Earnings Labs

Pentair plc (PNR)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 20, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Kim, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Pentair Q3 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you. Jim Lucas, Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Planning, you may begin your conference, sir. Jim Lucas - Vice President-Investor Relations & Strategic Planning: Thanks, Kim, and welcome to Pentair's third quarter 2015 earnings conference call. We're glad you could join us. I'm Jim Lucas, Vice President of Investor Relations and Strategic Planning. And joining me today is Randy Hogan, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and John Stauch, our Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, we will provide details on our third quarter 2015 performance as well as our fourth quarter and full year 2015 outlook as outlined in this morning's release. Before we begin, let me remind you that any statements made about the company's anticipated financial results are forward-looking statements subject to future risks and uncertainties, such as the risks outlined in Pentair's most recent 10-K and today's release. Forward-looking statements included herein are made as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update publicly such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from anticipated results. Today's webcast is accompanied by a presentation, which can be found in the Investors section of Pentair's website. We will reference these slides throughout our prepared remarks. Any references to non-GAAP financials are reconciled in the appendix of the presentation. We will be sure to reserve time for questions and answers after our prepared remarks. I would like to request that you limit your questions to one and a follow-up…

Operator

Operator

And your first question comes from the line of Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Hello. Morning, everyone. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Deane. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Morning.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Hey, I'd like to start in Valves & Controls and maybe some more color on the pricing dynamics. It was interesting to see that last call out on page seven where standard pricing is stable, but you have a pressure on project orders. And I'm betting the project orders is where you're seeing competitors looking to fill up their factories; that's kind of the playbook that they will run. But be curious how is it that standard is holding up so well. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, you're right. I mean, obviously, on the larger projects and there isn't a lot of large projects, but larger projects are the most price pressured. Even some of the smaller projects are receiving a fair amount of price pressure. But the like-for-like highly-sensitive safety-related valve applications in the standard product have not yet seen a price deterioration. I mean, we are anticipating some, but it's kind of – as of Q3, it's generally held on the price-to-price. We have visibility of that in the systems.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Can you give some specifics in terms of how much pricing pressure you've seen on those – on the project orders? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I mean I would say in general, I mean, we're seeing anywhere from – on a standard larger project, we're seeing 10 points to 15 points of pricing pressure. Now... Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: With a lot of standard product. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Now, some of that is foreign exchange. Some of that is recoverable through the material and the sourcing lines and some of that we're asking our partners to participate. But it's generally in that range on the larger projects. It's probably in the 5 points to 10 points range on the midsized projects. And as I said, it's relatively holding on standard.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

And that sounds like an absolute price difference because you had some adjustments if you're going to go after your partners as well to share in that. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: No. That would be what the customer is asking for, and then, obviously, we're trying to... Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. That would be the headline price and then the issue is how much of that can you recapture in terms of source product and others. So, that's – in other words, that's – really, the comment is about net – what nets to the margin, right.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Great. And then just staying in the Valves & Controls side, maybe some perspective from you, John, and you can answer the question either as CFO or as the Head of Valves & Controls, either one is fine. But the idea is how have you retold the workforce? You've talked about maybe converting or, not maybe, but converting the workforce in more contingent labors. So, is that still the plan? Where does that stand, and is that something that's built into 2016? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, real quick. Our customer buys from us either in a short cycle, I need it quickly, I want it for a installed based or MRO aftermarket application, or I'm seeking an engineer to order application or a project. So, our sales force has been working to meet those customer needs in that regard. So, what we've done is we've aligned the two value streams to support that within the business around those two buying proposals, which starts to identify the needs to serve the short cycle, which means I need local inventory, I need to get it to you in 24 to 48 hours, I have to have service centers to be able to give you the service you need. And then on longer projects, I can generally ship that from anywhere in the world, and I can begin to work and then engineer the order to the customers' needs. The standard is obviously a higher margin, and you're buying something that you need on a like-for-like basis. The engineer, we have options, and the first option is, where do we want to play? And where do we want to build our annuity base over the next 10 years? And as I mentioned, I think it was at your conference, Deane, that we have to look at our variable nature of that project business. So, can we buy some of the products that we're making today? Can we source in some of the products that are lower margin. And then ultimately, as we build that business back over time, we don't want to carry the large fixed cost structure that we had when we were $2.5 billion to $3 billion business. So, I think as we shape this into 2016 and 2017, those will be the priorities. The team is rallying behind that, as Randy said. It is the right way to shape the business. And we think when we do this, we're going to be in a great position to capture share and to serve our customers better.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Thank you. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Let's talk a lot more about that at the Analyst Day.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Deane Dray, RBC Capital. Your line is open

