that are under our control inventories and to some extent payables. Sales will take a little bit longer time to restructure some of those. But also the synergies, we will also provide additional cash. So we do see the continued strong cash flows moving forward. I mean there will be some seasonality to it, as you know the first quarter is a lower cash period for the legacy MTI. I expect that to be in the same but for the combined entity but on a relative basis, yes. We continue to see driving a stronger cash flows.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

And let that pay down you may have missed this and I have missed that. You pay down $38 million this quarter, is that sort of the average sort of – that sort of where you want to be on a quarter-over-quarter basis for the next couple of quarters or would you expect to pay down to accelerate as the cash generation continues to be pretty strong here.

Doug Dietrich

Management

We expect that to accelerate, I think over the next few couple of quarters that will probably be at that level but as we continue to generate higher cash flows and make the improvements in the business, we will – we see that accelerated increase.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. And then my final question, I guess the final question is, you keep mentioning in the past couple of calls this mercury removal business and this opportunity, how much in volume are you selling into that market rate now and as we get into 2015 and math goes into effect in April and you guys have another step up in 2016 in the other half of the utilities get on board. What kind of volume does that – would that add to it, or how to think about it in terms of sales or profits, I don't know how – if you could quantify that?

Joe Muscari

Management

Yes. Dan, I described it has – I'm going to ask Patrick to chime in. Patrick Carpenter, the Head of the Construction Technologies business to chime in as well. But, I would say the best way to describe it. It's very early the volume is still very low. As we mentioned there are four contracts and so part of what's happening is beginning of the ramping up to start to satisfy those contracts. What is expected to happen is more contracts are expected or targeted to come on as we get towards the end of the year and we will start to see this thing potentially ramp up very quickly first quarter, second quarter, third quarter of next year. Patrick you want to add a little more granularity into that please.

Patrick Carpenter

Analyst

Sure. The contracts will begin to kick-in to meet the regulation and really part of 2015. About 50% of those power plants will go for the extension and then we will be able to meet that regulation a year from the April date. But, we still have quite a few customers that are now taking product on trial basis and we assume and look into the end of the quarter and then into the first quarter of 2015 what would be a find to our customers taking product and operating the facilities. So things are on track and we see a pretty active contract season coming up the next two quarters.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

How is just – I don't know if you look at a contract on average or power plant on average, how much bentonite would they use on an annual basis or what does that mean in terms of sales?

Patrick Carpenter

Analyst

We talk about the business in pounds. They are utilizing pounds to remove the mercury. The larger contracts are getting into the range of 9 million pounds annual usage. We've got some that are smaller and we've got that we come to the final stage at that level or even greater. But a given power plant could have four operating boilers or four units and may only convert two at a time. But it's – we expect as the – and we have got one right at the cusp, our fifth contract coming that could be a significant client in pound usage. So over the two quarters we could see several clients range between four to nine upwards of 10 million pounds annual usage.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

How much per pound does the stuff go for?

Doug Dietrich

Management

At this time we are still working with our clients, so we are recurring so much.

Joe Muscari

Management

Yes. That's not something we are publicly disclosing at this point in time because we are supplier to Novinda. We also have an ownership position there. And so pricing is in terms of market pricing is something that we are not in a position to publicly disclose now.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Good. I was just trying to get an idea of what this remain in terms of sales. All right. Thank you very much.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Yes. I think in terms of total sales we are looking at –

Joe Muscari

Management

The overall market is about $800 million; we feel over the next three years, we could target 12% of that, $500 million.

Ivan Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. That's great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Rosemarie Morbelli from Gabelli Company. Please go ahead.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, all.

Joe Muscari

Management

Hi, Rosemarie.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Hi, Rosemarie.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

I was wondering, Joe, if you could give us a feel for when we can expect New Yield to make an impact and whether you are looking at new contracts coming up the line sometimes soon or is that further out?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Yes, well, I'm going to – we are expecting the contract we do have should be coming up in the latter part of next year. And we do have other targeted companies that we are talking to right now. There are a number of those. I'm going to ask D. J. Monagle to give us a little more flavor of the kinds of things that are happening right now in that area.

