Kadant Inc

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the fourth quarter of 2021 Caden, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. As a reminder, today's program may be recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's program, Michael McKinney, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Cadence fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. With me on the call today is Jeff Paul, our president and chief executive officer. Before we begin, let me read our safe harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make today about Cadence future plans and expectations, financial and operating results, and prospects are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those outlined at the beginning of our slide presentation and those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2021, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements we make during this webcast represent our views and estimates only as of today. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our views or estimates change. During this webcast, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in our fourth quarter earnings press release and slides presented on the webcast and discussed in the conference call, which are available in the investor section of our website at www.cadent.com. Finally, I wanted to note that when we refer to GAAP earnings per share or EPS and adjusted EPS on this call, we are referring to each of these measures as calculated on a diluted basis. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Powell to give you an update on Cadence business and future prospects. Following Jeff's remarks, I'll give an overview of our financial results for the quarter, and we will then have a Q&A session. Jeff? Thanks, Mike.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning to review our fourth quarter and full year results and discuss our business outlook for 2022. The fourth quarter was a solid finish to an exceptional year. Despite the uncertainties, brought about by the pandemic, supply chain constraints, and macroeconomic headwinds, we had another well-executed quarter and generated record cash flow among several other financial records. Good capital project activity across all our operating segments and robust aftermarket demand led to strong bookings and record backlog. I'll provide more details about this activity when I discuss the results of our operating segments. Our balance sheet remains healthy and we finished the year well-positioned to capitalize on new opportunities as they develop. As many of you know, our technologies play a pivotal role in helping our customers advance their sustainability initiatives with product innovations that reduce waste or generate more yield with fewer inputs, particularly fiber, energy, and water. This is what we refer to as sustainable industrial processing, producing more while consuming less, and it is a major element of our strategic focus and value proposition. At the end of 2021, we were honored to be named by Newsweek Magazine as one of America's most responsible companies for a second consecutive year. We were also selected as a winner of the 2021 SEAL Business Sustainability Award in the Environmental Initiatives category. It's rewarding to be recognized for our sustainability efforts and our work towards driving sustainable industrial processing. Turning now to slide six and our Q4 financial performance, You can see we had significant increases across all our key financial metrics and achieved new records in essentially every metric shown in the slide. Q4 revenue was up 30 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 to a record of $219 million. Excluding acquisitions and the favorable impact of FX, revenue was up 18 percent compared to the same period last year. Our aftermarket parts revenue was up 22 percent to a record $137 million. Improved operating performance drove our adjusted EBITDA margin to 20.5 percent, which contributed to our record operating cash flow of $61 million in Q4. All our operating segments delivered excellent adjusted EBITDA margin performance despite the continuing inflationary pressures from material and ongoing supply chain constraints. Our Q4 GAAP EPS and adjusted EPS were up 48 percent and 50 percent expectantly. The record quarterly earnings performance contributed to an exceptional full-year performance, which I'll review next, slide seven. A strong economic momentum at the beginning of the year continued throughout 2021. While the challenges shifted from primarily pandemic-focused issues to supply chain, labor availability, and inflation, we experienced solid demand from our customers and a general feeling of increasing optimism in most regions of the world. Our four-year revenue increased 24% to a record $787 million, while our net income reached a new record at $84 million, up 52% compared to the prior year. As a result, adjusted diluted EPS increased to $7.83, exceeding the prior record set in 2019 at $5.36 per share. As many of you will recall, We set an adjusted EBITDA margin goal of 20% at our Investor Day event in March 2019. At that time, our adjusted EBITDA margin was around 18%. I'm pleased to say we achieved this in 2021 with our full year adjusted EBITDA margin a record 20.3%. This contributed to our record operating cash flow of $162 million and free cash flow of $150 million. Our workforce around the globe deserves tremendous credit for these results as they performed exceptionally well under challenging circumstances. I'm extremely proud of our employees for the innovative work they have done and continue to do to serve our customers. Next, I'd like to review our performance in our three operating segments. Our flow control segment continued its upward revenue trend with solid contributions from our recent acquisition. Revenue increased 30% to a record $78 million in the fourth quarter, aftermarket parts revenue made up 74% of total revenue. Organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions and effects, increased 8% compared to the same period last year. Our integrations business, which we acquired in the third quarter of 2021, is going as planned. While their operating margins are currently lower than our other flow control companies, management is implementing margin improvement initiatives outlined at the time of the acquisition. This includes, among other items, our 80-20 initiatives, which we have launched at a number of our businesses across our operating segments. We are excited about the contributions this acquisition is expected to make in the coming years. Looking ahead, we expect the first half of 2022 to show solid demand for both capital and aftermarket parts. We believe the fundamental drivers of our end markets remain strong, though business activity continues to be influenced by challenges in the supply chain around as well. Turning now to our industrial processing segment, We continue to experience strong demand for our wood processing equipment, both for capital and parts. Our reported bookings were 95 million, which included a booking reversal of 10 million associated with a stock preparation capital project that was booked in the third quarter. The project has recently been put on hold and may not occur in 2022, so we thought it prudent to remove it from our current backlog. New orders for Q4 were 105 million as our customers continue to add capacity and invest in upgrading their operations. Revenue in this segment increased 38 percent to $95 million year-over-year, with capital business driving this surge. Parts revenue was up 9 percent compared to the same period last year and made up 56 percent of total revenue in the fourth quarter. Improved operating leverage and good execution led to a 270 basis point improvement in our adjusted EBITDA margin. Looking ahead to 2022, we expect capital project activity to moderate as many of the new wood processing systems are or will be fully operational this year. That said, we expect this segment to continue to be active in terms of new projects and demand for aftermarket parts. In our material handling segment, we achieved solid gains in our profitability despite the dramatic increases in steel cost and the unpredictability in the supply chain. Demand for our high performance fillers was very strong, as municipalities, box plants, and distribution centers continue to invest in their facilities. Our recent acquisition in this segment, Bell Master, significantly contributed to our fourth quarter results. Revenue increased 15 percent to $45 million. Parts revenue in the fourth quarter made up 59 percent of total revenue. Excluding our acquisition in FX, Q4 revenue was flat due to lower capital revenue compared to our relatively strong prior year quarter. Bookings in our material handling segment increased 31% to a record $52 million. While this increase benefited from our recent acquisition, organic bookings were up 12%, with solid parts demand and capital project activity expected to continue. Looking ahead to 2022, we believe this segment will strengthen as the year progresses and capital projects are executed, particularly in bulk material handling, where we are already experiencing increased business activity associated with U.S. infrastructure spending plans. As we look ahead to the first quarter of 2022 in the full year, ongoing project activity is healthy, and we expect industrial production to maintain its momentum. However, supply chain challenges and policy responses to inflationary pressure do introduce some uncertainty in the latter half of the year. Our record backlog and ability to generate robust cash flows have us well positioned to capitalize on opportunities that may emerge as the year unfolds, and we expect to deliver record financial performance again this year. I'd like to pass the call over to Mike now for review of our financial performance and our outlook for 2022. Mike.