Thank you. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Pleasure. (27:16) John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you, Deane.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Nigel Coe with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Andrew J. Ronkowitz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: This is Drew on for Nigel. Just wondering if you could talk a little bit about Tech Solutions and just what you're seeing on the general industrial cycle? I think it sort of come up on every call that an industrial recession is potentially in the cards. Just whether or not you're seeing that and what you're looking for? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, Drew, I think – I mean, as you recall, we saw what we were characterizing as a pause in industrial spending, I'd say really starting in the first quarter, went into the second quarter. We saw it really roll over into a decline with the short cycle which we really see in our Hoffman business. North America Hoffman which is high share in the industrial world, but broad-based industrial, right? And we saw that, in particular, September; we saw a deceleration. Now, a part of that is uncertainty, how much of it is destocking. But it is what informs us into – you usually see an Industrial – in Energy, you would see a fourth quarter catch-up on spending. And what we're saying is we don't think it's smart to think that will happen in the fourth quarter this year as a result. Andrew J. Ronkowitz - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Got it. Okay. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: And then we don't know how long it will last, but we do think there's a bit of a knock-on effect. We talked about it before from Energy into the Industrial. I think that's really what this is. Andrew J.…

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Steven Winoker with Bernstein. Your line is open. Steven E. Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Morning, guys. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Morning, Steve. Steven E. Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Hey. Just a little bit of clarification. What's the thinking behind moving amortization back from corporate to the segments? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I mean we had done it from a standpoint of moving to adjusted EPS last quarter. And with the inclusion of ERICO, it didn't seem proper to leave $130-ish million or $140 million in amortization just down below the line. And so, by moving it back to the segments, it more appropriates where that amortization is held and gives a relative margin range excluding that amortization, which then makes it more relative to the industries in which they compete. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We thought ultimately it would be more helpful. The $0.40 of accretion we talked about for 2016 is on an adjusted income basis. So, we felt that that was more parallel to do – to pass that back down (30:53). Steven E. Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Okay. Great. And as you guys are starting to think about and build your plans, your operating plans, for 2016 across the different segments, are you baking into that an assumption about a return to growth within 2016 for Flow & Filtration, or how are you – if you sort of think about a couple of the business units, maybe help us understand – granted it's early, but you still must be already building those operating plans or starting to…

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Joseph A. Ritchie - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hey. Good morning, everyone. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Morning, Joe. Joseph A. Ritchie - Goldman Sachs & Co.: So, my first question, clearly, you guys reduced the 4Q guide slightly on this weakness in short cycle Industrial and Energy. I'm just curious -- how bad was – and how weak was September? Is there any commentary that you guys can give us on just cadence as the quarter progressed? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I mean, I think we saw the Industrial short cycle down double-digits as we exited the quarter, and we're assuming that, as Randy mentioned, we're not expecting restocking to occur. And usually in the Q4, we're helped in that segment by people buying ahead of what's anticipated to be price increases next year. And also, we're assuming there's uncertainty in their buying pattern. So, we're adjusting Q4 to reflect September levels carrying through Q4, and we think that's appropriate given where we are in the understanding of the markets that we're participating in today. Joseph A. Ritchie - Goldman Sachs & Co.: I mean, what are your customers or distributors saying right now regarding inventory that's in the channel? I know you guys made some comment about inventory destocking continuing, but I'm just curious on how you guys are thinking about the outlook there. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, really, it's part and parcel of what John just talked about. I mean, there are – the double-digit decline in September, we think, has a big component of destocking, but it has…

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Good morning. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Steve.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

