5/9/2024

speaker
Tyler
Chief Financial Officer, Vista Outdoor

Chief Financial Officer, Vista Outdoor. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call, we'll be making several forward-looking statements reflecting future events and their potential effect on our operating and financial performance. We make these statements under the state's harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements reflect our best estimates and assumptions based on our understanding of information known to us today, and we are under no obligation to provide updates to these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties that face Vista Outdoor and the industries in which we operate, and actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review our quarterly earnings press release and Vista Outdoor's SEC filings for more information on these risk factors and uncertainties. Please also note that we have posted presentation materials on our website at investors.vistaoutdoor.com, which supplement our comments this morning and include reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures. Eric, I'll turn it over to you.

speaker
Eric
President & Chief Executive Officer, Vista Outdoor

Thanks, Tyler. And thank you all for joining us this morning as we discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 results. I'm excited to be speaking with you today on behalf of the VISTA Outdoor Leadership Team to share our confident belief in the long-term strategy and strong foundation that we continue to build on at VISTA Outdoor, Revelist, and the Kinetic Group. The company is strong. And during the fourth quarter, we achieved financial results in line with our expectations for sales and above our expectations on profitability. Total sales for the fiscal year were 2.75 billion with adjusted EBITDA margins of 16.1%. We generated 432 million of adjusted free cash flow during the fiscal year, allowing us to pay down $340 million of debt throughout the year. In the fourth quarter, Our cash flow remained strong as we generated $161 million of adjusted free cash flow and decreased our net debt by $118 million, bringing our leverage ratio to 1.5 times at year end. These strong results are a testament to our long-term strategic vision and the hard work and dedication from all of our employees. As an update on the proposed transaction with CSG, we continue to be confident in our ability to receive CFIUS clearance and that all other closing conditions will be satisfied. At the closing of the CSG transaction, for each Vista Outdoor share held, stockholders will receive $12.90 in cash consideration and one Revalist share. Following closing of the CSG transaction, we intend to capitalize the Revalist balance sheet with $250 million of cash, and all cash above that including the significant amount of cash generated in Q4 fiscal year 2024, will be distributed to shareholders in the form of a special dividend or share repurchase. Further, on April 22nd, we confirmed that we are engaging in alternative discussions with MNC Capital related to its March 25, 2024 unsolicited indication of interest. pursuant to which MNC expressed interest in acquiring Vista Outdoor in an all-cash transaction for $37.50 per Vista share. The Board does not consider MNC's revised proposal to be superior to the CSG transaction, and the significant decrease in net debt during the quarter further reinforces the view that MNC's proposed offer price undervalues the REVOIST business. That said, the Board has determined MNC's revised proposal meets the standard under the merger agreement with CSG, permitting engagement with MNC. Given these ongoing discussions, we will adjourn the special meeting of stockholders with respect to the CSG transaction to 9 a.m. Central Time on June 14th The Board continues to recommend VISTA stockholders vote in favor of the proposal to adopt the existing merger agreement with CSG. I am proud of the work our teams have accomplished in my time with the company, and our results demonstrate the strategic direction of VISTA Outdoor is the right one. Over the past year, we have made tremendous achievements across both Revelist and the Kinetic Group. despite the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and challenges. I want to thank all our employees for their passion and commitment to Vista Outdoor and our stakeholders. This has been a pivotal year in our company's rich history, and your diligent efforts to separate the business while continuing to deliver high-quality products and service to our consumers and our customers has been inspiring. Now, on to Revelist. At Revelist, we have made great progress over the last nine months. In partnership with our leadership team, we have formulated and driven the company strategy and I continue to be motivated by this team's unwavering support and passion. We have undertaken a journey to transform our organization into the leading global integrated house of brands in the outdoor industry. Our collective efforts during the fiscal year have enabled us to work through ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and challenges, and we have emerged stronger at each step along the way as we transform our business to unlock its full potential. Revelous finished the fourth quarter strong and delivered results in line with our expectations, with sales of $332 million and adjusted EBITDA of $29 million, translating to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.8%. tripling adjusted EBITDA versus the prior year period. Our teams across Revolist continue to profitably transform the business to be brand-led, consumer-obsessed, and maker-fueled, which results in new products, engaging content, exciting partnerships, and other opportunities to enable exceptional experiences that exceed the requirements of our passionate consumers and customers. I would like to quickly touch on some highlights across Revolus during the fiscal year. At our Revolus Precision Sports Technology Platform, we announced the acquisition of PinSeeker, a leading off-course golf simulator and connectivity app that hosts real-time virtual closest to the pin tournaments. We are excited to add PinSeeker to our collective of world-class maker brands and to bolster our digital