Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (BW) Q4 2021 earnings call transcript

Thank you, Victoria, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises' fourth quarter and full-year 2021 earnings conference call. I'm Megan Wilson, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at B&W. Joining me this morning are Kenny Young, B&W's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Lou Salamone, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our fourth quarter and full year results.

During this call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and in our annual report on Form 10-K that is on file with the SEC, and provide further detail about the risks related to our business. Additionally, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. We also provide non-GAAP information regarding certain of our historical and targeted results to supplement the results provided in accordance with GAAP. This information should not be considered superior to, or as a substitute for, the comparable GAAP measures.

A reconciliation of historical non-GAAP measures can be found in our fourth quarter and full-year earnings release published this morning and in our company overview presentation filed on Form 8K this morning and posted on the Investor Relations section of our website at babcock. com.

With that, I will turn the call over to Kenny.

Thanks, Megan. Thanks, Victoria, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. Well, wow, what a year. 2021 was a year of unprecedented growth and accomplishments for B&W, especially compared to 2020. Revenues were up about 28%. Our net income swung from a loss of negative $10 million to net income of about $32 million, positive. And an adjusted EBITDA increased by about 260%, excluding a non-recurring loss recovery in 2020. We also achieved our ambitious target of adjusted EBITDA of $70 million for the year. Annual bookings and ending backlog were both up about 20% with our highest level of annual bookings since 2017. Our quarter over quarter results for the fourth quarter were actually just as significant.

The revenues were up about 28%. That income was up a remarkable 504%. And adjusted EBITDA was up about 77%, and bookings were up 61%. In 2021, we did what we said we would do. We focused on execution. We booked four renewable waste-to-energy new-build projects in 2021, and actually a fifth we just announced last month. We closed several strategic acquisitions and continued investing in building our climate-bright decarbonization platform, including driving forward on commercial demonstration projects for our innovative bright-loop hydrogen production technology. Our extraordinary fourth quarter bookings of $269 million included awards of two additional renewable new-build projects, including contracts for $58 million and $24 million to supply advanced waste energy technology for power plants in Europe.

With the addition of an $11 million booking for biomass boiler upgrade in the beginning of 2022, we have booked five sizable renewable energy projects since September. Our recent acquisitions over the last six months have strategically expanded our clean and renewable energy businesses. We're excited about the substantial opportunities we see for solar, solar installation and construction services in the United States through our BW Fossler solar business, which is reflected through our growing pipeline. We are also exploring opportunities to combine solar with B&W's long-term, long-duration energy storage solutions and look forward to continuing our efforts to drive these newer technologies. Through our November acquisition of Voda, a flexible, scalable, renewable aftermarket parts and services business based in Denmark, we launched our B&W Renewable Services Platform to further expand our renewable operation and maintenance for parts and services business in Europe and focused on renewable waste-to-energy and biomass-to-energy technologies.

In February of this year, we acquired FPS, a leading designer and manufacturer of hydrogen, natural gas, and renewable pulp and paper combustion equipment and technologies based in Nova Scotia, Canada. FPS igniters and control system capabilities are ideally suited to clean energy applications such as firing hydrogen, which complements B&W's hydrogen generation and combustion technologies. And we see significant potential growth in those markets, not only in North America, but around the world.

In February, we also completed a small bolt-on acquisition of Optimus Industries in Fulsa, Oklahoma, which designs and manufactures waste-heat recovery products, including package boilers, water tube and fire tube, waste-heat boilers, economizers and superheaters, and units for sulfuric acid plants. We expect the addition of U. S. package boiler manufacturing capabilities to increase our U. S. market access and create additional opportunities for the combined business moving forward.

We are continuing to explore additional acquisition and investment opportunities in both emerging technologies and mature markets and aggressively pursuing opportunities to further increase shareholder value. Our results, bookings, and strategic actions in 2021 have positioned us for an even stronger 2022.