Thank you, Jeff. I'll start with some key financial metrics from our fourth quarter, which included some notable records. Consolidated gross margins were 42.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 44.1% in the fourth quarter of 2020, down 170 basis points. Our consolidated gross margins in the fourth quarter of 2021 were negatively affected by the amortization of acquired profit and inventory related to the CLU and Bailmaster acquisitions, which lowered consolidated gross margins by 90 basis points. In the fourth quarter of 2020, government assistance benefits increased consolidated gross margins by 50 basis points. Excluding the impact from both of these items, consolidated gross margins were down 30 basis points due to a higher mix of capital revenue. Our overall percentage of parts and consumables revenue decreased to 63% of total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 67% in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to significantly higher capital revenue at our industrial processing segment. SG&A expenses were 57.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 10.4 million compared to 47.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. Fourth quarter of 2021, SG&A includes 6.4 million in SG&A from our acquisitions and an increase of 1.5 million in acquisition-related costs, which totaled 1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 0.2 million in the prior year. The remaining increase in SG&A expense is primarily associated with increased incentive compensation due to improved business conditions. As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expenses decreased to 26.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 28.1% in the prior year period. For the first time in our history, Our quarterly gap-diluted EPS exceeded $2, reaching $2.07 in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to $1.40 in the fourth quarter of 2020. Our gap-diluted EPS in the fourth quarter includes $0.23 in acquisition-related costs, $0.08 of restructuring costs, a $0.04 discrete tax benefit, and a $0.03 gain on the sale of a building. 23 cents in acquisition-related costs includes 13 cents of amortization of acquired profit and inventory, 4 cents of backlog amortization, and 6 cents of acquisition costs. The amortization of acquired profit and inventory related to the 2021 acquisitions has been completed, and there is a 0.7 million, or 5 cents, of backlog amortization remaining, which will turn in 2022. The $0.08 in restructuring costs includes an asset impairment charge and other costs associated with the consolidation of our ceramic blade manufacturing in Europe into our recently acquired Kluth business. Tax rate in the fourth quarter was 19.5% and included approximately $0.16 of tax benefits related to a reversal of tax reserves associated with uncertain tax positions and the exercise of previously awarded employee stock options. Excluding these items, our tax rate would have been 25.9%. For the full year, 2021 gross margins were 42.9% compared to 43.7% in 2020. Excluding the amortization of profit and inventory, which reduced 2021 gross margins by 50 basis points, and government assistance benefits in both periods, gross margins were up 20 basis points to 43.3% compared to 43.1%. Our percentage of parts and consumables revenue was 65% in 2021 compared to 66% in 2020. SG&A expenses were $208.8 million in 2021 an increase of $26.9 million, or 15%, compared to $181.9 million in 2020. As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expenses decreased to 26.5% in 2021 compared to 28.6% in 2020. We had $9.7 million of SG&A from our acquisitions in 2021 and incurred acquisition-related costs of $5 million and $1 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. In addition, there was an unfavorable foreign currency translation effect of 5.1 million in 2021, and we had a reduction in government assistance benefits of 0.8 million. Excluding all these items, SG&A expenses were up 7.3 million, or 4%, compared to 2020, primarily due to an increase in incentive compensation. Our gap-diluted EPS was a record $7.21 in 2021, up 51% compared to $4.77 in 2020. Our gap-diluted EPS in 2021 includes $0.60 in acquisition-related costs, $0.08 of restructuring costs, a $0.04 benefit from discrete tax items, and a $0.03 gain on the sale of the building. In addition, our 2021 results included pre-tax income of 2.4 million or 16 cents net of tax attributable to government employee retention assistance programs related to the pandemic compared to pre-tax income of 6.1 million or 39 cents net of tax in 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2021, adjusted EBITDA increased 39% to a record 44.8 million. or 20.5 percent of revenue compared to 32.1 million or 19.1 percent of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to strong performance in our industrial processing segment led by our wood processing product line. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was a record 159.4 million or 20.3 percent of revenue compared to 2020 adjusted EBITDA of 115.9 million or 18.3 percent of revenue. Our operating and free cash flow performance was exceptional and demonstrates our continued strength in generating excellent cash flows from operations around the world. Operating cash flows was a record 61 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, far exceeding our prior quarterly record of 44.4 million. For the full year, operating cash flow was a record 162.4 million, up 75% from 2020 and up 67% compared to our prior record set in 2019. Free cash flow was $55.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, increasing 47% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. For the full year, free cash flow was $149.6 million, up 75% from 2020 and 71% compared to our prior record set in 2019 of $87.5 million. We had several notable non-operating uses of cash in the fourth quarter of 2021. We repaid $42.5 million of debt, paid $5.1 million for capital expenditures, and paid a $2.9 million dividend on our common stock. We also paid $2.9 million for the acquisition of a small stock preparation manufacturer in India. For the full year, we paid $144 million for acquisitions, net of cash acquired, and repaid $104 million of our debt. Let me turn to our EPS results for the quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2021, GAAP diluted earnings per share was $2.07, and adjusted diluted EPS was $2.31. In the fourth quarter of 2020, GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.40, and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.54. The 14-cent difference relates to an intangible asset impairment charge of 12 cents, restructuring costs of 1 cent, and amortization of acquired backlog of 1 cent. The increase of 77 cents in adjusted diluted EPS in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 consists of the following. 