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c19b5202b16ce3379e2921c533f651b4
And so just moving forward into 2022 here, where do you see your sales force trend indeed do you think you're going to invest more in that, or do you think you might keep it at the level of that currently? How do you think about that?
By and large, I think we've got what we want from a structural point of view, from a segmentation point of view there are areas of the world or parts of the segment in some segments where people continue to invest. But by and large, I think we're in a good place and we focused on productivity like we saw in last quarte...
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B
e3fef858e67708a90631fb4089ee5b33
My question is about MAU. We saw a big acceleration in this quarter. Could management give us some colors on how much of the growth was driven by the pandemic in 1Q and how much was organic? And as light in China is getting back to normal, how should we look at the trend of your MAU growth post the pandemic? For the ne...
Indeed, we had an outstanding first quarter in terms of user growth. And we believe that user growth is based on two factors. One is 10 years of devotion and dedication in building a healthy content ecosystem and friendly community to ensure that we always have the highest quality content to offer to our users. And sec...
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d187d2aefff2411ca4684f2bdcfad07f
My question is mainly about the commercialization of non-game business. We have seen strong revenue growth in fourth quarter of non-game, especially less and we also noticed some positive business development recently in music and live streaming. Could management share more color on the efforts we have made in non-game...
So we haven't changed our concept in our non-game business plan or strategies since our IPO. So from every part of our live broadcasting business, we've always emphasized live broadcasting for Bilibili as an ability. It's based on current view content ecosystem, and we have massive users gathering around Bilibili conte...
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2b8d26526b3cdb25688a3ee3a965082c
My question is on sales and marketing spending. Could management provide us some breakdown, this quarter's sales and marketing expenses? And also could management share more updates on this year's brand image upgrade, considering our recent platform branding initiative resulted in a pretty heated discussion among users...
Okay. Alex, I will take your question and Carly will add more color about the upgrades. As Chairman Chen Rui mentioned, our user growth is still the top priority of our business in this year. So it's also the cornerstone of our commercial monetization progress. So if you look at the -- all the numbers, the main compone...
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7f85dd2c473ef8a7a9a403df75db382c
My question is related to the mobile game business. So just a follow-up on the previous question, how do we foresee the mobile game business growth for the coming quarter, considering many gamers potentially have resumed work and school with potentially reducing gaming time? And my second question is regarding, since w...
So we actually don't believe the whole pandemic has big influence on our game business. Actually, we are quite confident throughout the rest of the year with our game business, we currently have 30 games, exclusively licensed games in our pipeline. Eight of those already acquired approval and majority of those pipeline...
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33f5f32a4f8b13fcd35301102225bffa
My first question is regarding MAU target. As we already achieved more than 170 million MAUs in first quarter, should we expect to revise up to full year target and also next year? My second question is related to PUGV competition. There are many more platforms, allowing content creators to upload platform and they als...
Okay. Regarding first question on the user target, we are confident to say, we are -- we will achieve our user target in advance. When we get there, we'll talk further about raising our user target. And your second question about the competition. I think, the essential -- the foundation of your question relies on how w...
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1f88aefaf48b19cf92b01eef7f52b2bd
Hi, this is Chad [Phonetic] on for Spiro. Just wanted to start off, Rich, you've been consistent in the past when I asked this question, but it's one we're getting again. How do you all think about the prospects for HEP as a fold in candidate? It seems a rare event is occurring given that HFC is trading at a premium to...
Hey, Chad, afternoon. I don't know that I'd agree with the statement that trading at a premium. If you look at '22, which I would consider to be more normalized year, my last night consensus EBITDA multiples were something like six and nine for HFC and HEP respectively. So, I'm not sure I would agree with the premium a...
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330f3331ff148bb0a026a355f390f0ad
Okay, understood. That's clear. And then my second question, how are you thinking about the impact from the Texas freeze-offs on your system?
Fortunately for us I think they were pretty minor. Keep in mind that HEP has obviously had some pretty substantial minimum volume commitments. So, really the exposure that HEP has from a non-MVP perspective centers largely on the Northwest or the Salt Lake area and that was basically unaffected, the weather there was a...
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1e6c7df212757c0b4589437217cfd0f0
Hi, thanks for taking my question. Just want to ask kind of a -- hi -- first one I wanted to ask, kind of a capital allocation question with two parts. First part, I guess, why does -- how are you thinking about paying down debt versus increasing returns to shareholders either through buybacks or distribution growth at...
Okay. Hey, Joe. It's John. So deleveraging is definitely our top priority for incremental retained cash flow, as we've demonstrated in the last few quarters. And we have every intention to continue to work that number down, down to our target of 3.0 to 3.5 times. In terms of pace, the amount of the repayment each quar...
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4d2791c19fd93a559bab8d5824c9e266
Yes. Yes. That makes sense. I hear you there. I guess, just kind of a follow-up. I guess, how are you thinking about the 3 to 3.5 leverage target? And why is that the right level for you guys? And just does recontracting risks playing at all into that or just kind of growth in general? And do you mind just kind of remi...
So let me take it to Joe on that the 3 to 3.5, we've -- we've done a fair amount of math. We've also talked to, obviously, a lot of folks in the market. We feel like that's a good number to your point, we've got a very stable base business here. So we feel like we could handle more leverage, but we would like that incr...
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6c21ecbc2a7a3fac59f8fcca1865b460
Yeah, thank you for taking my questions. Just on the guidance around the Brazil business. So just doing the math, you're basically saying that the units for mobile are going to be up 20% and the Brazil mobile revenue will be up mid-single digits, if I heard that correctly. So that means ASPs are still coming down decen...
Yeah, I mean, we still expect ASPs to be down somewhere between 10%, 15% in Q1 as well. So units are up at -- ASPs are going down. So the revenues are not growing as fast as it would have. ASPs were flattening out.
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1c3dd41a5eb3f4b0dc6b79c282eac09c
And then on -- in terms of your -- in the specialty memory, the customers working down their inventory issues, the OEMs. Is there a specific area of vertical within specialty memory? Is it on the server storage? Is it on the networking side? And you mentioned that you expect the bottom in that area -- what's giving you...
