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Operator
Greetings. Welcome to the DMC Global Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. I'll now turn the conference over to your host, Jeff Hyde, VP of Investment Relations. You may begin.
Jeff Hyde
Hello, and welcome to DMC's Fourth Quarter Conference Call. Presenting today are DMC CEO Michael Kuda and Chief Financial Officer Eric Walter. I'd like to remind everyone that matters discussed during this call may include forward-looking statements that are based on our estimates, projections, and assumptions as of today's date and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are disclosed in our filings with the SEC. Our business is subject to certain risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. DMC assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. Today's earnings release and a related presentation on our fourth quarter performance are available on the investors page of our website located at dmcglobal.com. A webcast replay of today's presentation will be available at our website shortly after the conclusion of this call. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Michael Kuda. Mike?
Michael Kuda
Hello and thank you for joining us for today's call. Our 2023 fourth quarter closed out a pivotal year for DMC. Full year accomplishments included new records for several key financial metrics including sales, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow. We also made key additions to DMC's leadership team and board of directors. We enhanced the operating strategies at our three business units while also reducing costs across the organization. And we initiated a detailed review of our portfolio strategy as we seek to unlock long-term value for DMC stakeholders. Looking at the fourth quarter, our manufacturing businesses reported varying conditions in their industrial end markets. Arcadia, which serves the commercial and high-end residential building products market, reported a 9% year-over-year sales decline, which is due principally to lower aluminum prices. During the quarter, Arcadia completed the first phase of a paint capacity expansion, a key strategic objective. A second expansion is planned for the back half of this year. Current market conditions have led to a soft start to the year at Arcadia, but we believe results will improve throughout the balance of 2024. Dyne Energetics, our oilfield products business, reported another strong quarter in its international markets. This solidified a new full year record for international sales, which were up 28% versus 2022. In Dyna's North American market, fourth quarter unit sales of our flagship DynaStage system increased 4% sequentially. However, customer consolidation led to pricing pressure reducing our overall EBITDA margins to 12.3%. Automation and operational excellence initiatives coming online in 2024 should improve Dyna's profitability. In addition, we expect new premium product offerings will support our margin improvement efforts. Dyna is working to ramp up production of its new Gravity 2.0 perforating system, which is the lightest, most compact, self-orienting system on the market and is generating strong end-user demand. Nobel Clatter composite metals business delivered another outstanding quarter. Sales were up 33% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA margins came in at approximately 25%. reflecting a very favorable project mix. Nobel-CLAD continues to benefit from healthy activity in its global end markets. It is also capitalizing on strong demand and improved production capabilities for its Solyndra cryogenic transition joints. Last month, we formally announced our intent to simplify the DMC portfolio as part of a broader effort to enhance shareholder value. We are pursuing separate strategic alternatives for Dynaenergetics and NovoClad with the help of our financial advisors. By streamlining our portfolio, we can sharpen our focus on the growth and profitability of Arcadia, which benefits from a strong brand, a differentiated business model, and a large addressable market. We've also strengthened our capital structure and improved our financial flexibility as we embark on a broad range of growth opportunities at Arcadia. I'm excited about DMC's strategic direction and encouraged by our prospects for long-range growth. I'll now turn the call over to Eric for a closer look at our fourth quarter financial results and a review of our guidance.