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

Glad to Joe. Thanks Rosemarie for the question. What we are looking at right now as Joe mentioned, we will bring on the 60,000 tons of Sun Paper towards the second half of next year. We got active conversations with several other paper makers the overwhelming majority of those are in China, there may be one or two outside of China that are interested in the technology. What I think we'll be seeing happen Rosemarie as we deploy that technology and gain even initial success, we'll be quickly following to another 5 to 10 other locations afterwards. So you'll see a lot of activity and hopefully be hearing a lot of activity assuming the successful startup in the second half and I'd imagine that the major part of our 2016 growth efforts.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Can you quantify I don't remember if you have done it in the past, probably not – what you – the market expectations in terms of revenue size from that particular project?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

Yes. So Rosemarie, I think it's back to where to we were back in – back when I first rolled out our pipeline so early in January this year we had said that this is the first part of a technology portfolio and this was addressing these waste streams. And so we look at that market as being in that 100 – I'd call it a $100 million, $125 million in that range. We'll be getting into the $70 million to $80 million range over the next five years is what more realistic penetration rate.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Wouldn't you say that we're also focused on China pretty much where we could get up to $70 million to $80 million in that timeframe, right?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

I think so China is the overwhelming place where this should make – where it make sense. There is some other third world countries but it is China.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Okay, thanks. And I was wondering if you could go through the same exercise regarding your new coating satellite which is the first one, any thought of others, other paper mill adding the coating satellites?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

Could you ask the question again Rosemarie? I think I heard you, but I just want to make sure I address it properly.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Sure. You also are building a satellite that is going to be coating the paper at the end of the process, but for the first time you have the satellite on site. And I was wondering what the progress was there and whether you had all the paper mills going through the same exercise?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

Yes. So, in particular we're in the process of building two coating satellites in China, the first one that will come online is with Sun Paper. And that one is targeted coated woodfree. The other one that we've got that's moving on is in Zhengda Paper and it's targeting the packaging market. And so as we get that coating satellite up and running, we see other promotions right now other interest is in that packaging segment especially in China. So we've got a fair amount of interest and are working towards that, nothing to announce just yet, but that would be one of our key areas of promotion and we believe opportunity in China.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

With the similar $70 million to $80 million potential in revenues or much smaller?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

I'm thinking you're in that ballpark, yes, Rosemarie.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Okay, thanks. And looking at the debt repayment of $38 million in the third quarter, I mean you are sitting on $220 million in cash and short-term investments. So why not pay down more? Is it that you are needing it for the integration, for restructuring? Can you help me on that side?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Sure. No, it's – we can certainly operate the company well below the $220 million of cash. It's largely that it does currently sit offshore Rosemarie. We have about 30% of our cash flow are currently in the United States which is what we used primarily for debt. And we're looking at repatriating some of that cash to repay debt. We just haven't done that this quarter.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

All right. So we could actually see some of it going towards debt repayment as early at the first quarter of next year as opposed to $38 million over the next two to three quarters?

Doug Dietrich

Management

That's correct. It's just a tax impact with repatriating that cash. And so we're balancing the needs of cash offshore and capital expenditures with the tax impact of bringing it back and paying the debt.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Okay. And one last question if I may. There is advertisement for the lighter clumping cat litter? Is that one of yours or is it someone else's because bentonite is not light by any definition.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Well, there is a lightweight cat litter and there is some activity in our product development pipeline around. We sell a significant amount of clumping cat litter it's the primary, when I talk about cat litter in our remarks and the growth of cat litter that primarily it is the clumping type, its sodium bentonite which swells – the swelling type of cat litter. As far as the research and development, we do have projects that are geared towards lightweight. I let Gary talk a little bit more about that in terms of our progress.