Looking forward, as we previously mentioned, we increased our 2022 target to a range of $110 million to $120 million in adjusted EBITDA, and our overall pipeline is now more than $7.5 million of identified project opportunities through 2024. which again does not include parts and services. Additionally, we anticipate growth in our parts and service business as the year progresses due to higher demand by our install base as a direct result of higher natural gas prices. Our robust and growing pipeline, recent contract wins, and strategic acquisitions give us confidence in our ability to achieve a significant year-over-year growth in 2022, and we anticipate that full year 2022 will realize the potential and continued momentum of our ongoing growth strategies.

As always, our EBITDA will ramp between Q1 being the lowest and Q4 being the highest as normal based on our historical trends. Most importantly, we believe that 2022 will be a milestone year for our Climate Bright decarbonization platform, as interest in our technologies is rapidly expanding, particularly for our breakthrough Bright Loop technology to produce hydrogen in our steam or sin gas from a variety of fuels or feedstocks while isolating CO2 for sequestration of utilization without, the good news, without any additional parasitization. In November of 2021, we signed an exclusive global license agreement with Ohio State Innovation Foundation for a unique particle that is used within our BrightLoop platform for decarbonization and the production of hydrogen and or steam or syngas, which complements B&W's existing chemical looping technology portfolio.

This technology was jointly researched and developed by B&W in collaboration with The Ohio State University, and it's used to produce hydrogen from syngas. It's been successfully demonstrated. We have proven how fully scalable and adaptable this technology is for both large and small installations, and we are excited about its transformational potential. So excited, in fact, that we are now moving forward with a number of potential commercial-scale demonstration projects, including detailed design and engineering, site selection, permitting, and financing, all with a goal of having equipment on the ground for at least one plant by the end of 2022 and producing hydrogen by the end of 2023. I going to turn the call over to Lou to discuss the key points of our financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2021 as well as our full year results.

Lou?

Thanks, Kenny. First, I'll review our full year 2021 results, and then I'll turn to our fourth quarter 2021 results. For further detail, I call your attention to the fact that we filed our 10-K with the SEC, and you can refer to it for further details beyond what we discuss here in this call. Consolidated revenues for 2021 were $723.4 million. A 28% improvement compared to 2020. The improvement was primarily due to a higher level of activity in our thermal and environmental segments, expanded geographic presence, and improved strategies to mitigate the continued impact of COVID-19, as well as the acquisitions of Fossler and Voda in our renewable segment. Net income in 2021 was $31.5 million compared to a net loss of $10.3 million in 2020.

Gap operating income in 2021 was $20.8 million compared to an operating loss of $1.7 million in 2020. This increase is primarily due to the earlier referenced increase in revenue. We also note that operating income in the prior year included a $26 million settlement from an insurer, which is a one-time item. We achieved our 2021 adjusted EBITDA target of more than $70 million, with an adjusted EBITDA reaching $70.6 million, as compared to $19.7 million in 2020. And the $19.7 million excludes the non-recurring $26 million settlement, which I mentioned a few moments ago. Total bookings in 2021 were $779 million, a 21% increase compared to full-year bookings in 2020. This is the highest level of annual bookings since 2017.

Backlogged at December 31, 2021 was $639 million, and that's a 19% increase compared to the prior year end. Let me now turn to our fourth quarter results. Fourth quarter consolidated revenues were $192 million, a 28% improvement compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. This is primarily due to a higher level of activity in our project business within all three segments, including, as Kenny mentioned, four large waste energy projects in the renewable segment, and a fifth we just signed, and increased construction volume in the future. in the thermal segment, as well as the acquisitions of Fossler and Voda. Net income in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $30.2 million. This is more than six times the net income of $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Our GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $9.7 million, more than four times the operating income of $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. This increase was primarily due to the earlier reference revenue increase, as well as predictable project execution. Adjusted EBITDA was $27.9 million in the quarter compared to $15.8 million in the 2020 quarter. Bookings in the fourth quarter of 2021 were $269 million. This is a 61% increase compared to fourth quarter bookings in 2020. I will now turn to cash flow, balance sheet, and liquidity. Cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter of 2021 was a use of $3.4 million. We ended the quarter with total debt of $340 million and cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of $226 million for a net debt of approximately $114 million.

