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spk08: Good morning and welcome to the Olympic Steel 2022 fourth quarter and full year financial results conference 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. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Rich Manson, Chief Financial Officer at Olympic Steel.
spk05: Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, operator.
spk02: Welcome to Olympic Steel's earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year 2022. Our call this morning will be hosted by our Chief Executive Officer, Rick Mirabito, and we will also be joined by our President and Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Greif. Before we begin, I have a few reminders. Some statements made on today's call will be predictive and are intended to be made as forward-looking within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may not reflect actual results. The company does not undertake to update such statements, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting such forward-looking statements. Important assumptions, risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth in the company's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and the press releases filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During today's discussion, we may refer to adjusted net income per diluted share, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA, which are all non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is provided in the press release that was issued last night and can be found on our website. Today's live broadcast will be archived and available for replay on Olympic Steel's website.
spk01: At this time, I'll turn the call over to Rick. Thank you, Rich, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Olympic Steel's fourth quarter and full year results for 2022. I'll begin with an overview of another strong quarter and an exceptional year for Olympic Steel. I also want to offer some reflections on Olympic Steel's successful strategic journey to be less cyclical and consistently earn higher returns. Then Andrew will review highlights from each segment, share additional details on our recent acquisition, and comment on our market outlook. Following that, Rich will discuss our financial results in more detail, and then as always, we'll open up the call for your questions. Our fourth quarter capped off another year of extraordinary performance for Olympic Steel. Although we face the steepest and fastest decline on record in metals pricing, combined with economic and non-metal inflationary pressures, our team weathered these challenges to deliver the second most profitable year in company history, behind only 2021, with our specialty metals and pipe and tube segments both achieving all-time profitability highs in 2022. These results show that our strategy to reduce the impact of market cyclicality on our business is working. As we have highlighted on past calls, we initiated a very intentional effort to build a more resilient, diversified Olympic Steel that is delivering higher returns. We have taken deliberate steps to diversify into higher return products and services through acquisitions and targeted organic investments in all three of our business segments. We also divested of assets that no longer align with our vision for the company by selling our Detroit operation in 2021 and then utilizing the proceeds for higher return investments. We did this while relentlessly adhering to our operational disciplines to improve inventory turnover and right-size our cost profile. Together, these actions have strengthened our business, increased our capacity, made us more efficient and improved our profitability and returns, even in the face of rapidly declining market prices. Importantly, we also improved our balance sheet and increased our ability to invest in our future. In 2022, our record cash flow resulted in a $162 million, or 49%, reduction of debt. providing increased liquidity for higher return growth opportunities, including the January 2023 purchase of MetalFab, our second largest acquisition in our history and our sixth acquisition in the last five years. MetalFab is a perfect fit for Olympic Steel, bringing a consistent recession-resistant track record of double-digit EBITDA margins and adding an expanded catalog of products to our growing portfolio. We're very excited to welcome MetalFab to the Olympic Steel family, and Andrew and Rich will talk more about MetalFab in their remarks. While the integration of MetalFab is a priority for 2023, we continue to actively evaluate additional acquisitions and organic growth opportunities that align with our strategy, meet our return expectations, and allow us to leverage our business model. Additional successes in 2022 included our strong safety performance with a 26% year over year reduction in OSHA recordable incidents. We also published our first corporate responsibility report and advanced our diversity, equity, and inclusion plan. We're also proud to have increased our support to a greater number of charities through our corporate citizenship initiatives. As we begin 2023, Olympic Steel is stronger and more resilient than ever. In January, we upsized our asset-based revolver from $475 million to $625 million, providing additional capital to further execute our growth strategy through acquisitions and robust organic growth expenditures, while simultaneously rewarding our shareholders with an increased quarterly dividend of 12.5 cents. Before I turn the call over to Andrew, I want to reinforce how incredibly proud I am of the Olympic Steel team. Earlier this year, we were named a Forbes magazine's list of America's best small cap companies. I believe the market is recognizing that we have repositioned Olympic Steel as a highly innovative, growing, acquisitive business that is more resilient to the cyclicality of the metals industry. But our job is not finished. We'll continue to operate efficiently with the aid of continued investments in automation and grow our business in a smart, strategic way. We're very excited about the future of Olympic Steel. Andrew?