91 cents due to higher revenue, 11 cents from acquisitions, and 4 cents due to lower interest expense. These increases were partially offset by 13 cents due to higher operating expenses, 8 cents due to government assistance programs received in the prior year, 5 cents due to lower gross margins, 2 cents due to higher weighted average shares outstanding and one cent due to a lower recurring tax rate. Collectively included in all the categories I just mentioned was a favorable foreign currency translation effect of three cents in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to last year's fourth quarter due to the weakening of the US dollar. Now turning to our EPS results for the full year on slide 17. We reported gap diluted earnings per share of $7.21 in 2021, and our adjusted dilute EPS was $7.83. We reported gap diluted earnings per share of $4.77 in 2020, and our adjusted dilute EPS was $5. The 23-cent difference relates to an intangible asset impairment charge of 12 cents, restructuring costs of 7 cents, amortization of acquired backlog of 4 cents, acquisition costs of 3 cents, and a discrete tax benefit of 3 cents. The increase of $2.83 in adjusted diluted EPS from 2020 to 2021 consists of the following. $3.33 from higher revenue, 23 cents from lower interest expense, 21 cents from the operating results of our acquisitions, 12 cents from higher gross margins, and 4 cents from a lower recurring tax rate. These increases were partially offset by $0.78 from higher operating expenses, $0.23 from reduction in benefits from government assistance programs, $0.06 due to higher weighted average shares outstanding, and $0.03 from higher non-controlling interest expense. Collectively included in all the categories I just mentioned was a favorable foreign currency translation effect of 33 cents in 2021 compared to 2020. Now let's turn to our liquidity metrics starting on slide 18. Cash conversion days measure calculated by taking days in receivables plus days in inventory and subtracting days in accounts payable was 106 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, down from 113 at the end of the third quarter of 2021 and 125 days at the end of 2020. The decrease in cash conversion days from the prior year was principally driven by a higher number of days in accounts payable. Working capital as a percentage of revenue decreased to 9.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 13.5% in the third quarter of 2021 and 14.2% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Net debt, that is debt less cash at the end of 2021, was $175.4 million, a decrease of $55 million sequentially and compares to $166.8 million at the end of 2020. Our interest expense decreased 35% or $2.6 million to $4.8 million in 2021 compared to $7.4 million in 2020. Our leverage ratio calculated as defined in our credit agreement was 1.34 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 down from 1.61 in the fourth quarter of 2020, quite an accomplishment given that we paid $144 million net of cash acquired for acquisitions in 2021. Now I'll review our guidance for 2022. Our revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2022 is $212 to $217 million and our adjusted diluted EPS guidance for the first quarter is $2 to $2.10. This excludes $0.05 from the amortization acquired backlog. For the full year, our revenue guidance is $870 to $890 million and our adjusted diluted EPS guidance for the full year is $8.55 to $8.75 and excludes $0.05 from the amortization of acquired backlog. I should caution here that there could be some choppiness and variability in our quarterly results due to several factors, including the variability of order flow and the timing of capital shipments. In addition, other risks that could impact our guidance include supply chain challenges, strengthening of the U.S. dollar, geopolitical tensions, and China's zero COVID policy. The 2022 guidance includes an unfavorable foreign currency translation impact of approximately 12 million on revenue and 15 cents on adjusted diluted EPS due to the strengthening of the US dollar. Including the amortization of profit and inventory and the benefit from government assistance programs, our gross margins came in at 43.3% in 2021. And we anticipate gross margins for 2022 will be close to this level at 43 to 43.5%. As a percentage of revenue, we anticipate SG&A will be approximately 25% to 25.5%. And R&D expense will be approximately 1.5% of revenue in 2022. We anticipate net interest expense of approximately 5.5% to $5.8 million. And we expect our recurring tax rate will be approximately 28% in 2022. Our recurring tax rate in the first quarter of 2022 may be a little lower than the remaining quarters, which we anticipate receiving a tax benefit from the vesting of equity awards. We expect depreciation and amortization will be approximately $36 to $37 million in 2022. And we anticipate CAPEX spending in 2022 will be approximately 2% of revenue. In addition to the CAPEX guidance I just provided, I want to outline for you another project starting in 2022. In 2006, we acquired a business in China to help us grow our stock preparation product line. As many of you are aware, that business has performed very well. When we acquired the business, we acquired its manufacturing facilities. At the time, the facility was in a commercial area. As the city in which this business is located is growing, the area around our facility has become more residential. As a result, the local government has asked us to relocate our manufacturing operations. We have been discussing and negotiating with the local government for several years. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we reached an agreement which we believe is likely to become effective in the first quarter of 2022. The local government will buy our existing facility at an agreed upon price. And over the next two years, we will build and move into a new facility in the same city. Proceeds from selling the facility will pay for the new facility and the relocation costs that will be incurred. Currently estimate the CapEx for this project to be approximately 20 million. with most of the capex costs being incurred over the next 18 months. To date, the local government has paid a 25% down payment on the agreed to sell price with an additional 6% payment anticipated in the first quarter of 2022. The remaining proceeds from the sale of the facility will be due at the earlier of when the government sells the property or within two years of the effective date of the agreement. The U.S. GAAP accounting for this will result in a large gain on the sale of our existing facility when the final down payment is received and the agreement goes into effect. We anticipate this will be in the first quarter of 2022. When this occurs, I will give all the numbers related to this transaction and the gain will be excluded from our adjusted diluted EPS results. For U.S. GAAP purposes, the costs related to the new facility will be reflected in our capex numbers. I will also give color each quarter as we go forward on regular capex and capex related to this project. The key point I want folks to be aware of is that on a cash basis at the end of the day, once we received all the proceeds from selling the old facility, the cost of the new facility will be offset by the proceeds received from the old facility sale. I also wanted to make it clear that our EPS and CAPEX guidance for 2022 does not include this transaction. That concludes my review of the financials, and I will now turn the call back over to the operator for our Q&A session. Operator?