So the answer is, yes. Okay, all of the above have had over inventoried out in their channels. And this reference is really into the supply chain part of the business, which -- now we're dealing with the customers and more of their products are going through channels and so definitely, there's a lot of channel inventor...
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01c93a6cd401143427e2dc8961fb915a
And last question would be on the points system. A lot of discussion and uncertainty around the new points system. Ajay you have mentioned that you view this actually as a positive for your business because it eliminates -- well, first of all, let me ask [Phonetic] uncertainty now that new rules are lifted. But it give...
Sure. As I think you may be alluded to in your question, the points are different for different areas. So for example, mobile phone, which is I think the area that you referred too. Mobile phone, the way that system is defined is, I think there's a gross total of 151 points. And the -- our customers are required to ach...
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82b2cbda94fb142a2cc97ca46c1aec03
Hey, guys. This is Tom O'Malley on for Blayne Curtis. Just a quick question on Artesyn and Inforce in the August quarter. Could you guys break out how much they contributed to revenue in the quarter?
This is a partial quarter, sorry, I didn't catch your name. But Tom, this is a partial quarter, so it's not meaningful what we did in the last period because these acquisitions didn't close to somewhere approximately middle of July. So -- but what we have said is that for the quarter or for the year, these acquisitions...
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df0b97222d7d6b2fc6b0dcc0530536ff
Okay. I guess a better way to ask the question then is just from a Penguin exclusively perspective, clearly, this is a seasonally strong quarter. Can you just give us some color on how that performed in the quarter? What kind of design traction are you seeing? And if you could give us some year-over-year commentary tha...
Penguin had as expected a strong quarter, and particularly driven by federal, because this is seasonally a high period for our federal business. And so the company came in more or less at expectations, but that business came in more or less at expectations. And so if we look at a year-over-year growth, we acquired the ...
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5f45bbb5a93d9ee6dc4a523fe9e8e4dc
Great, thank you. I want to go back to the implied guidance, I think you said that you expect Brazil mobile revenues to be up mid-single digit in both specialty computing and service businesses are also up, but I don't think recall you give a range. But the overall guidance is roughly flat. Does that mean the other bus...
Yeah, real quick. So on the Brazil piece, it really -- we expect Brazil as a whole will be up to single-digits, not just Brazil mobile memory. I mean that was -- so really -- Brazil as a whole -- as a whole group of business is going to be up in Q1 over Q4. Specialty compute we said would be up Q4 over Q1, so that woul...
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406f3f2f848f8aef29128a8d2be7d668
Okay, that's fair. Thanks. A follow up question is on the Brazil business, and you talk about the new rules in place, since July. You said -- you're seeing a rebound and forecast in volumes. How should we think about the revenue opportunity going forward for this, let's say, the entire Brazil business? Is the $90 milli...
Well, Sidney, I don't know if you are in the business of forecasting memory prices, but that's what we would need to be doing to really give you an answer, that's precise. Right now we're somewhere in that neighborhood. We are currently -- based on our forecast of some, but not as significant decline in memory prices l...
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55531d91984d90a1596174f20cc41ae4
Right, I'll have one more question, I'll go away, but if you're looking at the local manufacturing calculation within the new rules, how often are those calculations are being assessed and do you think we'll see periods where customer purchases are low and then followed by a period of catch-up, because they have to mak...
I think the short answer for right now is we don't know. Because these rules, as I said earlier, came into place July 1. We know that -- so earlier we had said that we expect the second half of calendar '19 to be stronger than the first half of calendar '19, and that we are seeing. Certainly in units, but even, right n...
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740fcefbd76345d644b942a2b5492770
Hi, Ajay. Hi, Jack. Can you talk about the Brazil business, you talked Ajay about with the rule changes, you can now run the business like your other segments. Can you elaborate on that, what that might mean for maybe the cost structure in Brazil, the capacity, how you might address that potential profitability improve...
No, it's a great question. I think that when we say that what we're saying is, see before you had a ceiling 50% and you had a floor 50%. So you would -- I'm talking specifically about mobile memory. It's different in different business, so I just want to clarify that, before I keep going and some of accuses me of havin...
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3459b9b0f23ebc1e3bfaf9be1dd0ff2c
No, I think the point about not having to ship 50% no matter what is very clear, I guess, it gives you a lot of flexibility. So that part helps for sure. And then going to the supply chain services, I'm sorry, the specialty computing business, the $90 million to $100 million from the acquisitions in fiscal '20 you're r...
Yeah. We don't think that the seasonality is quite the same because Penguin has a significant federal component which has this particular seasonality. However, Penguin is a big part of that specialty compute segment for us. And so we will see that variation, a weaker Q2 again because that's when the federal business is...
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ea2d21d323289897979f810a3dfd9cd7
Hi, this is V [Phonetic] here, I'm speaking on behalf of my [Indecipherable]. So a quick question here. I wanted to understand is till now our understanding was it's a pass along business essentially you buy memory components and you put them together and sell them. So can you help me understand how the memory price mo...
Yeah, I mean, so there's two ways. And we talked about demands. Of course this business, we have different ways, we charge our customers for services. So some of the services we charge our customer on a flat dollar rate, let's say, per unit, other parts of the services may be a percentage of the total value of the memo...
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8ec0f69e4896149ae46ddbe18c286d4f
I just wanted to start on redeferral rate, how are the early read on modifications I mean, and then any details on the percentage of these that were 90-day versus 180-day interest only versus full payment deferral just -- and then again, the early read on redeferral rate?
Sure. Approximately 78% of our overall modification is on the payment deferral. And as we had mentioned, as of June 30, we have about a $1.4 billion, representing 29%, 30% of our portfolio under modification. But most of these modifications were for the period of 90 days. So starting in the late June and also part of J...
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0f80458f58310ab4be87339b3791f92c
Okay, that's helpful. And then I guess as you grant these additional modifications, are you acquiring any additional collateral, personal guarantees and then, maybe just any downgrade of the risk ratings or anything?
As we speak, most of -- currently, of the loans under modifications, almost most of them had guarantees in place to begin with. In terms of additional collaterals, we are reviewing in each individual cases. So far, most of them we haven't had to ask for additional collateral.