spk03: Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. Before I review our business results, on behalf of the entire Olympic Steel family, I want to take a moment to acknowledge our colleague, Rick Marabito, for being named the 2022 Service Center Executive of the Year by Metal Center News. This well-deserved recognition stems from Rick's dedication to the industry, as well as his clear vision, tireless commitment, and inspirational leadership during the period of transformation across our enterprise. Congratulations, Rick. Turning now to our business performance, we ended the year with another very strong quarter as all three segments delivered positive EBITDA in the fourth quarter. We finished the quarter with $11.9 million of adjusted EBITDA, and in the face of the largest and steepest decline ever in metal pricing, we delivered over $37 million of adjusted EBITDA during the second half of 2022. Our fourth quarter performance is especially notable when you consider the metals pricing environment and macroeconomic challenges we faced. During the period from May 2022 to December 2022, we experienced the steepest drop ever in carbon pricing, as the hot roll index pricing fell 59%. The stainless steel surcharge for grade 304, our highest volume specialty metals product, dropped 42% from April to November. Our ability to perform and remain profitable under such conditions is a direct result of the steps we have taken to diversify and make our business more resilient to market cyclicality while remaining disciplined in our inventory turnover management. Our most recent step in our strategic journey was the acquisition of MetalFab in January 2023. This acquisition provides a solid platform for accelerating growth in three of our target market segments, carbon coated, stainless, and aluminum. MetalFab's talented and experienced management team, manufacturing expertise, and catalog of venting and air filtration products are a strong addition to our growing portfolio of metal intensive end use products. MetalFab's earnings model has proven recession resistant and we expect to capitalize on operational and commercial synergies that will benefit both the MetalFab product lines and Olympic Steel. To date, the integration has been running smoothly and we look forward to updating you on our progress. The business will continue to operate as MetalFab and will report to our carbon segment. Further reinforcing our commitment to diversify and grow in high return products, is the appointment of seasoned industry veteran Mike Tookie as Director of Coated Products. This is a newly created role in Olympic Steel. In this position, Mike will focus on accelerating growth related to coated carbon flat-rolled products and processes, including galvanized galvanilled, galvalume aluminized, and automotive grades of steel. Now for the highlights of our segments. As Rick mentioned, both specialty metals and pipe and tube delivered their most profitable year ever. The performance of our carbon segment was also noteworthy, delivering positive EBITDA despite the steepest carbon flat price decline in history. The specialty metal segment, led by Andy Markowitz, contributed EBITDA of $9.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, a record earnings year in spite of the considerable decline in the nickel surcharge and an increase in stainless steel coil imports throughout the year. Our newest 80,000 square foot white metals facility in Bartlett, Illinois is well underway and we expect to be fully operational during the second quarter of 2023. This segment's end users, specifically truck trailer, food equipment, and industrial appliance manufacturers remain busy and are performing to forecast. The pipe and tube segment led by Bill Zielinski contributed adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, and as Rick noted earlier, had a record earnings year. Our continued investments in tube fabrication has increased our value-added business. We expect the previously announced addition to our Des Moines, Iowa facility will be operational in the second half of 2023. Our carbon segment, led by David Gia, contributed $600,000 of EBITDA for the quarter. Achieving positive EBITDA in the fourth quarter is a credit to the discipline and hard work of the segment's team, which helped us lead through a challenging marketplace. The team remains focused on the things we can control, the diligent management of operating expenses and inventory levels. We're off to a fast start in 2023 as customer shipments have increased from the seasonally slower fourth quarter and pricing on all metal products has increased. Looking forward, we expect to be an indirect beneficiary of the increase in infrastructure spending, which will be good for the steel industry as a whole. Our industrial OEMs are optimistic that business will remain steady and expect consistent build rates through the first quarter and likely into the first half of 2023. I want to thank the entire Olympic Steel team for their hard work and contributions to another outstanding quarter and year. Our results are proof that our strategy is working, but as Rick said, we haven't finished the job. As we move forward in the months and years ahead, we'll continue to grow and strengthen our business in a very purposeful way. Now I'll turn the call over to Rich.