Certainly. Our first question comes from the line of John Franzreb from Seduti. Your question, please.

Good morning, and congratulations on a great quarter. Actually, this kind of dovetails into what you were just talking about. A common theme emerging this reporting season is higher capital spending on projects that have either been deferred by labor or equipment availability. I'm curious if you think that you're benefiting from this trend, and if so, by about how much?

Well, I think certainly there was a a slowdown in capital project activity in the prior year. You know, the pandemic really was raging through the globe. And so some of that is starting to back up again. So I think there certainly has, you know, we are benefiting from that. But I would also say in our particular markets that there have been shifts associated with the pandemic that are driving demand that are likely to remain as the pandemic eases. In particular, the at-home deliveries, which require a lot more packaging, and the housing boom associated with people working from home and needing different housing arrangements, which has driven a lot of our wood processing businesses. So I think probably it's a combination of both of those, a social shift that's taken place in the way we live and work and the way we consume goods. along with some activity on the capital project side. But I think we're in the early stages, I would say, of executing these capital projects that have come in. And so there's still a fair amount of runway, I think, left on catching up.

Got it. And Jeff, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you've achieved the 20% EBITDA target this year. You set off and set forth in your 2019 investor day. I'm curious, did you expect to achieve it this early or something happened that kind of outperformed your original expectations?