This is inclusive of the net proceeds under our 6.5% senior notes offering, which was executed in December and after cash paid for the acquisition of Fossler and Voda. Net leverage at December 31 was 1.61 times the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA. Net interest expense for the quarter was $8.7 million as compared to $9.8 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease is primarily driven by the reduction in the interest rate based on our last out-term loans and the rates secured on our senior notes issued during the public common stock and senior notes offering in 2021. As Kenny stated, our strong results for the fourth quarter were propelled by continued execution of our growth strategy and drove us to achieve our adjusted EBITDA target of more than $70 million for the full year 2021.

We booked four sizable renewable waste-to-energy projects and new build projects in 2021, contributing again, as I said, to the highest level of annual booking since 2017. We closed several strategic acquisitions in the past six months and anticipate those acquisitions will further propel our growth in coming years. We expect 2022's quarterly profile to follow our normal cyclical performance of increasing profitability from the first through the fourth quarter. Again, as Kenny stated, we're reiterating our 2022 target of $110 to $120 million of adjusted EBITDA, and this is supported by a robust pipeline of more than $7.5 billion of opportunities through 2024 and a $639 million backlog at the end of 2021, a 19% improvement over the prior year, and the accelerating momentum of our strategic actions.

I'll now turn it back over to Kenny.

Thanks for that. Well, in closing, we have made tremendous strides over the past three years, and we are extremely proud of the milestone year we achieved at Babcock & Wilcox in 2021. Our employees around the world have stepped up to meet the global demand, and we want to recognize Thank you, G. W. I'm a bright decarbonization platform and progress on a pursuit of 20-plus potential climate bright projects and driving forward on bright loop carbon capture and hydrogen commercial demonstration projects. The technology reviews we are seeing from our customers regarding our bright loop platform is giving us even greater confidence in the long-term demand of this emerging technology. And looking forward to 2022, we are confident about the year-over-year growth we expect to achieve for the coming year with a targeted adjusted EBITDA of $110 to $120 million.

The strategic actions and growth strategies we have been working on for several years are materializing, which is proven by our recent significant bookings, substantially increased backlog, and our more than $7.5 billion in three-year pipeline. As B&W continues to deploy our innovative environmental and renewable offerings, including our waste-to-energy and climate-bright decarbonization technologies, we are confident that our capabilities will continue to demonstrate B&W's role as a leader and an innovator that advances the world's energy transition solutions. And as always, we continue to drive our results towards increased shareholder value.

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Victoria and Megan who can help take any questions. Victoria?

Sure. Well, waste-to-energy has been a strong suit of the company for many, many years and has always been strong in Europe. Much stronger than, in fact, here in the United States from an uptake or use of waste to create energy.

The demand you're seeing really reflected strongly both of the marketplace and what we see in the marketplace worldwide. We also announced a project in Southeast Asia as well. But we're seeing opportunities emerge actually in the United States as well, but also through Europe and through more Southeast Asia. The good news for us is, you know, as we've recapitalized our company many, many times over the past couple of years, move us into a very strong position, it has strengthened our abilities to take on more projects. And our customers and partners and some of the groups that we work with jointly on these opportunities are seeing more and more waste energy demand to be created or built in Europe.

But the other side of that is we are also seeing an increased demand on some of the older waste-to-energy plants and technologies that are out there to upgrade or convert or enhance or augment those plants and facilities as well. And so it's one of the reasons we invested in the parts and services business in Northern Europe was to be in a much better position to take advantage of those emerging market opportunities. As we continue to look worldwide, obviously, we do see the need to reduce greenhouse gases, in particular from methane, methane reduction from landfills. To us, it's still a very strong part of the global change to reduce greenhouse gases. You know, we've often talked about the fact that, you know, even here in the U. S. , you know, there's methane from landfills, which would equate to the same greenhouse gas effect of roughly 77 million automobiles.

And so it still is a significant issue related to, you know, a global environmental aspect and reducing greenhouse gases overall. And we're starting to see opportunities emerge in the U. S. There are still some other areas that need to improve to make it a much more economical, attractive solution here. But meanwhile, Europe is still a growing market for us, and we continue to work on a number of opportunities over there and anticipate making further announcements this year, obviously, on additional bookings in our waste-to-energy technology from Europe and potentially in other parts of the world as well.