spk02: Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. As you have heard from Rick and Andy, our fourth quarter performance and full year performance shows that we are well positioned for success in all market cycles. For the quarter, net income totaled $4 million, compared with $24.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $11.9 million for the quarter and $152 million for the full year, making 2022 the second most profitable year in our company's history. Our total debt decreased by $162 million, or almost 50%, to $166 million at year end 2022. That includes a $78 million reduction of debt during the fourth quarter. At year end, our credit availability was approximately $306 million. As Rick noted earlier, in January 2023, we increased our asset base revolver from $475 million to $625 million, providing access to additional capital. Following the $131 million acquisition of MetalFab, our availability remains in the $300 million range, providing us with significant capital to continue our growth and diversification strategy through investments in acquisitions, new capacity, and automation to drive increased efficiency. During the first quarter of 2023, we expect our working capital needs to increase as metal pricing has increased and working capital needs expand from their seasonally low balances on December 31st. However, we do expect further debt reduction during 2023, primarily occurring in the second half of the year. Consolidated operating expenses totaled $81.6 million for the fourth quarter, a decrease of $8.9 million, or 9.9% from the prior year quarter. Fourth quarter 2022 operating expenses included a $9.8 million reduction in performance-based incentive expenses when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Capital expenditures for 2022 totaled $19.9 million, compared to depreciation of $17.3 million. Many capital expenditure projects were approved during 2022, but long lead times have slowed the utilization of cash and pushed those projects into 2023. We have a robust capital expenditure plan for 2023 of over $36 million of new equipment and improvements, primarily a combination of automation projects and equipment for organic growth opportunities in higher margin products. Lead times for equipment remain long, and we expect actual cash utilized for capital expenditures during the 2023 year to approximate $30 million. Our effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2022 was 18.6% compared to 27.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021. The lower tax rate was primarily related to the recognition of higher than expected federal and state tax credits on our 2021 corporate tax returns, which were filed during the fourth quarter of 2022. We expect our 2023 effective tax rate to approximate the historic rate of 27 to 28%. Looking forward, we are excited to include METLFAB in our 2023 results. The $131 million purchase price represents a paid multiple of approximately 6.9 times trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. During the first quarter of 2023, we expect to record approximately $4 to $5 million of required GAAP-related purchase price expenses and adjustments, primarily expense deal fees, the write-up of inventory to fair market value, and the amortization of certain acquired intangible assets. Our reported financial results will begin reflecting the full strength of Metal Fab's earning power in the second quarter of 2023. And just last week, our Board of Directors approved a 39% increase in our regular quarterly cash dividend to 12.5 cents, up from 9 cents per share. We are pleased to share Olympic Steel's success with our shareholders, and we remain committed to delivering value to all of our stakeholders. We have paid dividends now for 71 consecutive quarters. In closing, I want to add my congratulations to our team for their hard work and accomplishments in 2022, especially during the tumultuous second half of the year. We remain confident that the strength of our company and our ongoing commitment to our strategy will enable us to continue our resilience and success in all market cycles. Now, operator, let's open the call for questions.
spk08: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd 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'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Samuel McKinney with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
spk04: Hi.
spk08: Good morning, guys.
spk04: Good morning, Sam. Decrease in both pricing and volumes in carbon and specialty in the fourth quarter. And thanks, Andrew, for the color earlier. But can you talk us through a little more color on what you're seeing from your major industrial OEMs on the demand side as we're almost through February?
spk03: Yeah, sure. Happy to do that, Sam. What we're really seeing is steadiness. You know, the – The industrial OEMs have been at a pretty good pace, I would say, since the last 12 to 18 months, and they're continuing to remain steady. We see that not only through the first and second quarter, but right now it looks like through the balance of this year. I think their backlogs are pretty good, but they're having a tough time getting into the backlogs. for some of the same supply chain issues that we've been talking about this past year and a half to two years. Right now, primarily labor. But they're very steady. They're really hitting at about forecast. And so we're very bullish on where the industrials are going, certainly for this year.