and gaming ecosystem. Through the combination of PinSeeker's digital solutions and Foresight's hardware, exciting esports opportunities will arise, so stay tuned for details in the coming months. We believe we are poised to revolutionize off-course golf, a tremendous growth opportunity where participation reached a new all-time high in 2023, expanding to 33 million participants. In addition, at Bushnell Golf, A leading industry survey reported that over 98% of the players' championship field used a Bushnell laser rangefinder in preparation for their on-course competition. The trust that professional golfers have in our devices speaks volumes about our team's proven ability to provide market-leading innovations for the highest performing athletes in golf. Within our Revelist Adventure Sports platform, The teams continue to make progress on building our powerful brand infrastructure for Fox, Bell, Giro, Camelback, Quiet Cat, and Blackburn. In the quarter, Fox delivered the most advanced motocross helmet in the brand's 50-year history with the new V3 RS helmet. Fox has developed a compelling architecture of off-road helmets that address the needs of riders on all levels and abilities across the globe. In addition, Fox launched collaborations with the streetwear juggernaut Supreme and high-end specialty apparel and sneaker boutique Livestock to elevate its lifestyle offering. The Giro brand expanded its reach by entering into an agreement to be the official sponsor and supplier of cycling helmets for Visma Lisa Bike, the number one pro tour road cycling team in the world for both the men's and women's teams across cyclocross, road, cross-country disciplines. Giro continues to increase or maintain its market share across all categories and these leading partnerships differentiate us in the marketplace. In addition, the Revolust outdoor performance team continues to integrate and build out the platform led by Sims, Bushnell, Stone Glacier, Camp Chef, Primos, Blackhawk, and Eagle. At Sims, The team received eight customer gear awards more than any other brand at the 2024 fly fishing show, including best men's waiter for the newly introduced top end G4Z stocking foot waiter. This is a key product for the brand that highlights its heritage and the craftsmanship precision and attention to detail. The Bozeman based team demonstrates day in and day out. Additionally, Stone Glacier launched its new lifestyle apparel of everyday wear for the passionate hunter to a strong initial response. And our Eagle business was awarded a U.S. Air Force contract for its battle belt system, in addition to supporting the U.S. government in manufacturing the MOLLE 4K rucksack that has strict adherence to delivery requirements. I remain confident in the strategy and vision that we have developed at Revelist. We are transforming our organization into the leading global integrated house of brands in the outdoor industry to deliver wildly human experiences for our consumers. Through our brand-led, consumer-obsessed, maker-fueled mission, we will drive growth through innovative product and technology offerings, an enhanced direct-to-consumer channel strategy, and an expanded digital gaming ecosystem. Our direct-to-consumer sales across platforms continues to gain further traction, growing approximately 5% year-over-year during both Q4 and the entirety of the fiscal year. Revelist Precision Sports Technology led the way in the quarter, improving D2C sales by 16%, while Revelist Adventure Sports gained 15% for the full fiscal year. We are excited about these results, which show that demand for our brands is strong, absent the inventory noise within wholesale and retail channels. Moving on, I want to touch on the ongoing Gear Up transformation efforts, where we made tremendous progress during the quarter. As a reminder, Gear Up is our transformation program to simplify our business model, increase efficiency and profitability, and reinvest cost savings into our highest potential brands to accelerate top line growth and EBITDA expansion. Our teams continue to drive progress across the GEAR UP initiative through work on supply chain consolidation. As a recent example of this effort, we closed our Reno, Nevada warehouse and distribution center to further consolidate our footprint. Additionally, we announced key leadership hires including our most recent addition of Joe Beck as Chief Supply Chain Officer. Joe's previous experience executing a supply chain strategy during a business separation and his ability to design and deploy global supply chain operations for a standalone business, including hiring talent, building effective teams and developing processes, analytics, and technology, make him the ideal hire as Revelist's first Chief Supply Chain Officer. Through the GEAR UP efforts outlined here and more, we remain confident our actions will realize $25 to $30 million of run rate cost savings in fiscal year 2025, supporting the potential to double standalone adjusted EBITDA year over year, with a long-term goal of realizing $100 million of run rate cost savings by fiscal year 2027. Financially and operationally, we are on track. While in the short term, we do not expect consumers to meaningfully change purchasing patterns due to ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties. We are confident that Revolus operational and organizational improvements will continue to positively impact profitability in both the short and the long term. We reaffirm our ability to double our standalone adjusted EBITDA in fiscal year 2025 and longer term believe that Revalyst's standalone adjusted EBITDA margins will be in the mid-teens. In closing, I am confident that our future is bright. We've established a strong foundation that will help us navigate the uncertain macroeconomic climate and exceed the demands of our passionate consumers and customers. I again want to express my sincere gratitude to the team for their incredible work, support, and commitment to Revelist's success. Our team is comprised of talented individuals with extraordinary skills, knowledge, and experience, and I am excited about what we can achieve together. I'll now hand it over to Jason to provide an update on the Kinetic Group for the quarter. Jason, over to you.