Gary Castagna

Analyst

Yes. Rosemarie this lightweight category was really just introduced in earnest by Nestlé at the turn of the year and that's fostered more interest to develop our products in this area as a key supplier around there with the bentonite area we've got access to approaches to alter what our current product form is to perhaps come out with a very similar version of products. So we are actively developing an alternative for that particular space as well as looking at marketing plans here as we finish the year to introduce a product to certain customer areas.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

So in the meantime are you losing customers to the lightweight categories since you aren't playing in it yet?

Gary Castagna

Analyst

We have not seen any type of movement of a material node away from call it the basic scoopable litter to the lightweight. It's probably more been within Nestlé's brands from what seen at this point or perhaps at the other national brand levels, but not as much in fact we haven't seen any deterioration in volume at this point. So it's probably a bit of shifting within their own categories.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Okay. And actually if I may ask one last question, I promise. On Novinda, is the Novinda product is so much better than using activated carbon with oxidated bromine in it. Why is it that the anticipation is only for 10% to 12% market share and not much larger than that? What am I missing?

Patrick Carpenter

Analyst

Well, the company our partner Novinda was looking at a pretty conservative approach to getting to a total marketplace and it's really getting those plants to convert their current contracts on to the Novinda technology. So these are long-term contracts and it does take equipment to bring those into their systems and it's really just getting the penetration into that initial market and then we would expect to take that percentage higher but that's the current plan we have right now.

Joe Muscari

Management

I think Rosemarie I think that's the key perspective to have. We do believe the potential was higher that we can go – that Novinda will be able to garner more than 13% but as Patrick said that is the initial target and we hope to be able go beyond that at some point in time.

Rosemarie Morbelli - Gabelli Company

Analyst

Okay. Thank you very much and congratulations.

Joe Muscari

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Daniel Rizzo of Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead. Daniel Rizzo - Sidoti & Company: Yes. Just one quick question, guys. With the New Yield product, is that work similar to Fulfill, where you trial it at a number of plants before it is adopted and it is kind of a – not a joint pluses, but it takes a few months before plants decide if they want to use it or not?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

Dan, its DJ. I wouldn't compare it to Fulfill in that way. It does require so it is a satellite that we'll be deploying, it's a different design of a satellite so it's a different manufacturing process that creates the pigment. And so we've got a little bit of time where you actually install the satellite, but I would say that the rate of penetration across grades is more similar to our standard PCCs plus you've got this additional pressure where you'll recall the part of the value equation is not just that it is a pigment, but it is reducing and in many case eliminating a waste stream. So there is incredible pressure that once that manufacturing process is deployed and there is going to be a little bit of time getting the proper pigment and manufacturing that proper spec. But once you get that lined up, you should see a fairly quick rate of penetration and rate of acceptance within each particular paper mill and then as we announce every contract that typical lag between a time we announce something until that manufacturing system is up and running, would be very similar to what you'd seen with our normal satellite plans. Daniel Rizzo - Sidoti & Company: And then it would be similar to your other plants – the other PCC businesses in the sense that you get like a seven year contract roughly for each time it is installed?

D. J. Monagle

Analyst

More in the neighborhood of 10 plus years. Daniel Rizzo - Sidoti & Company: Okay. All right. Thank you guys.

Joe Muscari

Management

Thank you.

Doug Dietrich

Management

Thanks Dan.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Steven Schwartz of First Analysis. Please go ahead.

Steven Schwartz - First Analysis

Analyst

Good afternoon guys.

Joe Muscari

Management

Hi, Steve.

Steven Schwartz - First Analysis

Analyst

Good call. Thanks for all of the information. I had no questions coming off of your prepared remarks, and then we hit Q&A and now I have like 100. Anyway, I will keep it to one or two. I guess on Novinda and that opportunity, there are a lot of companies in the chem space that are really touting the opportunities with mercury removal. So do you know, can that – the product from Novinda basically be used in the same injection equipment as activated carbon? And are the feed volumes about the same? So was it easy to transition a market that is already kind of been focused on activated carbon as the maximum achievable control technology?