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32302d0c5df6723cd74a9ff61f17ff6d
Okay, and then I guess just the last one from me. Just how do you think maybe that translate into additional reserve build? I mean, it seems like most of the heavy lifting has been done, but just as some of these modifications come through and then maybe negative credit migration, I mean should we expect some modest re...
It's fairly difficult to say that on the each individual loans in terms of a reserve impact on these loans, because we still have the second wave of the modifications to review, so I think we can get a more clear number, I think toward the -- maybe the end of the third quarter or even maybe the beginning of -- toward e...
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3e1c41198e1744f684c521a1062b13e7
Hi, everyone. Thanks for the question. Mostly, maybe switching to capital. Obviously, your regulatory ratios are still pretty healthy, but you did cut the dividend last quarter and absent [Phonetic] this, the securities gain this quarter. Again it would have been another lower quarter, so I'm just wondering how you guy...
So as you observed, Kelly, our capital ratios are fairly strong and they even are stronger when you start to give effect to the bulge that the PPP program causes some of those ratios. That said, as you know, capital management as well as asset quality and liquidity are really important matters for both management and t...
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9628bbe9c251e0c37365f0e8c0050d9c
Okay. And maybe if I can switch back a bit to credit. I appreciate all the color around deferrals and I understand that a lot of it was for a change in some qualitative factors you put for us under CECL. I was hoping you were -- you could kind of share what backdrop you've incorporated in kind of your modeling and mayb...
Sure. So as you know, in the first quarter, the onset of COVID and the adoption of CECL were on the heels of each other. We weren't using economic data at that time from the Federal Reserve, the FRED this is called, Federal Reserve Economic Data and they have not adjusted for what may be the COVID environment. And we'v...
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9d31481fedcb53d80061e250dedcc288
Thanks. Good afternoon. Bonnie, I wanted to make sure that I heard your comment correctly in terms of the redeferral rates. Did you say that the number of folks requesting second deferral was 30% of those that are expiring or 70%?
So currently, as of June 30, we have about $1.4 billion. And from that original modification about 30% of the modified customers from the first wave may not request the second additional 90-day modification. That clear...
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489edacbc285ce1b3967a291906578b6
Okay, OK. That's quite a bit higher number. We've heard from other banks. Obviously, with the hospitality and retail exposure, I'd imagine that that there is probably an overweight amount of those borrowers that would be requesting the second round deferrals, is that fair?
Yeah. Among all the segments, yeah, hospitality will be higher, yes.
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118ebd6acba05cb196c3a00914850e3c
Okay, OK. And then the loan, line of credit pay-down this quarter, as I think you pointed out, I mean, a big source of kind of the -- kind of offset to your production for the quarter, I think $90 million of worth of decline in line utilization. It's also what the line utilization was at quarter end and what your sense...
So second quarter end, line utilization was 40%. In any given quarter, line utilization is -- fluctuate anywhere from 50% to 55%. So second quarter was much, much lower than our average, but I would presume that's related to the lower economic activity.
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242cf6d453cfb54f9d7ee2c36ec0fe9b
Right. Do you have the expectations for that potentially getting down still further, I mean, I've had some banks claiming their line utilization is sub-30% right now. Do you have a sense of how far that might?
I would presume it will move from like a 40% to 45%. It may not quite reach to 50%.
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9a900954e8052222298f58e8cb8dedc7
Hi. I was -- just on the NIM, I was hoping to get some color on what new loan yields were looking like and if the pressure there is potentially offset by the repricing of CDs and roll-off there?
Kelly, new loan yields in the second quarter excluding P3 loans were about 4.2% and that's partially offset by obviously repricing of the CD rate. Going into the third quarter, we have a little over $300 million in the CD that's priced over -- a little over 2%. And if we price it down successfully below 60 basis points...
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d681f672ff1dd79ae8c05e424d9bd42f
Great. And not to beat a dead horse with deferrals, but I did want to see if -- while we've talked a lot about the redeferral rate, it's new deferrals at least have slowed or if there is additional borrowers coming in and few may need some assistance beyond just kind of what you had at June 30?
So we do not have a new deferral. It's a pretty -- that this is the same customer base that we had, if you just think deferrals. So one positive is that I said that, no new customers are asking for new deferrals and we're just trying to improve the -- from the existing customer base. So based on the communication that ...
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f51921c07c98c21f268201beccc0ed54
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for getting me in the queue there, I'm not sure what was going on. On the hospitality exposure, as you speak to your customers, what -- where occupancy rate looks like of-late and any sense for break-even levels, I know you're dealing with averages or medians but any color there would be hel...
Sure. Actually, this is a portfolio that we are tracking on a -- almost on a daily basis and we are tracking how the industry is performing overall [Technical Issues] total industry. So starting from April, where the occupancy was down around 20, mid-20%, 24%, 25%. Now, at the end of June and early part of July, the oc...
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Okay, great. And then, on the three loans that moved into a non-accrual, the $23 million excluding the leases. Can you provide some color there and what drove that increase?
Sure. One loan is it's a hotel construction loan. This was -- this is a loan that we mentioned, I think the prior quarter, it's about $12.8 million. The challenge is that the customers and the general contractor are at pause and so there is a delay in the construction portfolio. And the second one is actually another c...
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c4d8bba02359b796183deca0b551b7d8
Okay, great. And then, maybe on your deferrals, the $1.4 billion. Do you know how much of that amount got PPP?
I would say, our PPP steps, most of our credits were at the lowest tier. I think, we only had 17 at the highest tier and I know the 17th participate, because most of our hotel credits are pretty large denomination. So I don't -- I just don't think any received the PPP, but really have to get very granular to take a loo...
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fc4eeea6800fdd42160531c96e998081
Okay. I figured it. Just checking. And then on the SBA volume going forward and the rush to get approved before, I think the end of September to qualify to have six months basically covered. Are you going to participate in that type of activity? Should we expect kind of outsized gain on sale here in the third quarter a...
So just to be plain, when we're talking about gain on sale, we're talking about the traditional 7(a) loans, not the PPP loans, right? So we would expect activity through July, August and whatever is achievable through September. I know you're pushing up against the government's fiscal end year, so I don't think we will...