On the Valves & Controls side, the seasonality has kind of been all over the place from the last couple years. I know you guys had that kind of the change in the year-end around the business in 2012 and then 2013. I think, sequentially, you're up a decent amount, the revenue guide is, in the fourth quarter. Can you maybe just talk about what supports that? Because I think you talked about being more conservative for the fourth quarter, not assuming stuff comes back. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, we saw a fairly significant push-out of revenue from Q3 to Q4. We're assuming that gets pushed out all the way into 2016. The only real difference between Q3 and Q4 is that Q3 has the August which is generally a shutdown month in its entirety, and we have an extra shipping day in Q4. But there's not a big expected seasonality jump for Q3 to Q4. We're just assuming the same level of push-outs and what our existing shippable backlog is, Steve.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay. And on the incentive comp front. I mean, is that a meaningful number next year? You talked about dialing some of that back in. Is there a number you could give us on what that could be, what – how much of an offset that would be to the growth? It's clearly a lot of good growth cost out on your front. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I mean, I think if you took a look at Valves & Controls incentives and the total GBU opportunity paid at 100% target, we have no idea what those targets will be after 2016, that would be about a $30 million number. And you can assume that not much of that's being paid this year. So, that gives you a kind of an idea. Now, obviously, we're going to expect some growth next year. We're going to expect some effort, and we'll align those targets appropriately.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay. And then, what's... John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: We'll also see wage inflation, Steve. I mean, we won't – we don't expect to see much on the material side. Definitely, we're seeing commodity prices weakening. But we are still having wage inflation to keep good talent around.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Okay. And then one last question just on the free cash flow. I mean, I think the number, the 100% number refers to the – around – is that around $700 million for the year? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: That's correct. It would be 120% on the old base and 100% on the new adjusted income base. Yes.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

So, I mean, that's such a huge number in the fourth quarter. Are there discreet things that you're looking to pull through? Are there certain big projects that are coming through on that front? And I guess if volumes are weaker than expected, is that a – does that turn into a positive? How do you kind of – how do you judge the risks around that and what should we think about it as we move to the quarter about kind of the levers that we should be watching to make sure that that come through? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. As we said, both in Randy's remarks and my remarks, we're behind in working capital and we don't want to give up yet. I mean, there's clearly probably a $50 million risk associated with that. But we feel like that working capital is ours to go get, and we don't want to give up on it yet and we feel like there's path and actions to go get it . So, we'll work with the GBUs. We also have capital. We've seen our customers adjust their capital spending; we're adjusting ours as well. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We identified the inventory was heading in the wrong direction to support growth in a number of places where the growth wasn't there to get. So, that reversed. I mean, we got good focus on it and we made some progress in the third quarter. We expect a lot more progress in the fourth on...

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Steve Tusa with JPMorgan. Your line is open

Right. Okay. Okay. Thanks a lot. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you, Steve.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

Morning, guys. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Shannon.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

Hey. Just on Valves & Controls, can you give us a sort of a geographic look at how that business is doing? Any key geographies that are weaker or stronger than others? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I mean, the weakest geography is not a big geography for us. But the weakest on a percentage basis will be Brazil. Clearly, everybody is seeing that. China has not been a strong environment this year, but it's starting to see some power benefits. And for the most part then, it's just a broad-based – as you stop these larger projects globally, it's affecting all regions. The only strength that we've had this year is North America.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

Okay. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: It's LNG deposit.(40:56) Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. LNG.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

LNG and what else? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Petrochem. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Petrochem.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

Petrochem. Okay. And then, John, just as you've dug in a little bit more into Valves & Controls, other than adjusting the cost structure to the lower volume environment, any kind of things that has grabbed you as you've gotten in there that are kind of the two or three things you think really you guys need to get working better on that business? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I mean, it's a good organization, first of all. It's been always customer-centric. And what we needed to do and what we have done as a leadership team and certainly with Randy's sponsorship is addressing the way that the customer or we go to the customer in these value streams. And when you get the simplicity of how the customer wants to be served either short cycle or long cycle, it gives you the clarity to build your SIOP processes and really reduce the complexity in the back office to support it. And so, the team has embraced it. It's a seasoned team who understands the industry, understands the customer needs, and we're excited about the game changer that I think that's going to be.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

And you're just starting that? When did that – the shifts begin, I guess, and how long does it take to (42:13) John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Within the last 90 days. Within the last 90 days. Yeah.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS. Your line is open

Okay. All right. Thanks. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Jeff. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Jeff? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Jeff?