Well, this was our third kind of five-year plan that we put out in 19 and I think the first one we achieved the metrics in three years, and the second one we did it in four years. So it's not unusual for us to hit some of the targets or many of the targets before the end of the five years. I'll point out that we haven't met them all yet. We met the EBITDA margin goal. We're approaching the earnings per share goal, but our revenue is still – we still have some further work to do there. And so, you know, we try to set ambitious goals, but also goals that we believe that our people can, you know, can drive towards achieving. And we're quite pleased with this. You know, the 80-20 initiative, which we implemented, started implementing years ago, has really delivered some solid results for us and the divisions that have been in that program for a while, and that's certainly helping us. Some of the acquisitions we've made have been, you know, very extremely profitable acquisitions, so they've been accretive to that. So it's really been a combination, I think, of increased operating leverage, internal cost initiatives through 80-20, and, you know, just some accretive acquisitions. And so, you know, we're pleased with it. And once we've achieved, you know, most of the metrics and we think it's appropriate to issue a new five-year plan, of course, we'll, you know, our EBITDA margin goal will go up. You know, we'll set a plan to increase that even further over the next, you know, through the next plan.

Got it. Got it. And I guess one last question. I'll get back in the queue. Just about with higher commodity costs and other input costs affecting companies across the board, I just wonder if you kind of review how you manage higher input costs and pricing across your three business segments.

Yeah, well, one of the great things about our decentralized structure, and I believe there are many, is that our teams out there are very focused on the local conditions on the ground, and there are structured to respond very quickly to changes that take place. So there's no corporate, if you will, procurement manager or sourcing manager that's trying to manage things globally. We have 20 major operating units around the world that are basically making changes in real time as they see the conditions on the ground changing. So that's allowed us to move quickly on the sourcing side, cost control side, and where required on the pricing side. So they've done a very good job of staying ahead of the issues, and that's obviously shown by the fact that our actual kind of on a same-store sale gross margin actually was up 20 basis points for the year. So we were able to actually improve it a little bit. And that's just through the hard work of our people making, like I said, real-time decisions really based on the conditions locally. You know, through this pandemic, that decentralized structure really served us well. I mean, we believe there's great, great positive benefits from it, generally speaking, but during times of crisis, that's where 20 really strong management teams making local decisions in real time really, really benefits us. And this is just one example of it.

So are you at price-cost equilibrium right now, or is there still a lag going on? If so, how long?

Well, you know, it kind of depends on the commodity. There's some commodities that are starting to moderate a little bit, but there are others that are still there. I would say, generally speaking, the supply chain constraints are still there. And, you know, in the areas where we've had to put some new pricing in, you know, that's working through the system. Some of that takes longer than others because you might have existing projects that you signed before the inflation took over, took off. And also we have some supply agreements that kind of set prices for a year or more. So I would say there's still some pricing to work through the system. But the more important thing for us is we're really focused on our cost, trying to keep our costs down as low as possible so that we can minimize the price increases to our customers.

Okay, got it. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll get back to you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Howe from Darrington Research. Your question, please.

Good morning, Jeff and Mike. Hi, Chris. Morning, Chris. Good morning. Well, as it relates to the outlook, you talked about the many puts and takes that may influence that outlook. As we take that and put it into context versus this past year, there's certainly continuing uncertainty regarding the timing of capital shipments. Can you talk about the puts and takes with gross margin and also leverage on the operating line, how you see perhaps the first half and the second half playing out versus last year, perhaps a reversal, or is it too early to tell based on the timing of orders?

Well, You know, Chris, I have a view as it stands today, and, of course, that may change. But I'd say, you know, just looking at the big picture, looking at our guidance, you know, if I kind of lay that out over the year, interestingly enough, to me, it looks like the first quarter and our last quarter, the fourth quarter, will be relatively – equilibrium between those two which would lead you to believe that the middle of the year is where we'll have our highest revenue numbers in the second and third quarter if I do it if I split that first half second half the the revenue is about the same but to your point on different pressure points I would say I expect in the latter half of the year our margins will be better, our operating performance will be better than in the first half. And that's primarily driven by I'm looking at capital shipments in the second quarter that will put some pressure on our margin performance. And that will start to abate as we go into the latter half of the year. revenue on the top line, revenue relatively even split first half, second half, but operating metrics and performance will perform, I believe, better in the second half of the year compared to the first half.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. And just throw a question here for Jeff. You mentioned the potential for improvement initiatives as we consider the integration of CLU and their margin in the context of the business. Can you place kind of this opportunity into further detail? I think on the last call you had mentioned just opportunities across the business for product development and sharing of best practices. what type of synergistic opportunity, whether that's leverage or, uh, growth you see, uh, for the combination.