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f1036974b74683ebbe677f64c1bfd1fd
Okay. And the 9% premium that you guys mentioned in the release, is that gross or net that we'll see kind of in the income statement? I just can't remember.
That will be a gross trade premium.
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ccf63b6bffebee54d21916790dfa5181
Okay, so something closer to maybe 7% net?
Yeah, typically depending on the mix of loans, we have different types of percentage participations, but as a rule of thumb, may be 75% of the trade premiums would be of booking.
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fe51254482da0265e4d90bd721423e20
Okay, and then just lastly on expenses. Obviously, need to adjust for the deferred origination costs for the PPP of just over $3 million. I guess, how do you think about that run rate going forward and your ability to manage expenses from here?
So we did, in the end of the second quarter, trim some staff. We have addressed certain expenses, so that should allow us to see perhaps a small drift downward. But we do have a spend going the other direction, not nearly as much, but we do have the spend relative to personal protective equipment that's now kind of ing...
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0a16ffdfab79d63cd29e41796dbb1b16
Okay. And then I just forgot one more on other income, other noninterest income. It's been trending higher over the last four quarters. Is there anything unusual in there or is it sustainable?
The two items that came into the second quarter, one with respect to servicing income on our SBA loans. There was a, I'll call it a pocket of fees that were due to us on some outstanding SBA loans that were of some conversations with the SBA and they finally paid that in the second quarter. And then in the second quart...
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4febfa54a991d5a49b72075e8a3204f3
Joe I just want to start off. Could you just give like a high-level view of kind of outsourcing trends in the industry? And you said that the market growth rate around this 4% to 6%, is that market growth rate of your customers or market growth rate of like the CMOs?
Matt, thanks for the question. So, when we look at market growth and the way we define it is we look at the markets we're selling into and we look at our customers sales and we use that as our proxy for what the market growth is and then how our sales based upon the mix of those markets, how our sales should be growing...
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A
92c74610e7ac6d214caa046e37ccf65d
And then around the operational excellence programs that you're rolling through your footprint at this point, how should we start thinking about the phasing of the return from those programs?
Great question, because we laid out our objectives very clearly to get to profit growing twice the rate of revenue. And what you see in our 2019 guidance is the first step, the first phasing of us making our way toward getting profit growth at two times the rate of revenue. In our guidance, it was intentional. You see ...
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86092e9ce6eeb4b912420ac7a7c564fa
Okay. And then last question for me and I'll jump back in the queue. It sounds that you're getting more comfortable around M&A and where your debt levels are. How should we think about your M&A criteria going forward?
So Jason framed for you how we're thinking about leverage, which is the starting point the bracket. And we're communicating 2.5 to 3.5 times debt leverages is the world we want to live in. We realized when we were five or six times debt that was a penalty for us on our valuation and that many investors deemed that to ...
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19cf65e3943b5655751f00ed3cb72a8f
Great, great. Quick question on pricing, the guidance you have of approximately 4% top line growth in 2019 are you assuming pricing is relatively flat or if there's some pressure there or possible tailwind?
We've seen 1% to 2% pressure in the past years and we baked in that continued headwind, if you will in our outlook for 2019.
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9902d0294ae47f169bcd3023b7955fc8
Okay. And when you talked about slight increase in capital spending to help clearly the top line growth is that more software systems? Is that -- what is that?
Yes we have certainly opportunities for customer programs right as we find solutions and grow new products or programs for customers. That of course requires our investment. So that's a piece of our capital story for 2019. In addition, Joe talked a lot about the manufacturing excellence efforts and so that will be anot...
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dc6f73c631905ae6f728420b646204a6
So there are more automation then?
It could be automation. It could be the advancement of equipment efficiencies right as aging equipment -- or as equipment ages, we lose efficiency so it could be a little mix of the two.
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6b36895f538b031882e664bd3c1cc50a
Okay. And then finally accounts receivable under 200 -- I'm sorry, I don't know how long it's been since I covered you guys under $200 million for the -- at where you ended. I know you get a lift in that a little bit when you did the divestiture, but do you think you'll stay in this range? Or do you expect that number ...
Certainly to your point, it's affected by the divestiture in terms of sort of the year-over-year comparisons. We'll continue to put higher focus on our working capital and driving efficiency there. So we see that sort of in line certainly with the modest growth with sales, but it will be an area that we'll continue to ...
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7b0504c02962a2f1dde0347b40869f6b
Just looking at your 2020 guidance. Year-to-date results seem to imply a fairly low bar to the back half of the year to meet that range. Curious what puts and takes we should consider for the balance of 2020 here and maybe where you see results tracking in the range now.
This is, Richard, Greg. I think one of the big things that we have going on is there's still some of the uncertainty, Justin could certainly respond to this, about the timing and amount of rate relief. We are certainly in the middle of three general rate cases, one of which we are in the process of settlement. And we ...
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e005f1152500d5fcb464834c9d99e2e3
Okay. Fair enough. So could appreciate that on the utility side, but maybe just following up here in terms of Centuri. There were a couple of different items contributing to the strength this quarter. And it seems like some of those could persist, at least for now or maybe through the balance of the year. Do you have a...
Yes. This is Greg again. I think for Centuri, they certainly have enjoyed, as we indicated in our quarterly report, a favorable mix of work due to the COVID-19 environment. It pushed a little more of the work that's generally separated into mains and services, probably a little more heavily on the mains side. Much like...
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7bae6cbe7c5c0cc3e36956ab2e035331
Hello. I just wanted to follow up on kind of the Arizona rate case. So it looks like the final decision is now expected in 4Q. Is there a risk that the new rates will be delayed to 2021? And could that push you to the maybe lower end of the guidance?
Aga, it's Justin Brown. Yes, that's a possibility. Again, we're basing things based on our historic experience where once it gets submitted to the ALJ, usually, we'll see something within 30 to 60 days. I also know that there's two open meetings currently scheduled in early or one in early November, one in early Decemb...
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39521fbbf633d3bf3e42051cb79163ba
Perfect. And then your utility capex for this year was increased modestly. What were the main drivers?