Operator

Operator

I'm sorry. And your next question comes from the line of Nathan Jones with Stifel. Your line is open. Nathan Jones - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Good morning, Randy, John, Jim. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hi, Nathan. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Nathan. Nathan Jones - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: I guess I'll just hit Valves & Controls for something different. You talked about the $30 million incentive potential coming back next year. There's also a couple of other offsets. So, I'm hoping you could shed some more color on – there's a pay-as-you-go restructuring. I assume that's going to be some restructuring expense that you're not planning on excluding next year. Any color you can give us on where that'll be focus and what kind of number we could be looking for? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I'll hold back in the number until we identify it specifically. But we have to address – as I mentioned, we have a short cycle of footprint that we need to optimize around which is where our customers' installed base is and how do we serve that most effectively. And then we also have the long cycle or the project-based engineer-to-order footprint that we have to address. I, as the Valves & Controls leader, owe both of those plans to Randy and we'll be taking a look at some footprint actions and beginning to right-size primarily that project side to make sure we got the right cost structure to compete on those larger projects which, again, we'll be prioritizing those types of things that we think grows our installed base over time. Nathan Jones - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.:…

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Jeffrey D. Hammond - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open

Can you hear me? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah, Jeff. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yes, Jeff.

Jeffrey D. Hammond - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open

Okay. Sorry about that. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: That's all right.

Jeffrey D. Hammond - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open

Can you just go through the rationale of the management change on Flow & Filtration? You talked about that. And then also just how you're thinking about timing for kind of a permanent replacement for Valves & Controls. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. Beth is someone that I had known by reputation for a while. And we're – we may be dealing with some short-term issues in terms of end markets that we don't control, but we do control our own destinies. You've known us a long time. And we intend to continue to build the company. And to build the company, you need great people. So the opportunity to have Beth join the team was one that we were quite excited about. And so she is, so she's on the team. Valves & Controls, we're actively searching right now. And I'm not going to put a date or tell you, but we have a legitimate candidate. I know at least one person in this room that's anxious to get the person onboard; maybe two.

Jeffrey D. Hammond - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open

Okay. Thanks, guys. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: So, it won't be quarters. Okay.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Morning. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Brian.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

I just wanted to touch, sorry, one more time, just on Valves & Controls. But the bridge that you guys provided. So effectively, you've had no price impact, seems, to-date. It hasn't at the revenue line at least. So I assume it's not in the OP as well, given that it's not in revenue. But when would you expect that to start to impact? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Brian, Brian, can I just clarify.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Sure. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Obviously, we would measure prices the way most companies do, which is I have the like product last year and I have the same like product this year. And when I compare those two prices, I've got a year-over-year price impact. And as I've said earlier, we're not seeing a price negativity yet on the standard side where that would show up. Where we are seeing the pricing is on booked margin, when we go off to win a job and we would've won that at maybe 44% gross margin, and then we're down to 42% gross margin because of the effective price pressure that's in the engineered components. And again, that would be a brand new product that we don't have compared against new product today (49:01).

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Okay. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Right. They're not like-for-like, so you don't put it in price. It ends up hitting productivity.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Okay. Got it. Yeah. And I don't know if you could provide any increments (49:12) color on this but for 2016, you're still assuming that you're going to have operating profit higher. I mean, how – so what's the assumption that price is going to get away and offset by productivity and restructuring? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So we've shared that we think it's at least a couple more points of headwind that you see on that booked margin.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Okay. And then just separately, I know you touched on the working capital and the opportunity but mostly on the inventory side, but can you comment on receivables? There's been some incremental reports recently that customers are holding back on payment especially in the Middle East with Aramco. What has your experience been there? And what's the expectation and are you seeing stress among other customers where that could be a concern? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I'm going to answer this even though you think the CFO would, because I would like to give John and his team credit.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Sure. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We have really good disciplines around receivables and really conservative practices in terms of watching for late payments and the like. And John and his finance team have been watching it like a hawk. We also have heard some of these reports, and so we're active – we're proactively making sure that we are not hurt by that. And we're not seeing it. We're not seeing anything meaningful in that regard.

