Live Ventures Incorporated

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Live Ventures Fiscal Year Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Greg Powell, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Elvis. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Live Ventures Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Conference Call. Joining us this afternoon are John Isaac, our Chief Executive Officer and President, and David Verrett, our Chief Financial Officer. Some of the statements we are making today are forward-looking and are based on our best view of our businesses as we see them today. The actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those outlined in our latest forms, 10-K and 10-Q, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements after this call, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise. You can find our press release and 10-Q referenced on this call in the Investor Relations section of the Live Ventures website. I direct you to our website, liveventures.com or sec.gov for our financial SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to David to walk you through our financial performance.

Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon, everyone. Before discussing our financial results, I'd like to touch on a few key highlights from the quarter. Continuing the trend from the first quarter, we are pleased to report that our retail entertainment and steel manufacturing segments delivered operational improvements during the second quarter. Both segments posted higher operating income and operating margins compared to the same period last year. As we have previously discussed, our flooring businesses continue to face challenges from industry-specific headwinds specifically the ongoing softness in the new home construction and home refurbishment markets, as well as uncertainty surrounding the current economic outlook. In response to these challenges in our retail flooring segment, we recently brought in a new executive management team with deep expertise in their respective roles. The new leadership team is actively implementing operational initiatives to enhance performance improvements, through top-line growth and operational efficiency. During the second quarter, we initiated targeted cost reduction initiatives, which have already resulted in significant savings. In addition, during the quarter, we successfully negotiated a $19 million reduction in flooring liquidator seller notes, which, when including the cancellation of accrued interest and other items, resulted in a $22.8 million gain Let's now discuss the financial results for the second quarter ended March 31, 2025. Total revenue for the quarter decreased $9.8 million to approximately $107 million. The decrease is attributable to the retail flooring, flooring manufacturing, and steel manufacturing segments, which decreased by approximately $13.2 million in the aggregate. Retail entertainment segment revenue increased $1.6 million or 9.6% compared to the prior year period to approximately $18.5 million. Revenue increased primarily due to increased consumer demand for new products, which typically have higher selling prices. Retail flooring segment revenue decreased $4.6 million or 14.5% compared to the prior year period to approximately $27.4 million. The decrease is primarily attributable to the disposition of certain Johnson Floor and Home Carpet 1 stores in May 2024. Flooring manufacturing segment revenue decreased $4.4 million, or 12.8% compared to the prior year, to approximately $29.8 million. The decrease... was primarily due to reduced consumer demand as a result of ongoing weakness in the housing market and uncertainty about the current economic outlook. Steel manufacturing segment revenue decreased $4.2 million, or 11.7%, compared to the prior year period to approximately $31.3 million. The decrease was primarily driven by lower sales volumes at certain business units, partially offset by incremental revenue of $3.8 million Essential Steel, which was acquired in May 2024. Gross profit for the quarter remained fairly consistent at $35.1 million as compared with the prior year period. Gross margin percentage for the company increased to 32.8% from 29.9% in the prior year period. The increase was primarily attributable to increased margins in our steel manufacturing segment, primarily due to improved efficiencies in the acquisition of central steel, which has historically generated higher margins. General and administrative expense decreased approximately $1.5 million to $28.3 million. Decreases primarily due to targeted cost reduction initiatives in the flooring retail segments and lower general administrative expenses in the corporate and other segments. Sales and marketing expense decreased approximately $1.7 million to $4.7 million. The decrease was primarily due to reduced sales and marketing expenses in the retail flooring segment. Interest expense decreased 5.6% to $3.9 million. The decrease was lower to average debt balances during the quarter. Net income before taxes was $21.1 million compared to prior year period net loss before taxes of $4.5 million. The increase in the net income before taxes is primarily attributable to the $22.8 million gain modification of deploying liquidator's seller note, as previously mentioned. Net income was approximately $15.9 million for the quarter, and diluted EPS was $5.05, compared with a net loss of approximately $3.3 million and a loss per share of $1.04 in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was approximately $6.4 million, an increase of approximately $2 million compared to the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA increased primarily due to the acquisition of Central Steel and certain cost reduction initiatives in retail flooring, steel manufacturing, and corporate and other segments. Turning to liquidity, We ended the quarter with total cash availability of $26.6 million, consisting of cash on hand of $6.9 million, and availability under our various lines of credit totaling $19.7 million. Our working capital was approximately $49.1 million as of March 31, 2025, compared to $52.3 million as of September 30, 2024. As of March 31st, total assets were $393.6 million and total stockholders' equity was $88.9 million. As part of our capital allocation strategy, we may make share repurchases from time to time. We believe our stock repurchases represent long-term value for our stockholders. During the quarter, we repurchased 31,323 shares of the company's common stock at an average price of $8.28 per share. In conclusion, we are pleased that both our retail entertainment and steel manufacturing segments delivered improved operating performance in the first half of the year, with increased operating income and operating margins compared to the prior year period. However, challenging marketing conditions continue to impact retail flooring and flooring manufacturing segments, such as reduced consumer demand weighed on performance. To address this, we are implementing measures to enhance the efficiency of our flooring business, which, as I mentioned earlier, have already led to significant savings. Looking forward, we will continue to focus on our operational excellence, and we remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of our businesses. We will now take questions from those of you on the conference call. Operator, please open the line for questions.

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