This is Greg, Aga. I think one of the drivers was the a little higher customer growth. As John mentioned at the outset, 36,000 first-time meter sets, we've seen continued strong growth, especially in the Phoenix market but throughout our service territories. So some of it was in that. And some of it was just working on...
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A
b5985d13a0ad4581e4953e460e799743
Perfect. And what could be the potential impact on Southwest if we see a second wave of COVID-19 in the fall? Is that something that you incorporate in the guidance?
Aga, this is John. I think that we really have had very successful implementation of our business continuity plans. Right now, we actually have extended our work-from-home policies until the end of the year. Certainly, we see a lot of things on the horizon, some discussions of the potential for a vaccine, etc. But I th...
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c3f6da7b8c0417b9be6c70dafacaf948
Good can you give us a little color on why Centuri's electric revenues were so strong? Was it just the Linetec acquisition? Or is there was there some special circumstances or storm restoration for the quarter?
Chris, this is John. I'll start off and then maybe see if Greg wants to add any color onto it. But certainly, you hit it right on the head with the acquisition of the Linetec group. And remember from our previous discussions that not only did we acquire that entity and continue at the size that it was before, but we in...
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f67015d647bc7001e43a525d5b94e9bf
Would it be fair to say that if the projected hurricane season is significant as they say, that, that could be a tailwind?
Yes. I think we don't we certainly don't want to count and we don't want to hope for anything bad like hurricanes coming through. But certainly, to the extent that we're asked by our customers to go help them with restoration efforts, we will go do that. And in general, some of that work is a little more profitable tha...
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17454d0e78b8e44ce6e59a31cad7eba4
Okay. Can you give us any sense of what kind of traction you're getting on cross-selling with your pre-existing customers?
Yes. As we as you can see, and I don't remember the exact slide that we have where we list the out some of our major customers, you can see the gas utility, the electric utility and then those combo utilities, and that's not to say that for those combo utilities, we are doing work for both sides of that house. So we're...
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750e83578ffa6d34d7017b917ae15342
The number that you quoted as I think it was $3.4 million from the Canadian subsidies, were there any offsets to that? And was that a pre-tax number?
Yes. This is that's a pre-tax number, and that's a pre-tax U.S. number. Certainly, the Canadian government gave us money in Canadian dollars. But again, there were some offsets, just the normal COVID-19. I don't think we quantified that anywhere. But certainly, the extra PPE that was required and some of the social dis...
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71db6863c93cfdd852fa23ef9177d784
Okay. Lastly, can you just give us a little bit of sense of the current state of the surge in Vegas and how that's affecting just the city in general?
Chris, this is John again. I think that while we continue to have, of course, expanded numbers of cases in both Arizona and Nevada, I think that the governors in each of those states, including California, have taken a lot of measures to try to guard against that being a larger problem than it needs to be. I think that...
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8d3cfbd5c30723ec61bd10267bb261c5
Hi, everyone. This is Ryan [Phonetic] on for Chris. Most of my questions have been asked and answered. So just a quick one for me related to the D&A expense that you guys reported this quarter. There has been some significant volatility in that line item quarter-over-quarter over the last couple of years. And I'm just ...
Yes. Ryan, this is Greg. I think one of the things that is important to remember is in the depreciation line, it's pretty easy to model that as it's going up because it's a factor of the plants that we have in service and the plants that we add as we go along. But there is a sizable piece of dollars that relate to amor...
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76aebd3ff4f00a615044d20250018f7c
Hi, good morning, everyone. Maybe just to start off with literally your last comment on the prepared remarks. Given the fact that January makes up the bulk of the weather for this quarter, and it's a bigger weather quarter. Are you still comfortable with your guidance range for this year? Do you feel that enough of the...
Sure. Sure. As you know, we typically, and this year will be no exception, kind of revisit that at the end of the second quarter when the -- basically the degree days for the year, the winter season is over. January is significant, but February and March are material as well. So yes, we don't have any comment in terms ...
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cc1b4129a5d7d15dfdeba49912c0a278
Okay, fair enough. And then my follow-up question is just with respect to the update that you provided about the Marcellus assets. When we sort of see all the producers slowing their capex spends, rig counts are falling and so forth, you sort of talked about you still see opportunities for growth capital. I was kind of...
Yes, sure. As we look at it today, and we're talking to our customers or producers all the time, we still have meaningful discussions under way, essentially about expansion of existing systems. So as -- and each producer is in their own unique position, but as they look at optimizing their capital spend and in almost e...
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116860f05e9ee9f4cee0dba3a150a974
Just to paraphrase a little bit. So you're basically saying the capital spend will be driven by what the growth plans are of your customers. So if they end up deferring or slowing down their pace, what do you do with the saved capex? Is it -- do you consider buybacks? Do you consider leverage reduction? What's the prio...
Sure, sure. We consider all those alternatives. Certainly, for us, and we -- particularly for the last several quarters here, as the two transactions were executed, we talked about the prioritization of paying down debt in AmeriGas, but it's important for UGI Corp. as well, but we'll look across all those alternatives ...
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04aaa481113dc7052af7adb2eb820fbf
Good morning, everyone. If I could start with the lower LPG costs in International. Can you just provide some more color on what drove it lower? And how we should expect this to continue through the remainder of the year?
Yes. I can't provide you with a commodity forecast. But generally, what's been happening internationally, and we're specifically focused on Europe is that the increased production levels of propane and butane, and particularly in the U.S., have resulted in commodity costs dropping pretty considerably over the last year...
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e7372f239c752bf887a036fc98f21a9f
Well, like with the Saudi outage in September, like some global supply of propane and butane were brought offline. Did that impact Europe at all?
No. I mean, you probably noticed it for a day or 2. There was almost a very minimal impact. I think that's a great example of how the market has changed. Europe used to be a lot more volatile with supply interruptions because Europe was more dependent on product coming from the east and some from the Gulf. Now you've g...
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9b37d3382418b66e681048690acdcfda
And then if I could just move on to the PennEast Phase One. How do we think about economics here now that you split the project in two? Should we think that you're earning the full 14% ROE on the Phase One capital cost and assume like a 50-50 equity debt capitalization?