Well, you know, as we often talk about and did on the call as well, too, you know, we do have a strong parts and services business within our thermal segment that, you know, relies on various fossil fuel, both in the industrial and the utility sector for that. I think that the increase, the main increase or driver for us is on natural gas. When natural gas prices go up, you know, other forms of fuel is used to create energy, and that bodes well for us from a partisan services perspective. It's always interesting because it's too full. On one hand, when the natural gas prices increase significantly, then there's more power output from other forms of plastic fuels, and those plants operate to their fullest capacity for much longer periods of time.

So as they operate for longer periods of time, there's clearly more wear and tear that occurs, and eventually that leads to greater parts and services that come through our thermal operation. So, you know, with worldwide right now, as we obviously continue to watch and observe what's happening with all of the different geopolitical aspects that occur in these days, as well as, you know, potentially increases in natural gas and other energy forms, some of those have very positive impacts for us in and around that. And we also see shifts of, you know, especially in Europe right now where natural gas is becoming a premium, you know, you just see kind of a natural inclination for a lot of the utility and energy providers to go back and look at alternate forms.

We think also long-term that helps drive further initiatives around hydrogen production, you know, and the use of hydrogen as a replacement from a fuel source in the long run. And so, you know, we're equally excited about the impacts that that could lead to our hydrogen production capabilities. And as we mentioned on this call, we're looking to move forward with one or two commercial demonstrations yet this year. So, you know, the impacts, you know, impact us in various ways from that standpoint, but we don't see them as a negative.

I think as we talked about and have talked about in the past, as we continue to evolve and execute against our strategy, over the next couple of years, you will see that transition of revenues going towards two-thirds environmental and renewable. Our pipeline and obviously our recent announcements support that, and we'll see that increase. You know, over that period of time. You know, as we also talked about on the call today, our ramp, you know, in EBITDA towards our target of the 110-120 will be just like this year. It'll be Q1 will be the lowest, Q4 will be the highest. So it's just, we're, you know, a lot of cyclical trends to our business, especially in the, you know, in the parts and services side.

It's just normal course for us, and we'll see that again this year. But, you know, at the same time, we also know the bookings that we anticipate and projects that we're heavily involved in and actively working to pursue to close and those announcements, whether they be, you know, Q1, Q2, Q3, but we have that timing layered into our targets and, you know, fully see and anticipate, you know, reaching those milestones. But it'll be – it'll occur just like it normally does, Q1 being low, Q4 being high.

Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate that.

Perfect.

Sure. Kenny, the tough question first, can you address the situation over in Eastern Europe and how it may shift customers' views on both thermal and clean energy projects?

Sure. You know, obviously, it's an ever-davely moving situation that's occurring, and we watch it very closely in that regard. You know, the biggest impact, short order, obviously, is natural gas prices and the access to natural gas in Europe.

You know, for us, it's too early to determine whether or not that that will lead to an increased, you know, exponentially moving growth on waste energy, meaning, you know, will more and more countries adopt a different platform for energy consumption or energy production? And so it's a little too early to see that. We do see growth in our waste energy environment, but I would say it's reflected or impacted by what's happening in Ukraine at the moment.

We are seeing, obviously, in talking to many customers about the shift in their future, and obviously they're trying to figure out long term if they need to look at different energy sources to create energy in the long run. And we're having those conversations with them at this point in time, but it's still too early to see any real impact that will hit us. And you know we hate to predict obviously anything at this point in time and it a very delicate situation in the geopolitical aspect in Ukraine But we seeing a lot of focus and a lot of requests to discuss different alternative energy sources including hydrogen and other biofuels in Europe And some of that is as a result of what's happening right now in Europe, and some of that's just normal course in a direction that started years ago that continues to grow.

So I'd probably leave it at that right now, Alex.