Dyne Energetics
Eric? Thanks, Mike. Our consolidated fourth quarter sales were $174 million, which was relatively flat with the fourth quarter last year. Consolidated gross margin was 26.1%. up 30 basis points from our 2022 fourth quarter due to a more favorable project mix at Nobleclad, combined with margin recovery at Arcadia. Our fourth quarter SG&A expense of $27 million was 15.6% of sales, down from 17.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, driven mostly by lower litigation expenses and IT consulting fees at Dyna and Arcadia, respectively. It's important to note that our 2023 fourth quarter SG&A expense also includes $1 million of bad debt expense. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA attributable to DMC remained flat year over year at $20 million as improvements at Nobleclad and Arcadia offset a decline at Dyna. Inclusive of the Arcadia non-controlling interest, consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $23 million. or 13.4% of sales, up 60 basis points versus the prior year quarter. At the business level, Arcadia reported fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $9 million, of which $5 million, or 60%, was attributable to DMC. Compared with the prior year, Arcadia's adjusted EBITDA rose 29% and expanded 400 basis points as a percentage of sales. Arcadia's product pricing declined at a slower pace than the drop in aluminum costs, while SG&A also declined through lower ERP consulting fees and other miscellaneous costs. Dyna reported fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $9 million, or 12.3% of sales. Less favorable customer mix and lower absorption of manufacturing overhead costs led to a sequential and year-over-year margin contraction. Novoclad reported adjusted EBITDA of $8 million, which was 24.7% of sales and up 990 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. EBITDA margin improved due to a more favorable project mix and better absorption of fixed manufacturing overhead costs. Adjusted net income attributable to DMC was $5 million during the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EPS attributable to DMC was 26 cents, up 18% compared to last year's fourth quarter. During the quarter, DMC generated free cash flow of $15 million, which was an improvement of over 10% compared with the prior year quarter. We used fourth quarter free cash flow primarily for principal payments on our long-term debt, distributions to our Arcadia joint venture partner, and an investment in marketable securities. I should note that in this year's first quarter, we used our investments in marketable securities for delevering, following the closing of our new $300 million senior security credit facility. In terms of liquidity, we ended the fourth quarter with cash and marketable securities of $44 million and had no amounts outstanding under our $50 million revolver. Our debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 1.25 at the end of the fourth quarter, which was well below our covenant threshold of 3.0. On a performant net debt basis, after subtracting cash and marketable securities, our leverage ratio was 0.78 at the end of the fourth quarter, which represents the eighth quarter in a row that we have delivered. Now, turning to guidance for the first quarter of 2024. Consolidated sales are expected in a range of $168 to $178 million. As Mike mentioned, we expect market conditions in the first quarter to be soft in Arcadia's key markets, while the activity level in Dyna's North American markets are expected to slightly improve. First quarter adjusted EBITDA attributable to DMC is expected to be in a range of $15 to $20 million. Arcadia and Novoclad's EBITDA margins are expected to moderate to levels similar to the prior year first quarter. At Dyna, where we believe sequential comparisons are more relevant, we anticipate EBITDA margins will improve versus the fourth quarter due to higher sales volumes and lower bad debt expense. With that, we're ready to take any questions from our analysts. Operator?
Operator
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. To participate using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first questions come from the line of Ken Newman with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions. Hey, guys. Hey, Ken. Ken.
Ken Newman
Thanks for taking the question. I guess my first one will be just on the first quarter guide for Arcadia. Obviously, you're expecting that to be weaker here despite the prior year comp easing sequentially from 4Q to 1Q. Just curious, can you talk a little bit about how much of that is still the pricing drag? Is that completely all of it? Any color on just where volumes are within that business and how they're trending? And, you know, what are you seeing from an underlying activity outside of pricing within that business?
Michael Kuda
Yeah, so pricing is still a bit of a drag with aluminum costs. We're also seeing in the first quarter, I think it's abating now, but January was challenged with weather, so we had – severe rain and flooding on the West Coast, our core market, so that impacted January for sure. Volume is relatively steady. We're seeing a bit of softness in our storefront business, but I think as we play out the quarters 2Q, 3Q, 4Q, we're going to see that strengthening. We're also seeing our project business and Outlook, they're strengthening quite a bit and improving. So it's a bit of a mixed bag. We also see resis in a bit of, I'd say, a valley, and we expect that to pick up throughout the year. So that's kind of the premise behind the, I guess we'd call it 67 to 71, Flattish with 4Q. Eric, anything else? Okay, I think you hit it, Mike. Yeah.
Ken Newman
Okay. And you touched on it a little bit here, but the follow-up here is just what is the confidence or the comfort that margins improve in Artedia after the first quarter? And obviously, the revenue copies is pretty significantly starting in the second quarter. I'm just hoping to dig on how much the benefit from the capacity expansion can quantify that benefit here in 2024 and versus, you know, all the other moving pieces around, you know, maybe some stabilizing in pricing or expectations for something you expect some volume improvement as we move through the year?
Michael Kuda
Yeah, I think the, I think volume is going to help as we go throughout the year. I think, you know, Q2, some of the project business, again, that's, there's some good project mix in there. There's some unfavorable project mix in there, but I think what, we're going to see is, you know, revert back to historical 30%, low 30s, 30% plus margins in Arcadia. Again, it's a high variable cost business, so it's not entirely volume driven, but volume will help it as we step throughout the year and an increase in residential as well.