speaker
Jason
President, Kinetic Group, Vista Outdoor

Good morning. The Kinetic Group finished the year strong, achieving our financial guidance we provided last quarter. Sales in the fourth quarter were $362 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 27.7% or $100.3 million, capping off a solid performance by our team in the face of a difficult market. For the year, ammunition net sales finished at $1.45 billion with an adjusted EBITDA of $415.8 million, which equates to a margin of 28.6%. As we prepare for a potential ownership transition in 2024, we are encouraged by our quarterly and year-end results and recent sales trends. We have a strong order position and there are backlogs in several product categories that strengthen our confidence in delivering on our financial expectations. We have some challenges ahead related to higher commodity input costs, including powder and copper, but pricing actions taken to offset the increased production costs have not impacted open orders. From a select group of retail partners, POS data indicates sell-through remains strong with double-digit increases in handgun, shot shell, and rifle ammunition year over year by a number of rounds in each of the highlighted categories. Along with the positive sell-through trends, we remain encouraged by overall inventory levels, which have remained stable over the last quarter. For the 57th straight month ending in April, adjusted NICS checks data surpassed more than 1 million firearms checks. This continued high monthly volume supports a healthy and higher baseline of shooting and hunting participants. This past quarter, our leading ammunition brands launched several new products at the annual SHOT Show to great fanfare. Federal launched Fusion Tip for the avid whitetail hunter wanting better accuracy and extended ranges from a proven bullet design. Remington added Premier Cut to its lineup of effective big game bullets. This tough copper alloy bullet delivers on hunters' expectations of extreme accuracy and terminal performance from a tipped bullet. CCI, the leader in rimfire ammunition, released Uppercut, the first ever expanding self-defense offering in .22 long rifle. Our teams at all four manufacturing facilities remain focused on building the best ammunition in America and delivering on customer and consumer demand. There are two constants in our company history. We are unapologetic defenders of the Second Amendment as a constitutional right and will always support the men and women in law enforcement and the military who protect our homes and freedoms. We will continue to work with all of them on research and development for new products to help them in their missions. I have full confidence that with the best team in the ammunition business, we will continue to perform at the highest level, and our future is filled with great opportunities. Thank you. Andy?

Disclaimer

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