I think at a high level you could make that kind of assumption, we're going to -- you can make that assumption. Obviously, we'll progress that. We've just made the filing with FERC. We'll progress that and advise as we move forward. But the fundamental economics of the project haven't changed materially.
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a99d95a9c542cd005ad5d3ece0364f7c
Hey, Ron and Jamie, congrats on the strong IoT Solutions, especially adding over 5,000 subs. A three-part question, Ron, maybe comment about why you saw the explosion in the subs. Was it just a COVID kind of in the rearview a little bit? Or was it just new -- mainly new customers coming online? And then also on that sa...
Great. Hey, thanks, Tony. Nice to hear from you. Good questions. And listen, we -- as a pandemic really set in, in the April time frame, there was a pretty decent freeze that happened with our pipeline in Solutions. People were trying to figure out what it was, what they're going to do and business closures impacted a ...
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a24ee2de946a9dc42006166957269707
Then as a follow-up, Ron, if you won't mind just sharing kind of your view on the data center business, how fast do you think that might be growing on a go-forward basis. And then also on the flip side of that, the 5G router business was a little bit weaker, and I think you made a comment in your prepared remarks. I'd ...
Yeah. Thanks for the follow-up. And listen, the console server, the Opengear team did a fantastic job throughout the pandemic. And you can see from our GAAP results, congratulations to the team, they're able to hit their earn-out targets. And that's really indicative of double-digit growth that they experienced year-ov...
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7c1fe42bb462a1922736ec62b5fb3e2c
Just following up on the subscriber growth. I think last quarter, you said you expected to add 3,000 to 4,000 sites per quarter. Just curious, with sort of the incremental demand from the pharmacy side of things, if you think that's still a good range or if there could be upside to that.
Yeah. Thanks, Jaeson, for the question. And we do still think that's a good range. We are seeing increased demand both from existing customers that are looking to add locations and to service customers looking for the vaccine and as well as customers that we've been talking to for some time, and the vaccine really gave...
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c1a4a5a4577e681468b4e6067ae51974
Okay. That's helpful. And just curious, if you could comment on what you're seeing from a lead time perspective. And relatedly, I know you're not providing guidance, but directionally for March, I think historically, March is up sequentially. Is that sort of a good baseline we should think about this current quarter?
Yeah. So on the supply chain side, as many of us know, that there's been a lot of pressure on the supply chain and driven in some part by the automotive sector and the tremendous demand for microprocessors and GPUs driven by the gaming sector as well. We've been very fortunate to have an incredibly strong supply chain ...
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6c2bb66637e006165c1c40940decd203
Hey, guys. Good evening. This is Daniel on for Mike. Thanks for taking my question. So just wondering if you could just provide some color for us on sort of how to frame the strong adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow generation. How do you plan on balancing investments for growth moving forward?
Hey, Dan, good afternoon. Good questions. One is, as I mentioned to Jaeson's question, we did have some mix that favored the gross margin side. In particular, Opengear had a strong performance. That console server product line comes with strong margins. In addition, you saw a real nice contribution from the solutions a...
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24f5ba5f619ca44012ca3591e072662b
Hey good afternoon, thanks for taking my question. Nice job in the quarter, guys, the most difficult operating environment out there, and I hope you and your families are doing well. Just to follow up on the gross margins as it relates to the product side of the equation, a huge quarter, you've addressed it, I think, a...
Yes, Scott, good to hear your voice, and these are good questions. And yes, definitely fueled by a mix. And the mix was weighted higher than we would have expected going into the quarter on console server and recurring. Recurring is more sustainable. That revenue, we expect to build quarter-over-quarter. Console server...
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75da885ec41a0dd9d09c34e55a4df6b1
Got you. Perfect. And maybe to follow up on the solutions opportunity. It seems like vaccine has certainly started to kick in as an opportunity. I wonder if you could put some more color around that, kind of remind us who some of the customers might be in terms of that segment of the healthcare market and then if there...
Yes, Scott, a really important question. First and foremost, we're just -- we're so thrilled to be a part of the vaccine rollout, albeit a small part. We take our role incredibly seriously. We know that if we can help our customers keep these vaccines in the proper conditions that an incredible lifeline to people may g...
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ce7242a67050240b35d59918a66d43fe
Perfect. And lastly, if I could, just to follow-up on the recurring revenue that's outside of the cold chain management. I think the number is about $13 million on an annualized basis, you indicated. And kind of coupling that with the router and the gateway market, as we're kind of looking the opportunity, the evolutio...
Yes, Scott, really good questions. And I can't stress enough how important it is for us to provide more and more value to our customers through innovation, through service and through subscription and software. And we're starting to become much more assertive about how well we're doing in those areas. And to be clear, ...
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68d85e0c0ea83abfe184bba9149a6520
So thank you for the commentary on what you think sales might be for the year? I guess, that implies -- if I did my math right, about -- down 8% to up 1% for the fourth quarter, something like that. What do you see as being the main factors that determine whether you come in at the lower end of that or the higher end o...
I think there is one thing that plays in completely, and then I'll ask Steve to give his point of view. It's really what will get shut down that we're not aware of right now. In our -- in my comments earlier, the thing that's become very clear to us in this last quarter is that, there is high demand for our product, pa...
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7b12316b9138857a506f538c88946bee
And then, can you talk about the new product launch in Canada? And can you just mention maybe why you chose Canada first for that launch? And then what do you think the timing of the next market entry might be? And with the next market be the US?
We chose Canada because a number of years ago we were in Canada with Smart Straw and we learned through discussion with regulators there that we would have to have a lockable delivery system to meet the regulations. And that was the -- one of the main reasons behind the development of Smart Straw Next Generation. So, C...
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16e0f10c1e49499af36e38134707a22f
Okay, thanks. And then, can you just talk about -- if you're seeing, I mean, you mentioned some areas where you are actually benefiting, like the bike from sort of these stay-at-home, doing outdoorsy-type stuff. Are you seeing any recessionary-type weakness or science [Phonetic] event as a result of reduced industrial ...
I don't know, Linda, how I would dissect that from this economic Ice Age that we're going through right now. I mean, I'm not sure who is back, who is not and why. Now, having said that, we've seen manufacturing start to return in China. But at this time, I think that there is such a disruption in both the market and th...