Joe Muscari

Management

The equipment is a bit different, but it is not a big issue for the plants to convert to the Novinda technology from the traditional powder activated carbon. They do trials with our current technology and they are able to compare their performance of what they're currently using versus the Novinda. So they have no issue converting. It's really about the overall cost of mercury removal and to be able to have this be more efficient on a pound per pound use it does provide a non-corrosive addition and really it's about the end use of that fly ash how can they reuse the fly ash and Novinda technology gives them an excellent opportunity to do that.

Steven Schwartz - First Analysis

Analyst

Okay. And then just as a follow up question. And Doug, this is I think for you. On Slide 13, where you talk about the acquired businesses in the segment contribution. As we still try to kind of figure out the seasonality of the business and what have you – first off, you mentioned there was some purchase accounting that's built into the x-specials margin it sounds like. Is that just for one quarter or does that carry forward, number one. And then number two, how do you expect the seasonality to affect margin in terms of unabsorbed overhead and those sorts of factors?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Well, a couple of things. So, the margins that are represented on Slide 13 all of us trying to note is that they're different than what they would have been if you – prior to the acquisition. If you had followed these segments prior to the acquisition they would have looked very different. In that prior to the acquisition all of the corporate overhead was not allocated to each of these segments like we do in the legacy MTI business. So all corporate and divisional overhead expenses are represented in these margins, okay that's first thing. Also the second thing is, the step up of assets increased depreciation and amortization that as a result of the acquisition that's also reflected in these numbers. So I'm trying to show is the $42.5 million and the 14.7% operating income margins are in a fully weighted basis and that should carry through continued quarters I mean we're going to continue with that depreciation, amortization in the full allocations. Now the margins will fluctuate from third quarter levels. As I mentioned in the fourth quarter each of the three new business segments face some seasonality as those are legacy performance minerals business. Probably the most drastic change is coming in the Construction Technologies business unit. My remarks show that I mentioned that they typically see almost a 50% reduction in operating income. But as you go back and calculate exactly what that's going to do their margin percentage, but you can see both the Performance Materials, Construction Technologies and Energy Services to some extent face some seasonality. So don't expect next quarter to be 14.7%, but I expect them to be significantly stronger due to the cost savings that we're putting in place to synergies captured post acquisition.

Steven Schwartz - First Analysis

Analyst

Okay, that's great. Thanks. And Rick, I'll be calling you later with 98 questions.

Rick Honey

Management

Great. Okay, Steve.

Doug Dietrich

Management

We will book a half hour.

Steven Schwartz - First Analysis

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Al Kaschalk from Wedbush. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Ho, guys. This is actually [Jamil] (ph) in for Al.

Joe Muscari

Management

How are you doing Jamil?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I'm doing well. Quick question for you on the Energy segment. Given the fast growth that you are seeing there what kind of CapEx requirements you are going to have to have to continue that growth. And do you really consider this business a strategic fit with rest of your segments?

Doug Dietrich

Management

Yes. I don't have a number to give you. But I will share with you and I touched on this on my remarks relative to the strategic analysis that we have been doing on each of the businesses and each of the subsegments of each business. With regard to Energy Services what – we are directionally moving towards there is focusing capital investment more in the areas of filtration technology, filtration contracts and jobs as well as waste water treatment. As supposed to let's say coil tubing or some of the other segments because the real strength of the business is in the filtration part of the business. And so we will be making some adjustments, so as you look back over where investments where made in the past you will – and you look inside Energy Services you will see that kind of a shift, which will net depending on the amount of business we are able to get and go after from a growth standpoint would have effect on the amount of capital. On an equal-to-equal basis of business there will be less capital investment.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Daniel Moore of CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Analyst

My follow ups have been covered. Thank you.

Joe Muscari

Management

Thanks Dan.

Operator

Operator

And I show no further questions at this time.

Rick Honey

Management

That concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your interest in Minerals Technologies. And have a wonderful day.

Joe Muscari

Management

Great. Thanks.