spk04: Okay, thanks. I know you have a pretty heavy contractual book that tends to lag the rise in spot pricing. So from a pricing standpoint in the first quarter, given the rising HRC market, what are you seeing?
spk03: Well, I think you said it perfectly. So we'll see our spot prices, as we have, started to rise. And there will be a lag for the contractual business. It will probably take late first quarter into second quarter before we start seeing any changes there. But we've certainly seen the spot numbers starting to rise in the last two or three weeks.
spk04: Okay. And then in 22, you guys did a great job deleveraging, cutting the debt almost in half. Can you talk us through what the strategy is in managing those levels in 2023 and how much further you're planning to get in terms of M&A?
spk02: Sure, Sam. It's Rich. And I think, you know, the focus on inventory really, you know, all along has been on inventory turns. And so our inventory levels are going to be set by the demand level of our customers. And we just, you know, strive to turn five times. And so, you know, my comments with respect to debt are that, you know, if you look at the futures, you know, the futures curve would suggest that pricing in the later half of 2023 is less than now, which would mean working capital is less than So you'd expect to see debt come down to the back half as working capital needs decrease. And then with respect to M&A, we remain open to M&A as well as organic growth opportunities. As I mentioned in my comments, even after the metal fab deal with the upsizing of our ABL, we're still looking at availability in excess of $300 million. So we remain open to any opportunities that will help us get into higher return products.
spk04: Okay, thank you. And then last one for me, OpEx was in the 13% range as a percent of sales through the first nine months of 22. It was closer to 16% in the fourth quarter. Can you talk me through what drove that increase and what inflationary pressures are abating and which have been more sticky?
spk02: Sure, Sam, it's rich. And I think what you're seeing in the fourth quarter is just the seasonally slower sales level. And so you're always going to have a higher percentage of operating expenses in the fourth quarter compared to the other quarters. year over year, we were down about $9 million. And when you kind of adjust out for the incentives that are performance-based, we basically saw about a 4% inflation fourth quarter of 2022 versus fourth quarter of 2021. And that's down from what we saw earlier in the year. We were tracking between 5% and 5.5%. for the first three quarters of the year. And I think that, you know, we still have inflationary pressures on everything. As I always point out to people, there's nothing that you buy today that doesn't cost more than it did a year ago. But I would tell you that that rate of inflation seems to be decreasing.
spk05: All right. Thanks, guys. That's it for me. Thanks, Sam.
spk08: Our next question is from Dave Storms with Stonegate. Please proceed with your question.
spk00: Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for taking my question. Good morning. Just wondering if I could start with the demand side. You mentioned demand is still really strong from your OEMs and end markets. Is any of that tied to any of the infrastructure, Bill, that was passed? What was that, last year? Or is there still, I guess, some dry powder there from a demand side?
spk03: No, I think there's probably more dry powder. I don't think we're really seeing the impact yet. Dave, I think the anticipation is that we will. And certainly on the industrial side, they talk about it, but we have not really seen anything to date that would stand out. But the anticipation is, you know, certainly as we get into the second half of this year, we'll start seeing some of this indirectly.
spk00: Perfect. Thank you. And I know you mentioned that you're targeting companies debt to start decreasing again in the second half of 2023. In the past, you'd put that number, you know, trying to get your debt down to the $200 million level. Do you think that's going to be your goal again, or does that goal now shift with the metal fab acquisition to increase revolver, or is it still too soon to kind of put a number around that?
spk02: David, it's Rich. I think it's a little too soon to put a number on that. I think the biggest driver will be what hot roll pricing and stainless pricing does here the rest of the year. Obviously right now the mills have announced a lot of price increases and depending on where that price ends up at the end of the year kind of compared to where the beginning of the year, that's really going to kind of determine how much of a draw or pay down you have on working capital. I would tell you, stay tuned. You know, obviously, it's heavily dependent upon where metal pricing goes rest of the year.