Brian Konigsberg - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Brian Konigsberg with Vertical Research. Your line is open

Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Brian Drab with William Blair. Your line is open. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to drill in a little bit more on Tech Solutions and talk about the 9% growth that you saw in the Energy vertical there. Can you talk a little bit about why the energy market's holding up so well in that segment, especially relative to Valves & Controls, and maybe comment on the activity that you're seeing within that segment in the petrochem market? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. First of all, if you recall, the biggest part of Energy, oil & gas in (51:24) specifics in Technical Solutions is the thermal business. The thermal business Industrial business saw a huge decline in opportunity. If you recall, things like Voyager up in Canada got cancelled. We had won that. We were seeing those declines back in 2013. I mean 2013, 2014. So we had already sort of seen a decline and, if you want, this is sort of a positive off that bottom, because two large projects are going forward and we won them both. So, we're shipping those now. We're enjoying those now. When I talked about the margin pressures in Technical Solutions, it's the margins on those large projects versus the product margins specifically. So, those – we're actively winning other projects. They're not that size. So, that'll be a headwind but that's a headwind we're planning on managing through. So, that's those projects. So, it's really not – it's not whistling through the graveyard. It's those specific projects. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And can you comment on what geographies, end markets those projects are in? Those in the oil sands? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Canada. Canada. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Yeah. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Yeah. Okay. And can you comment on what you're seeing in the petrochem market? I guess specifically within that thermal controls heat tracing market. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, there is opportunities there. They're not as large as some of those ones there, we're actively looking at and bidding on some, particularly in North America where a lot of that activity is. We think we'll do fine there and we've actually got a good backlog on the industrial thermal side. So – and a lot of is non-oil sands. And that's where the activity is, so... Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer. Your line is open. Christopher D. Glynn - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker): Thanks. Good morning. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Chris. Christopher D. Glynn - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hey. So, sounds like $125 million or so of the $135 million cost-out's already been executed. I think you... Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: The actions taken. They're not reading out yet, right? I mean let's just be clear. (53:37) Christopher D. Glynn - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker): Okay. So I think the general framework is sort of a January 1 starting line for readout, but that's a little bit simplistic. How would you advise for a little more nuanced view of how the benefits start to ramp into the run rates? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So Chris, we obviously are getting the cost out this year. But as you know, that gets hung up in the inventory side in what we call deferred productivity or capitalized variance in the manufacturing side. So the costs we got on the manufacturing, we won't start to recognize till next year, and that's a big piece of the cost that we've been after this year. We are getting a little bit of benefit from what we're doing in the G&A in the selling and marketing sides, and we'll experience some of that in Q4. But the main goal here is that we are hitting the ground on January 1 with a full run rate of those savings to offset the types of things that Randy mentioned in his prepared remarks. Christopher D. Glynn - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker):…

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Josh Pokrzywinski. Your line is open. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Josh. Are you there?

Joshua Pokrzywinski - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst · Josh Pokrzywinski

Just – yeah. Can you hear me? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Got you.

Joshua Pokrzywinski - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst · Josh Pokrzywinski

So, just on the Valves & Controls outlook into next year, obviously, all the costs coming out. I would presume, though, that some of this is part of kind of normal PIMS operation and decremental margin management. If you had to put a thought on kind of the core decremental margin on volume declines that we can add these cost-outs as an offset against, how should we think about that next year? I mean, you're talking about price being a bit more of a headwind. Obviously, that's going to be detrimental to that. Any puts and takes we should think about kind of the core decremental before the cost-outs. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, I'll handle the first one, then I'll let Randy clarify it. But right now, material in Valves & Controls is roughly 33% to 35% of sales. So, it gives you an indication when you lose $1 of revenue what the impact is if you can't mobilize the cost-out. And after several cost-out plans, you could assume that we have a fair amount of fixed cost to the business. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I would just say two things, Josh. Number one, the level of complexity that – we have made goods strides, particularly in the Four-Wall Lean, reducing the complexity in the business. But in terms of the business complexity, it's still enormous. And so, really, John and the team have gotten a really good focus on that. So, there's a lot more structure to take out. But I would also ask you to – I mean, I know – I'm anxious to get to those answers, too, and more fully, and we'll be better prepared to give you more insights on November 6.