Yeah, there's actually, um, several levers out there that, um, you know, available for, for pulling the one that we're doing right now is we, as you know, we had a, uh, a ceramics blade business that we're investing in pretty heavily, uh, and, you know, starting to take some market share, but you know, it's always, that's kind of a pioneering work. So it's always, um, challenging. And these guys are very strong in that area. So one of the first things we did is we moved our ceramics business over to them. We're in the process of doing that and shutting down our facilities. Mike mentioned some of the impairment charges that we were taking associated with doing that. So that's something that we're doing, you know, we did almost immediately, which we'll benefit from. And then, you know, the guys are going to get together. We have our global kind of strategy meeting coming up here in a few weeks. And so they'll all the team members, the senior management will be getting together here in a few weeks, for a week, to start to really work through the details of the synergies that exist and what we're going to tackle first. And I would tell you that, you know, between, you know, kind of consolidating the ceramics business, rationalizing the product development, and then, importantly, the 80-20 initiatives, which had a big impact on our doctor cleaning and filtration business, and we expect we'll have similar benefits to them, You know, these will take, you know, a couple years, two or three years before you'll see the full benefits of those. So, you know, there's a fair amount of work to do, but we think it is very achievable, very doable, and we expect we'll see progress, you know, throughout this year and the next year, too.

Okay. Okay. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thank you. Our next question comes in the line of Kurt Ginger from DA Davidson. Your question, please.

Great, thanks, and good morning. Good morning, Kirk. Good morning. Just two quick ones for me. I mean, I just wanted to start off on project timelines. I mean, given what's going on in the supply chain, are customers coming back to you at all and kind of pushing orders out to later dates, or do you expect that could be an issue at some stage this year?

Well, clearly there's challenges everywhere, and so that's always a possibility. I would tell you the project I mentioned that was put on hold really was not a supply chain issue. There's other considerations I think that the customer is looking at that impacted their decision to put this thing on hold right now while they do some work. So we're seeing that, and it could affect timing a little bit on projects. It really, I think, will depend on which part of the world we have things shipping in any given quarter. Obviously, stuff that's produced and sold in their current market is in a little better shape than something that's got to be put on a ship and shipped halfway around the world. Timing, I'll be honest with you, timing on capital shipments is always a challenge in our business. If something ships on a Friday, It's in the quarter. If it slips to Monday, you know, at the end of the quarter, then it's into the next one. So that's something that we manage, you know, and watch closely. So it's possible. We've not had anything, you know, other than that one project I mentioned that, you know, has been delayed. But is it possible for somebody to say, hey, I want to ship that, you know, three weeks from now or four weeks from now instead of today because of this or that? That's a possibility. We have that, you know, under good times, you know, and it certainly can be accentuated during these times. It's our... It's our hope and our belief that some of these logistics, in particular the transportation side, will start to improve a little bit as the year progresses. Some of this backlog will start to work itself out. It won't be as much of an issue in the latter half of the year as it is at the beginning of the year.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Sorry, it seems like, you know, operating rates are still very healthy. You know, market environment seems very solid. But do you foresee any challenges lapping some of these parts and consumables comps, just given how strong 2021 was? And, you know, it's not necessarily as lumpy as the capital side, but sometimes, you know, that can be a challenge as well, I presume.

Yeah, well, you know, it's a funny thing. Our capital, of course, really, you know, as we install new capital equipment, it starts to throw off consumables and parts. And so while, you know, there might have been some, you know, some, I would say, pent-up demand that we experienced last year as people restocked their shelves, we're putting an awful lot of capital equipment out. And capital equipment over time, you know, consumes parts. So There could be a little bit of, I would say, you know, moderation that may take place. But as long as the operating rates stay high, because our cap over the long run, our capital equipment, as I said, drives our consumables. You know, if operating rates stay high, our parts consumables kind of are a function of that. As we're putting a lot of capital out right now, you know, we would expect to see the benefits of that over the next few years as they, you know, consume parts. So, you know, we used to joke that if we could sell parts without selling capital, it'd be an easier business, but, you know, it's really the capital that drives the parts.

Right, right. Okay, that's a helpful reminder. And then just lastly, in terms of geographies, I mean, the North American market's very strong, but, you know, even looking at Europe and Asia revenue, this year grew very nicely, rebounding off 2020. As you look into 2022, you know, any kind of directional commentary in terms of markets you think will be strongest or areas that you think might see momentum start to slow a bit?

I'd say, Kurt, you know, we did, it was, 2021 was a very good year across all the geographies. And we're really anticipating that we'll see that again in 2022.

Got it. All right. Well, good to hear. Appreciate the color, and good luck here in the new year, guys.

Thank you. Thank you.

But your next question comes from the line at Walter Liptec from Seaport. Your question, please.

Hi. Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Hi, Walt.

Morning, Walt.

Hi. One that first maybe ask a follow on when you were talking about the seasonality for 2022 and more capital shipments in the second quarter. I wonder if you could just help us understand, you know, your backlog and, you know, how far out does your visibility go right now? You know, is it that in the second half you just don't have the bookings yet? Those will still come in. and just maybe talk a little bit more about what I'm hearing on the mix. There might be more capital projects this year, as opposed to parts orders.