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ddea9ec98f818671fcf69e7801bf37ff
Thank you. That's very interesting. And then finally, when you report the fourth fiscal quarter in a few months, do you think that you'll have enough visibility to be able to give FY'21 guidance? Do you have any sense for that right now?
I don't know. It depends on where we are in the world. I mean, if we've got a vaccine and things are starting to normalize, we maybe able to. But I think if we come in at that $395 million to $405 million, we're going to be nearly flat with last year in some ways. I think we'll be off between 4% and 8%. And I think tha...
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f518932e03f8e516973841b3779dd754
Thanks. And just one more that I thought of. It seems that the distributor markets are the ones where sometimes these disruptions occur. Can you just remind us what percentage of your revenue is direct versus through distributors?
70 -- I think, Steve, you might have the update, but I think 75% is direct and 25% is through distributors. Is that right, Steve? That's correct. Yeah.
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0e332cf912ce77d20565f3db0273ad6b
You mentioned that you made a reopening in that -- the outlook for sales is dependent upon what shut down or not. I was wondering if your other -- the emerging markets and I guess, Southeast Asia and Latin America are starting to show signs of reopening too the distribution channel.
Daniel, it varies week to week. Our leadership team currently meets on a weekly basis and we have our global leaders from Europe and Asia Pacific and the Americas on that call. And I must say, it varies from week to week. Certainly, countries like Indonesia, India, have been very, very hardly hit hard over time. So, it...
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951576395655c32937937e8ccd62d12d
Okay. And then with the rollout of the Next Generation of Smart Straw, have you disclosed -- if there is a price premium on that, if you -- I don't know to raising prices just because you were doing introductions or have you not [Indecipherable]?
Certainly, the 2.0 version, which is the lockable one has a premium. The 1.5 at this stage, it doesn't premium. But because of manufacturing improvements, it's going to be accretive to gross margin.
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4d9177e1c6925b4f07aeb70bf9d0c723
Okay. And then finally, it was mentioned that one of the reasons why the tax rate jumped is because of less sales offshore, less foreign sales. Now, with EMEA rebounding, the world opening up again, I was wondering is it possible to say that that will go back to a more, I mean, if this work [Phonetic] more normalized r...
Yeah. Certainly, the rebound in -- somewhat it depends on the rebound in EMEA, but it also depends on the rebound in some of the other markets like, for example, Asia and Latin America, whereby we achieve the intangible benefit from sales into those markets as well. So, it's some of our foreign markets are more impactf...
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dd5b908e441e6d6b564f4205164ade20
I was wondering if during this pandemic the different lockdown in the different regions and so on, you have established a new marketing method that you are going to pursue as we come out into what I call the new normal, which may not be normal at all. So, any changes in the way you are operating in the way the tribe is...
Yes. So, one of the things that we're taking advantage of this time is really making sure that we are very conscious of what learnings we've had. So we haven't made any decisions. Already a great number of our people work remotely. But we believe strongly that social interaction is important, creativity is driven. What...
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a1f4dbb770faba6631f0f490c487ff4c
So, you are obviously strong in North America based on what -- I mean, if I heard properly. What about Europe, though?
Yes. In terms of e-commerce, look, we have a global strength. So -- and with the marketplaces, I mean, the same players, the strong in North America. We have a considerable strength also in the EMEA region, across multiple countries, and also China is the largest e-commerce market in the world. We have a very strong e-...
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204cdb8bfbc5d2ba68a2ee9266c30c73
And of the $25 million of capex for this year, how much are you adding to the e-commerce project and taking away from another area, if you are?
So, e-commerce is not capital-intensive. It's really people-intensive. That capital this year is really primarily going toward the Smart Straw Next Generation. But what we have done is brought in some very big talent. And Steve, you might want to mention we brought about our global digital advisor that we brought in an...
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2c1068a58d513d9af2e7573c6030ec6d
CSS benefited from strong West Coast construction markets as you said. Could you talk to the cadence of the activity you're seeing in construction there? I'm just trying to get a sense if there's more pent-up demand lingering from any of the shutdowns?
Well, we are seeing resiliency on the part of the construction market on the West Coast. And that has been something that has been ongoing. It's something that we continue to see momentum building for. So we didn't see significant slowdowns during COVID. There were some slowdowns obviously, but not so significant that ...
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72d13a84cab5f404fbec3012d06c9d64
I was wondering if you saw any recent changes in Chinese regulatory changes, whether it's in ferrous or nonferrous imports, but just based on what you've seen in the headlines or anything else over the past few months.
Sure. Well, there was just the regulatory changes that China announced with respect to copper, aluminum and brass. And just over the past few days, we have seen that drive some uptick in prices for those products. And so while we haven't -- obviously, just announced and it goes effective November 1, I believe, we do se...
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c6359d2be99220b52ea62058fa16e608
Inventories came down slightly in the quarter, but fairly stable sequentially. Are you comfortable around these current levels? Or do you have any plans internally to restock or destock further? And kind of on a related note, just given the investments that you'll be making in fiscal '21, how do you see free cash flow ...
Thanks, Michael. Let me talk a little bit about supply. And then I'll turn it over to Richard, and he can talk about free cash flow. Regarding supply, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, clearly that's one of the most sensitive levers in our outlook and going forward. And that's very much contingent on the strength...
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d9ef20fb5e19e8640827c7fecb8c13c3
Can you give us an update on the status of your U.S. and Brazil ethanol production facilities? Are they running at full capacity, and what are your expectations for utilization in the coming quarters?
Sure, I'd be happy to provide an update on our ethanol production facilities. In the U.S., our plants are currently running at about 95% of nameplate capacity on average. We've seen strong demand for ethanol recently as gasoline consumption has rebounded. For our Brazil facilities, we're operating at close to full capa...
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64031dc63e82b42ae7b40720413414a2
What are you seeing in terms of export demand for ethanol, particularly to markets like China? How do you expect exports to trend for the rest of the year?
Export demand has been quite strong so far this year, especially to China. We've seen China import record volumes of U.S. ethanol in recent months as they look to meet their fuel blending targets. Other key export markets like Canada, India and South Korea have also been active buyers. For the full year, we expect tota...