Joshua Pokrzywinski - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst · Josh Pokrzywinski

Got you. I'll stay tuned. And then, just one question on ERICO. How does pricing typically function for them? Does it end up being list pricing, job specific? How does that work in kind of a go-to-market? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Most of what they sell is sold through distribution, so it'd be a classic discount to a book list. And then, they have a sales force very much like our pool (58:47) sales force which, even though our product goes through distribution, we have a sales force on the other side that helps sell it through and sells through the applications. There also is some project pricing. But think of it more along – more akin to like a Hoffman structure.

Joshua Pokrzywinski - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst · Josh Pokrzywinski

Got you. All right. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Joe Giordano with Cowen. Your line is open. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Joe. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: Just a question on share. Given the magnitude of the declines in Valves across the space broadly, how do you guys think you're doing in terms of maintaining your growing share in that market? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: We think we're maintaining, not growing, not losing. We think we're maintaining. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Particularly in the product lines we care the most about. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. Great. And on the Infrastructure side, you mentioned a little bit more positive view. Maybe you can flesh it out a little bit, like where – is that more of a municipal call? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Yeah. Municipal, it's not just in the U.S., it's more broadly than that. I think it's a recovery of municipal spending. Our backlog – or excuse me, our order rate has been improving the last several quarters and as I mentioned, we figured we were going to turn to growth in Flow & Filtration in the fourth quarter and we actually got growth in the third quarter. So, it's a little bit early. Now, we also put telecom in Infrastructure. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: Right. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: And that's in Technical Solutions and that's – we talked about that in the call; I mean on the script. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: And John, just one quick one for you. On the tax rate, how should we be thinking about that directionally going forward over the next couple of years? John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So, we expect to finish this year 23% as we shared, and I think we believe this point of opportunity into the next several years. Joseph Giordano - Cowen & Co. LLC: Great. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks. The last question.

Operator

Operator

And your last question comes from the line with David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Morning. Thank you for taking my call. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, David.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Just a couple last ones. Just to be clear on the accretion – net accretion from ERICO, you say that $0.05 of net accretion after accelerated integration costs. So, is it $0.05 you're adding back the amortization? Are there any other things that we should think about? Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, it's on an adjusted basis, right? So, it's ex-amortization. The things like it's rebranding, re-signing, all the startup costs, if you will, that we'd like to get them out of the way quickly, as opposed to, less quickly.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Okay. So sort of we might expect sort of a kitchen sink dump in the fourth quarter on that part, like we did with Tyco. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I don't like that characterization.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Sorry, I didn't mean it in a pejorative sense. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. It's expenses that might have been realized overall a -- within 2016 that we're going to get done and behind us in the fourth quarter.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Okay, perfect. And then lastly, just as we start to think about – you had some comments about destocking in the channel, and I think you addressed some of the receivables issue. But maybe you can provide a little bit more commentary about the strength in the channel. Do you see some channel partners weak that might get even weaker and you might have to, I guess, reshuffle some of the partnerships where you might see some impact? And then lastly, just sort of a little bit more emerging market color. You touched upon Brazil and China on the Valve side, but maybe you can kind of talk about the rest of the business. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: The first part, no, we don't see any of this causing disruption in our channels, certainly not at the moment. And obviously, we'll be closely watching that as we enter into 2016 and help (1:02:36) sustain this capital spending pauses. As far as the other geographies, I mean, as I mentioned, I mean, North America was doing well and then we saw the currency change, and we saw pullback in the overall North American model. And now we've seen a global malaise, I guess. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I mean, in fast food we have fast growth. I mean, China and Brazil gets a lot of attention, but actually Southeast Asia is growing for us. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yes. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I'm talking about at the Pentair level. Latin America, ex Brazil, has grown for us, actually the Middle East overall has grown for us. So, we still have opportunities and promise in those markets even as those larger countries struggle a bit.

David L. Rose - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst · David Rose with Wedbush Securities. Your line is open

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you very much. John L. Stauch - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you. Randall J. Hogan - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you all. Jim Lucas - Vice President-Investor Relations & Strategic Planning: All right. Thank you, everyone.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call and you may now disconnect.