Amtech Systems, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Amtech Systems Fiscal Fourth Year and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Erica Mannion of Sapphire Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Amtech Systems Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Conference Call. With me on the call today are Bob Daigle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Wade Janke, Chief Financial Officer. After close of market today, Amtek released its financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year of 2024. The earnings release is posted on the company's website at www.amteksystems.com in the Investors section. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the Safe Harbor disclaimer in our public filings covers this call and the webcast. Some of the comments to be made during today's call will contain forward-looking statements and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those contained in our SEC filings, all of which are posted within the investor section of our corporate website. The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which speak only as of today. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and actual results could differ materially from expectations. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are changes in the technologies used by customers and competitors, change in volatility and the demand for products, the effect of changing worldwide political and economic conditions including trade sanctions, the effect of overall market conditions, including the equity and credit markets and market acceptance risks, ongoing logistics, supply chain, and labor challenges, and capital allocation plans. Other risk factors are detailed in our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q. Additionally, in today's conference call, we will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures as we discuss the fourth quarter financial and year-end results. You'll find a recommendation non-GAAP measures to our actual GAAP results included in the press release issued today. I would now like to turn the call over to AMTEC's Chief Executive Officer, Bob Daigle.

Thank you, Erica. Well, good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. As we conclude our fiscal year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the strides we've made to transform our business and strengthen our foundation for future growth. Looking back over the last 12 months, I'm proud of what our team has accomplished. We've made significant progress in streamlining our business with a specific emphasis on optimizing our operations and delivering positive operating cash flow across all segments, even amid a strong secular downturn. While overall revenue was down 11% year-over-year in fiscal year 2024, we delivered $4 million of adjusted EBITDA profit compared to $1.8 million in fiscal year 23. Contributing to this result, earlier this year, we implemented a comprehensive restructuring plan, which included organizational adjustments, cost reductions, and operational enhancements. These efforts have translated into $7 million of annualized operating savings, making our business both more efficient, and enabling us to mitigate the existing market dynamics more effectively. As a part of this initiative in early 2024, we took the strategic action to streamline our product portfolio by exiting from the unprofitable legacy equipment business at Pura Hoffman and investing in our more profitable and growing consumables business. This shift has paid off as sales of the consumable products at Pierre Hoffman surged by 28% year over year, despite overall revenue growth of just 2%. Within our BTU business, with a sharp decline in demand for equipment, we've accelerated our shift to a hybrid manufacturing model, combining in-house production with outsource capabilities. In addition to strengthening our supply chain, this initiative has allowed us to manage lead times, reduce capital expenditures, and enhance our operational flexibility. From a cost savings perspective, while these efforts remain ongoing, by the middle of the next fiscal year, we expect to realize approximately $2 million in additional operational savings above the $7 million we have previously discussed. Beyond the core operations of our business, in response to the escalating input costs we faced over the past several years, we strategically adjusted pricing across our offerings, helping ensure we protect our margins while maintaining our competitiveness. Combined, despite continued weakness in the market, we managed to maintain positive adjusted EBITDA and reduce working capital to pay off our debt and end the year with a cash balance in excess of $11 million. Most of our efforts in 2024 focused on optimizing our business to improve profitability. As we begin our 2025 fiscal year, we are now focusing much more of our attention on driving sustainable long-term growth with reoccurring revenue streams such as consumables, parts, and services. We believe these revenue strength streams will strengthen our financial performance in the years ahead by providing higher margins with less cyclical revenue growth. To accelerate the growth in these areas of focus, we recently invested in both business leadership and marketing resources. In addition, as we close our fiscal year, we have renamed our business segments to better align with the markets we serve. Our semiconductor fabrication solutions business, previously known as materials and substrate segment, will now focus on growing our consumables, parts, and service offerings for semiconductor wafer and device fabrication. Meanwhile, our thermal processing solutions business, formerly the semiconductor segment, will focus on capital equipment for advanced packaging, with an emphasis on applications that support AI data centers, and on continuing to grow our parts and services businesses. Market demand challenges persist in semiconductor segments that are not associated with AI infrastructure. Our consumables parts and services business did experience some growth in 2024, even with the broad market headwinds, but could not overcome the strong headwinds from very weak demand in equipment in areas that were not associated with AI infrastructure. Timing for a broader market recovery remains uncertain, but we are well positioned to deliver strong operating results when demand recovers. In conclusion, we are quite proud of the progress we've made this year. Through our strategic actions to optimize our operations, reduce costs, and strengthen our balance sheet, we've set ourselves up for more profitable and sustainable growth as markets recover. We are now focused on fully capitalizing on the emerging opportunities in AI infrastructure, and expanding our reoccurring revenue streams to drive margin improvement and accelerate growth. Although the current macroeconomic environment is challenging, we are optimistic that our ongoing transformation will deliver profitable growth with high returns on invested capital so we can create meaningful shareholder value. With that, I'll turn it over to Wade for further details on our financial results. Thank you, Bob.