spk00: Perfect. Thank you. And one more, if I could. I know you touched on inflation already. Last quarter, there was a lot of talk around transportation costs being a big headwind for you, especially around diesel pricing. With diesel prices starting to come down a little bit quarter over quarter, are we starting to see that update? And, you know, do you think that'll drive your inflation expectations even lower, hopefully.
spk02: Yeah, so Dave, it's Rich again. So it's too early for me to comment on the first quarter, but what I can tell you is that the fourth quarter, we certainly still saw pressure from transportation expenses. I want to say that on the same value basis, you know, Q4 of 22 is about a million dollars more expensive than 4Q of 21. And that, again, we saw the prices kind of spike. after kind of going down there for a little bit of a lull toward the end of the third quarter. Pricing has come down, so I would be optimistic that it will come down. But all the other ancillary things around distribution, primarily labor, continue to remain at high levels. And so I wouldn't tell you it's a one-for-one as the pricing comes down that we still see inflationary pressure on the transportation. Of all the things we see, transportation is probably the biggest area of inflation.
spk05: That's all very helpful. Thank you. Thanks, Dave.
spk08: As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our next question comes from Chris Sakai with Singular Research. Please proceed with your question.
spk06: Hi, Rich and Rick. Good morning.
spk01: Good morning, Chris.
spk06: I just had a question on... the gross margin improvement in tubular and types and products. What was driving that?
spk02: Yeah, Chris, it's rich. The one big thing that you have to kind of adjust out of there is LIFO. And so there was a substantial LIFO expense in the fourth quarter of 2021 versus a little bit of LIFO income in the fourth quarter of 2022. I want to say the swing was like $9 or $10 million. So if you kind of factor that out there, I think, you know, on a percentage basis, It's pretty consistent.
spk07: Okay. And as far as geography and vertical goes for any future acquisitions, can you shed some light there?
spk01: Yeah, sure, Chris. It's Rick. As Rich said earlier, one thing for sure is we're going to remain acquisitive. And I think as Rich said, just to reiterate, we've got plenty of liquidity to really continue to execute on our growth plans, both through CapEx, through acquisitions, and through shareholder returns, like an increased dividend. Specifically, we'll continue to look, if you look at our geography, I think Metal Fab was a perfect example. We've pushed a little further west. I mean, that has nothing to do with the product, but in terms of geography. And that's, when you look at our map, that's about in terms of physical locations, about as far as we reach. So we certainly have a large part of the country kind of to the west of the Plain States to grow. Certainly the Southwest is an area we're actively looking to grow, the Texas marketplace and some others. In terms of products, we've mentioned in the past on the specialty metal side, aluminum's been a growth area for us. That's certainly an area we'd look to grow in terms of acquisition and organic growth. And then I think metal fab's a perfect example. What we're really looking to do is to find really good fits for Olympic, well-run, high-return companies. And certainly, if we're able to use the strength and power of Olympic Steel in terms of our processing and depth of our relationships in terms of purchasing to add to companies that we acquire, that's very attractive to us. And I think Model Fab and what we talked about in terms of some of the commercial synergies is really a great example of that.
spk06: Can you comment on how valuations are you're seeing for companies?
spk01: Yeah, I think, you know, typically valuations for service center distribution type businesses are typically in the seven to eight times EBITDA range based upon a I call it the cycle average of EBITDA. Rich gave you a little bit of color today on our Metal Fab acquisition, where we paid a 6.9 multiple on that, so that kind of fit right into that general range. But that's pretty typical, Chris, I think. You know, I think the multiples, you know, given what's happening maybe at a point in time with EBITDA and the cycle and or financing costs could be a little bit different. But that's the general range we've seen.
spk05: Okay. Thanks for the answers. You're welcome. Thanks, Chris.
spk08: We've reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Rick Marabito. for closing comments.
spk01: Thank you so much and thank all of you for joining us on the call today. We certainly appreciate your continued interest in Olympic Steel and I hope through our comments today you take away how excited we are about 2023 and the future of Olympic Steel. So we certainly look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thank you and have a good day.
spk08: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.
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