Michael Heaney Well, I'll say, Walt, that, you know, our backlog right now is at 310 million. There is a small piece of that that's actually going into 2023. So, it's spread throughout the year. I won't say evenly, but it is spread throughout the year. I think, you know, our visibility tends to be pretty good two quarters out. So, the second half of the year is, you know, a little bit more of a challenge to predict what's going to happen on the capital front. But we have good visibility on the first half. And I would say to your question, on the margin front. What, you know, I guided to 43 to 43 and a half. And I'm looking at the, what we have for capital shipments in the first half of the year. And I think if I look at that margin range, we'll probably see margins in the first half of the year towards the low end of that range, towards 43. And then in the second half, that average out towards the higher end of the range.

Okay, great. Yeah, thanks. That helps. And in thinking about the gross margin that you guys just reported, you know, understanding that Kluth and Bailmaster had some, it sounded like there was some amortization expense flowing through. I'm wondering, is that an ongoing expense? Typically, those are below the gross margin line, but it sounds like you guys are putting it through, you know, cost of goods sold. Is that going to be an ongoing headwind to the gross margin?

No. What you want to look at for that, Walt, and you'll see the pre-tax number in our EBITDA table, is the line called acquired profit and inventory. That's what's going through cost of goods sold and into margins. And we've basically finished that. So that's When you acquire a business, you have to fair value everything, including the inventory, and then that gets amortized as the inventory turns. So that is now behind us.

Oh, yeah, I understand. Those were purchased accounting costs.

Okay. And the other amortization, that actually goes through SG&A, not through cost of goods sold.

Okay, got it. Okay, that makes more sense. Okay. and and just on the uh you know sticking with this gross margin um and appreciate the uh the guidance for 2022 um how does the uh you know the bookings that you've got right now can you adjust those if prices keep going up uh or you know how are you dealing with uh with the inflation um you know uh Or are some of those orders that have been booked, have you been able to cover the inflation that's already happened?

Yeah, well, of course, we've been talking about this essentially throughout 2021. It's much easier for us on the parts and consumables front that those orders have very quick cycle times. So we're able to react to Input cost changes very, very currently. The area where you'd have more risk is on capital that may be in the backlog for an extended period of time. On some larger projects, we have surcharge arrangements, so we can make adjustments, but I would say the majority, they're priced currently, and what we've tried to do is reduce the window that the quotation is good for. So to limit the exposure, the customer has to place the order, say, within a month or the quote expires. But nonetheless, we can get capital goods that will be in backlog and material or input costs can increase and we'll have to face into that.

Okay. All right, sounds good. And then maybe just the last one. Last quarter, you guys talked a little bit about China logistics. And this call, we haven't heard too much about that. I wonder if you just give us an update on what's happening there. Is it just a continuation of their COVID policies that have things shut down? Or how are things going?

Yeah, you know, China is still maintaining this zero COVID policy. They're the only country really in the world that's doing that. And they've actually managed their, you know, the pandemic infection rate pretty well, but it does introduce some real challenges to getting things out of there. Now, they haven't shut any ports down recently, you know, from an outbreak or things like that. But it's still a challenge. You know, the containers are still hard to get. Ports are still congested. I mean, it's an ongoing challenge. Again, I mentioned earlier, we're hoping that we're going to see a little bit of relief as the year progresses on that. But I think everybody's kind of adjusted. You know, we've adjusted our delivery schedules and We're managing it the best we can. The risk, of course, is the unknown, that you get a major outbreak in a port city or something and they would shut things down for a month. That's the risk. As of right now, I would say that we're managing it reasonably well and we're hoping that things will continue to improve as the year progresses.

Okay. All right, great. And maybe just one final, final one for me, just a follow-up. You were talking a little bit about, you know, sort of the funnel for capital projects that you're seeing, and it sounded like they were still strong across the board. You know, I wonder if you could talk a little bit just about the wood products and wood processing CapEx projects and You know, if we see this rising interest rate environment, you know, do those projects keep on going forward? Or, you know, how are you thinking of the risk of, you know, potential slowdown from higher rates?

Well, you know, it's interesting. Housing starts were 1.7 and 1.7 in November and December. January, they were at 1.6. So still very high levels. Wood pricing, of course, you know, the composite index is back up. again, quite high, not quite to the record that it was, but still quite high. So the, you know, our customers are still, there's still good demand and they're making very good pricing on it. So, and you need to keep in mind that, you know, in the 08-09 crash, there was some capacity that was taken offline. And so demand has come back to that level. And in some cases, you know, even stronger demand than back then. was a little less capacity. And so, you know, it doesn't take much to see prices go up. There's a fair amount of new capacity coming online. And so, you know, it's interesting to see what that does to pricing. But the other thing to keep in mind is, you know, as part of this climate initiative globally, there's more and more construction migrating to the use of wood. I mean, if you think of houses that are built out of wood, you know, frames, stick frames, It's really a premier in North America. The rest of the world traditionally has not done that. Well, you know, masonry has one of the highest greenhouse gas footprints or highest carbon footprints of any of the industrials out there. And so there's the beginning of a migration away, and I believe, we believe there will be a continual migration away from brick and concrete and masonry construction to wood-based just because they won't be able to meet the climate initiatives without it. And we've seen estimates that could really drive demand for wood products over the next many years. So it's going to be quite interesting to see what happens around the world as people respond to these greenhouse gas, you know, targets they have. And they just aren't going to be able to do it by continuing to build houses out of high-carbon footprint masonry products.