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1082cd4de76123c344714b025bc49fab
Can you discuss the progress on your high-protein feed initiatives? What capacity do you expect to have online by year-end and what's the outlook for that business?
We're making excellent progress on our high-protein feed initiatives. We currently have high-protein production systems installed at three of our ethanol plants, with a fourth expected to come online next month. By the end of the year, we anticipate having six plants equipped with this technology, representing about 50...
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adbbd999064974e3bb38cc28f3a65408
Joe, Kristina. Good morning, thanks for taking the questions. I want to start with Process Equipment Group; continue to see good trends there. Just maybe update us is it still largely Asia and combined with North America, where you are seeing the incremental demand, number one; and number two, is it largely market grow...
Hi, Dan, it's Joe. I think you have it right. So we've seen, as you know, strong demand in North America, particularly for polyethylene production and we continue to see that, and we continue to do well in North America with the large polyolefin projects. And then as you know, China is a big consumer of base resins and...
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8a264302bfa81e6c41ede730ef316419
Got it. Helpful. And then, I saw a nice uptick in parts and service, which obviously is typically higher margin. I know that's been a focal point for you. Is that or is there something anomalous in the quarter or you see that being a little bit more of a trend. And if you have, roughly what percentage -- parts and -- m...
Sure, Dan. So, as you know, we had a very strong quarter for parts in revenue, up about 9%. I would tell you we've been very focused on growing parts and service, but the first quarter, I would tell you that the last year we had an easier comp. So as we head into the rest of the year, our comps are a little more diffic...
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db11851b39b9a73b4ddfabb8dddc402e
Yeah. Perfect. Lastly, just shifting gears to the BM&M acquisition, maybe a little bit of color on sourcing where you -- how you found it, how it came together, any kind of expected growth and any potential synergies you might describe and are there more opportunities like this out there. That's my last five-part quest...
That's a great question, and you know, this is really, it's a small deal, but this is sort of right in our wheelhouse in the kind of deals that we'd like to do from a tuck-in perspective going forward. Obviously, we'd like to do more substantial deals but from a tuck-in perspective; it really fits our model very well. ...
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f09561673f77aa1f4c0fc5ca640a4adf
Okay. Joe, how unusual is it to have such long lead times in these plastic jobs. It sounds like some of these orders may be extending beyond 2020. Can you kind of give us some color on that and can they be canceled or not; how firm are they?
Yeah, so I think this is a little unusual. It's probably been a decade since we've seen lead times this long and that was prior to us owning the business at Coperion. So there is very strong demand over the -- you know, and so the whole supply chain is kind of pushing out in terms of orders. And so in the last downturn...
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4c10617c6b72d58471eb2b1acf5b6e3a
Got it, got it. And you kind of reinforce the idea that due to mix and past those that this would be margin pressure from these projects, possibly offset by what you're doing in your aftermarket parts business. Can you kind of tell us what kind of net margin pressure you would think would happen over the long term as r...
So, John I think the way I would think about it is we guided to about 30 to 60 basis points of EBITDA margin expansion, and within that guide includes the mix pressure that we're feeling from these large projects as well as the mix pressure from the lack of proppants orders, so remember the other pressure point for us ...
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A
36085682e9f84f00c590d1f12b31d9c6
Okay, great, great. Can you just talk a little bit about the pricing strategy that you're putting in place in the current success rate, maybe an update on that?
Sure. So I think, you know, we think about pricing in a few different ways. In terms of strategic pricing, we have what we believe is a pretty good methodology, and for large projects for example, we really work the whole project and understand strategically where we're positioned, the value that we add, and try to be ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
8704aeb6eb79a1e52f488ecb71e4ce17
Right, got it, and just one last question, in regards to the flu season you mentioned earlier, it started off well -- it's been healthy flu season for everybody. And in light of maybe the strong backlog, should we -- when we think about second-quarter results, are we looking for a meaningfully down number or just some ...
So I would -- yeah -- so on a consolidated basis, I would say we're going to be marginally down on a year-over-year basis because of the couple of things that you just mentioned, right, the mix pressure on the process side and the deeper decline in the Batesville volume as a result of a lesser flu season. Yeah, '18 wa...
direct
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A
5841bf7ca5c54ebf070b3b784b299b38
Thanks. Last followup. It looks like just from a capital allocation perspective, it doesn't look like at least didn't allude to buying a lot of stock in the December quarter, despite the increase in the authorization. You know, leverage still at one times even after BM&M. So, Kristina, you alluded to it, but you know, ...
So just that, yeah, Dan, as it relates to the capital allocation, I think we mentioned that we got approval from our board $200 million to repurchase shares in December. We're well positioned to purchase some shares; we're going to do on an opportunistic basis and it really again depends on what's in our pipeline from ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
9dc9638fee3c8f31a4c209442796698c
Yeah, I guess just a little bit of an update on what you're seeing in the pump and valve side of the business. Any change in municipal spending, any kind of chatter that gives you confidence that we're in the year ahead.
Yeah. So from the pump and valve side, let me just talk about maybe two different areas. The first is I think in North America -- well, generally we're seeing strength on the industrial side of both of those businesses compared to the municipal side. So particularly in North America, we're seeing strength in valves, in...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
fc68011d6b8eea663f9f93755158dd02
Joe, did the government shutdown hurt the businesses at all?
You know it is interesting. That's a great question. You know, we've been looking for issues related to the government shutdown. I don't -- I don't think it really impacts our business a lot. So we haven't felt it in any part of our business at this stage, no.
direct
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A
9dace02385b490a0c7f16398c8ee4521
I wonder, let's say, let's start with, you mentioned in the US, you're expanding your sales force and you have an increased marketing budget. Could you, I don't know maybe walk us back to 2017 or '18, and walk us forward through 2020, what the sales force number has been? And then also maybe do the same for the marketi...
Hi John, thank you very much. I think it's quite obvious that in some of the markets in the US, we haven't covered them properly with the amount of sales team on the ground. We closed the 2018 with something like 86 sales guys -- sales rep, and we finished 2019 with the 114. The aim for this year is actually to raise t...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B