Ken Newman
Got it. Maybe one more before I jump back into Q. The the free cash flow expectations with, you know, with volumes being there or with sales kind of being a little bit lighter here in the first quarter to start the year. How do you think about working capital benefits and, you know, any sense on how you think about free cash flow conversion beyond the first quarter?
Dyne Energetics
Yeah, Ken, this is Eric. So for 2023, we had a free cash flow conversion of, you know, 40 to 45%. And this year, we're aiming to get that up into the, you know, call it low 50%, low to mid 50% level. We do think that there's going to be some tailwinds from working capital. We think that the working capital actually was slightly higher in a couple of the businesses in 2023 than maybe what they needed. So as we go forward in 2024, we think we're going to be able to unwind some of that and get a benefit at the free cash flow line.
Operator
Understood, thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alec Scheibelhofer with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Alec Scheibelhofer
Hi, thanks, and good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Alec. Hi there. Hi. So just to start us off here, I was wondering if you could provide just an update on the competitive landscape in the perforating business and any kind of color you could provide on how pricing is trending, given some of the consolidation we've seen in the market in North America. And yeah, just some color around that would be great.
Michael Kuda
Yeah, so we've seen some pricing pressure from consolidation in the market. So, you know, that's been a driver to margins. I think we're And that's ahead of some of the initiatives we have on margin improvement. So we're putting in a lot of automation here in the first and second quarter that's going to drive better margins and, quite frankly, better performance of our perf gun systems. We've also got quite a bit of CI operational excellence issues cost out. that we're implementing this year that's going to drive margins and, quite frankly, also some new tech in our gun systems, improved product mix that is also going to, I think, going to drive improvements there as well. So I think we're seeing a pretty good market out of the gate here in January and in the first quarter. And, you know, so we expect improvements off of 4Q and, you know, we should see a much better profile as we go throughout the year.
Alec Scheibelhofer
Great. Thank you for that. And then just shifting gears to our Katie, I was just wondering if you could provide some additional color on the outlook for the business. Just curious, in the past you mentioned kind of going after small hanging fruit and growing the business organically. And I see the capex, if I'm looking correctly, for 24 is up a little bit sequentially. I'm wondering if that's just speaking to some of that organic growth or if there's any inorganic that you're going after as well.
Michael Kuda
Yeah, so I'd start on the organic side. I mean, some of it, that's G&A and people investment. We've got to pull through more on our commercial interiors business and our Arcadia custom business, which is the luxury residential side of our business. You know, the predominant business in Arcadia is commercial exteriors, low-rise storefront. And So I think that's going to be part of it. I think on the CapEx side, some additional investments in paint as well as anodizing are going to drive both volume as well as margin as we outsource some of our anodizing now.
Alec Scheibelhofer
Got it. That's great. And actually, if I could squeeze one more in, shifting back to Dinah. I know you mentioned some automation and some other initiatives you have on the margin front. I'm just curious, for that business, are you factoring any kind of growth in the business in the U.S.? Are the activities relatively flat, or how should we kind of think about that on a margin standpoint?
Michael Kuda
Yeah, so I think what we're expecting is fairly sizable growth. growth in the international business. So we exited 2023 record international sales. We have a record backlog internationally, so we'll see growth there. North America, you know, we didn't provide full year guidance, but it's off to a good start, I'd say. But I wouldn't put a bunch of growth into the North America side, probably more on the flatter side. Eric, would you
Dyne Energetics
Yeah, just to augment what Mike was saying, I think as you think about the revenue trajectory of that business, I think it's going to be relatively flattish kind of going forward. But when you peel it back and look at the domestic versus international components, there's going to be a bit of a mix there. Like Mike said, the international piece we feel pretty confident about. They're showing a lot of upward growth there, but the North American market is probably going to be a bit flattish to maybe a little bit more sluggish than in years past.
Michael Kuda
And again, the international piece is also part of what's driving the margins as well. So, you know, that's a business that should outperform for us in 2024.
Alec Scheibelhofer
Got it. That's great, Keller. And with that, I'll turn it back. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And just as a reminder, if anyone has any questions, you may press star 1 on your telephone keypad to join the question and answer queue. And it looks like we have reached the end of the question and answer session. And I'll now turn the call back over to Michael Kuda for closed remarks.
Michael Kuda
Thank you again for joining today's call. We appreciate your interest in DMC and look forward to updating you in May following our first quarter.
Operator
And this concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your
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