Okay.

All right.

Fair enough.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bobby Eubank from Chevy Chase. Your question, please.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Two questions for you. One, Mike, are you able to split out the difference between volume and price in the 18% organic revenue for the quarter?

No, Bobby. That, you know, as Jeff, you heard Jeff say, we have 20 operating units, and the price increases have been quite varied by the units. So I couldn't say that I could honestly give you a good split on that.

Okay, but it's fair to say that price is a meaningful contributor, you think, to organic revenue?

It's fair to say that price is a contributor.

I mean, margins are kind of the same, so it's obviously, you know, it hasn't gone down, but it hasn't gone up.

Right, yeah. And then the book-to-bill, you know, step down, even pulling out the $10 million from that one project. As we look through the rest of 2022 and your discussions with customers across those 20 business units, you know – what's the kind of tone from them look like? Are we, you know, if you look at the market, there's a lot of expectations that we're hitting kind of a peak in the cycle and it feels a little early, but how do your customers feel? And, you know, what are outlook for the second half of the year, if you can kind of just tease it out from customers. Thanks so much and good luck.

I think, as Mike mentioned, I think when he was talking about prior questions, Visibility is always tough for us, particularly on capital projects for the back half of the year. You know, we have decent visibility in the front half. The back half, it's a little harder. You know, and because we're so geographically diverse, it really varies quite a bit. I would tell you that if we look, for instance, in Asia, that, you know, our project activity level, I would say, is quite strong right now, and it wouldn't surprise us to see, you know, that continue through the year and some solid bookings in Asia for this year. I would say, you know, North America, the bookings were quite strong in, you know, last year. And so, you know, is it possible they might moderate some? It's very possible. And then Europe, I would say it's kind of in the middle. You know, they improved last year, but, you know, they're having good activity now. So it really, you know, I think if I had to guess, I would say, you know, Asia's strong, Europe kind of, you know, steady. And the question is, in North America, can we keep it going there? And it's very difficult, you know, I think... to forecast the back half of the year. All I can tell you is that our customers are making good money. Prices are up. If you look at the prices of lumber, as I mentioned, it's up. If you look at the prices of boxes, they put several price increases in there. So I think the customers are doing well. And normally when our customers do well, they invest in their businesses over time, and that benefits us. Makes a lot of sense.

If I can do a follow-up, what does the acquisition pipeline look like? Not a focus of this call, but congratulations on a strong free cash flow. Clearly have capacity to do so.

Yeah, I mean, as I think we mentioned on the last couple of calls, the activity level as far as deal flow is quite strong. So our corporate development group is quite busy with that. The issue with us, we always point out that we try to maintain our discipline And so finding something that's a good strategic fit for us and at a price that we think we can create some value with is always really the challenge. We've passed on some things that weren't a good strategic fit. We've also passed on some things that we think valuation-wise just didn't make sense. It's always a challenge. There's a lot of money out there right now. We say money is kind of free and unlimited and availability. It's out there chasing deals, and so, you know, they've priced things quite high in some cases. We typically buy privately-owned companies, and we often buy companies that we've known for a long time and had relationships or even negotiations with for many years. If you look at most of our acquisitions, they fall under that strategy. And so, you know, at any given time, we're talking to, you know, 100, 200 companies or following a couple hundred. And, you know, if we can find something that, you know, Based on our criteria, as you pointed out, we've got the balance sheet to do it. So we're not constrained in any way from a financing or capital standpoint. Our challenge is finding things that are a good strategic fit and a good value. And our people are working hard at it, but it's always hard to predict when they'll come.

Best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. And this does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Jeffrey Powell, President, Executive Officer, and Director.

Thank you, Jonathan. So before wrapping up the call today, I just wanted to leave you with a couple of takeaways. 2021 was a record-setting year for Cadence, and our employees deserve a lot of credit for achieving these results. And I really want to thank all of our employees around the world for their tireless effort to meet our customers' needs. In 2022, we will continue to focus on meeting our customers' needs and with innovative technologies and solutions that really drive sustainable industrial processing. Our financial health is excellent, and our ability to generate strong free cash flow remains a cornerstone of Cadence's business model, and we look forward to delivering exceptional value for our stakeholders in 2022. With that, I want to thank you for joining us today, and please take care and stay safe.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation at today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.