Tecnoglass Inc. (NYSE:TGLS) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Santiago Giraldo: Thank you, Christian. Turning to single-family residential on Slide number 8. During the fourth quarter, we generated single-family residential revenues of $77.1 million compared to $85.1 million in the prior year quarter. The year-over-year change was primarily due to slower sequential and year-over-year activity, resulting from much higher interest rates and mortgage rates. Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and a year of declines in housing starts, we were pleased to produce record full year 2023 single-family residential revenues of $335.4 million. We continue to see market share upside in single-family residential revenues through a variety of factors. This includes our widening dealer base, enabled by short lead times, new product introductions, geographic expansion throughout Florida, additional showrooms in other markets and our recent entrance into the vinyl market.

This provides significant runway for revenue growth and product diversification on a long-term basis. To that point, on Slide number 9, I would like to highlight a few key points from our recent strategic entry into vinyl windows. Our strategic entry into vinyl windows has significantly expanded our addressable market. We were pleased to begin shipments of our innovative vinyl products in December. We are currently working with additional clients and prospects to perform a significant amount of testing and sampling in order to ramp up deliveries throughout 2024. In addition to our showroom expansions, we are excited for what the future holds for Tecnoglass in the vinyl market. We expect these high-end value added vinyl products to contribute more meaningfully to results, particularly in single-family residential after the second quarter of 2024 and beyond.

Importantly, we’ve already completed a significant portion of the anticipated CapEx to enable our facilities and operational infrastructure to accommodate this transformational initiatives. We expect this strategic entrance into the vinyl segment will more than double our addressable market, with an opportunity to add an incremental $300 million in annual revenues in the coming years. Our entry into the vinyl window market is expected to provide a range of benefits to Tecnoglass and our customers. Notably, we see attractive synergies, given many of our existing dealer customers already sell both aluminum and vinyl windows, and we are able to leverage our manufacturing expertise and vertically integrated operations to make this a relatively seamless addition.

We already have two new vinyl distributors signed in Sarasota and Tampa, and approximately 30 to 40 legacy dealers in Central and Northern Florida that have been quoting projects and testing the products. This early traction gives us confidence in future demand for our vinyl products, and we are excited for the immense opportunity we see in this end market, given the size of the addressable market throughout the U.S. Turning to the drivers of revenue on Slide number 11. Total revenues for the fourth quarter decreased 7.8% year-over-year to $194.6 million, due to lower single-family residential revenues with a multifamily and commercial business performing in line with internal expectations. Total revenues for the full year increased 16.3% year-over-year to a record $833.3 million, mainly attributable to a strong rebound in multi-family and commercial activity, resilient demand for our single-family residential products and market share gains compared to prior year.

Looking at the profit drivers on Slide numbers 12 and 13. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter 2023 was $62 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.8%. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year increased 14.5% year-over-year to a record $304.1 million, representing a margin of 36.5%. SG&A for the fourth quarter was $32.4 million or 16.7% of revenue compared to $33.4 million or 15.8% of revenue in the prior year quarter. The increase in SG&A as a percentage of revenue was primarily due to lower revenues year-over-year. For the full year, SG&A as a percentage of total revenues was 15.7%, an improvement of 140 basis points over the prior year. Fourth quarter gross profit was $83 million, representing a 42.6% gross margin. This compared to gross profit of $110.2 million, representing a 52.2% gross margin in the prior year quarter.

The year-over-year change in gross margin mainly reflected an unfavorable FX impact related to functional currency and a steep revaluation of the Colombian peso of approximately 15% year-over-year. Additionally, gross margin was impacted by lower revenues and an increase in the mix of installation versus product revenue during the quarter. Gross profit for the full year increased 11.9% to a record $391 million, representing a 46.9% gross margin and in line with our target range of 47% to 49% for the full year 2023. As a reminder, we estimate that each movement of 5% in FX equates to approximately 150 basis points in operating margins. Now looking at our strong cash flow and improved leverage on Slide number 14. For the full year, we generated another very strong year of operating cash flow of $139 million.

This was driven by higher profitability and strong working capital management. The full year included capital expenditures of $78 million, which included payments for previously purchased land for future potential capacity expansion. CapEx also included a significant portion of previously disclosed investments in facilities and operational infrastructure related to our entry into the vinyl window market. Given our higher installed capacity, we expect a meaningful decrease in capital expenditures in 2024. Our impressive cash generation has allowed us to unlock additional value in our business through share repurchases and increases in our cash dividend. We returned capital to shareholders through $23.5 million in share repurchases during the year, leaving roughly $27 million of remaining purchase power under the current authorization.

Additionally, given the visibility afforded by a record backlog, as of the year-end and the expectation for continued strength in cash flow, our Board of Directors has approved a 22% dividend increase to a quarterly payment of $0.11 per share. This reflects our commitment to return incremental cash to shareholders. We ended the year at a record low net leverage ratio of 0.1 times net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA, down from 0.2 times in the prior year. As of December 31, we had a cash balance of $130 million and availability under our committed revolving credit facilities of $170 million, resulting in total liquidity of approximately $300 million. Overall, we remain very pleased with our efforts to grow our cash generation capabilities, which, in turn, has provided us with multiple levers to drive additional value in our business.