Yeah, we still look globally. We're very active in both, you know, ownership M&A, companies that we would acquire, you know, in total, or even with leaving some minority ownership with the original founders. But, you know, we're equally looking at small investments in emerging technologies that complement or help propel our hydrogen production and other, you know, decarbonization technologies globally. Obviously, we see the need to keep investing and expanding, and we're getting a lot of momentum, especially around the potential for biomass to hydrogen production as an alternative source of energy, in particular around our BrightLoop platform. And that's coming from a lot of different vertical industries as well as in the utility sector as well. And we'll continue to look at investments in those areas, in particular around some of these emerging aspects.

And those could be, you know, in Europe, within the U. S. , you know, and elsewhere in the world. But we're, you know, excited about some of those opportunities and where they can help B&W grow, you know, more and more. You know, of course, we'll still keep an eye on and look and evaluate opportunities to acquire cash flows, Especially where there's high synergies, where those make sense, I think it's just prudent that we evaluate those kind of opportunities as well, too. But there's strength of what we're looking at from an M&A standpoint. It's a lot towards the emerging technologies and where those may lead.

Thanks, Alex.

Yeah, one of the unique characteristics around FPS technology, in particular the hydrogen scanners, is when you burn or consume hydrogen from a combustion standpoint, the flame is not often visible. And so you need some strong, very strong scanner technology as it relates to that sensitivity. And, you know, one of the things that we really liked about FPS, well, twofold really around it. One, you know, B&W has been, as part of its parts and services, utilizing FPS technology for many, many years. And so it was an easy extension as it relates to some of our parts and services business today. But they are one of the few companies in the world that has a strong platform around scanning technology for hydrogen and hydrogen igniters as well.

And so it was combining that, we felt that obtaining that technology, which would be required as hydrogen becomes more and more prevalent in the marketplace, was a significant advantage for us. One that we felt that we could incorporate on a global basis. FPS had been more focused on, you know, the North America market was predominantly where they played.

We are anxious and obviously working hard to bring the product portfolio up to an international standard, and we'll be doing that, and one which we think we can grow on an international basis through our global parts and services organization. But we think that technology was important from the hydrogen combustion standpoint.

Well, you know, excited that the pipeline continues to build, you know, in projects, again, renewable projects, in particular here in the U. S. , as well as in Europe. Overall, you know, anticipate that we'll see some announcements of bookings, you know, in the, you know, Q1, Q2 timeframe, probably more Q2 at this stage. But, you know, we anticipate that in, you know, other projects throughout the year that we're working on now. Obviously, when you're working on some of these larger projects out there, those take time to work through the engineering aspects, the contract negotiation aspects, just normal, typical, you know, nature. of getting those projects accomplished and through our outdoor booking standpoint so that we can start to execute on those projects.

But there are a number of active projects that we're heavily involved in right now, again, both in the U. S. and Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as the Middle East. And, you know, as these continue to develop, obviously, we'll push to get those announced as quickly as we can once they're ready to go. But there's some very exciting opportunities that we see out there that we fully intend to book and get announced this year. So I would say you would start to see more of that happen in the Q2, Q3, and Q4 timeframes around our bookings, which is very typical for us.

But there are a number that we're working on right now, and it's just reflective in the fact that our pipeline continues to grow. I think we've increased it from $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion, just to give some color on that.

Thanks, Rob.

Solar continues to build. The pipeline for solar continues to build for us in opportunities, and we're actively engaged in a number of opportunities right now. And I would say, you know, one of the nice things about the business that we acquired is that they are capable of delivering, you know, smaller community solar projects, you know, down in the 5, you know, 10, 20 megawatt range, but, you know, equally capable of delivering larger projects that, you know, would be in the 100, you know, plus megawatt range for solar output. But obviously, that's restricted for us right now in the United States in that regard. But we are working on a number of projects right now. Obviously, bringing in the panels from an overall standpoint varies.

It depends on the customer and capabilities and which ones have access to those panels and those technologies right now. But we do see a number of smaller projects where any supply chain constraint wouldn't be necessarily an issue as part of that overall portfolio. Some of the larger projects would be phased in probably over a longer term period in balancing that, but we're seeing both those opportunities increase our pipeline right now. And again, anticipate booking a few of those projects this year.

Thank you for joining us. That concludes our conference call. A replay will be available for a limited time on our website later today. Thank you everybody for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.