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Text: Today I'm joined by Bill Furman, Greenbrier's chairman and CEO; Lorie Tekorius, president and COO; Brian Comstock, executive vice president and chief commercial and leasing officer; and Adrian Downes, senior vice president and CFO.
Fiscal 22 is off to a good start, driven by strong commercial performance, disciplined management of our production capacity and continued growth of our railcar and lease fleet.
Momentum in our business is being sustained.
First quarter of fiscal 2022 continued our strong ordered trajectory.
As a result, Greenbrier posted its fourth consecutive quarter with book-to-bill ratio over one times.
New railcars orders and actually were at 1.5 for this quarter.
New railcar orders of 6,300 units were worth 685 million, were across a broad range of railcars.
We ended the quarter with a backlog of approximately three billion, the highest level about three years.
Our order intake for the first quarter alone represents 35% of new orders received during all of fiscal 2021.
Our recent partnership with U.S. Steel Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway to design and launch new high strength steel gondolas having multiple environmental benefits demonstrates this momentum.
In addition, in a moment, our chief commercial and leasing officer, Brian Comstock will share more about this and some other exciting customer focused initiatives.
And I should mention in terms of backlog do we have booked another 200 million of rebody work which is sizable but not counted in our backlog.
We are now ramping up '21 active production lines in North America and approximately eight internationally.
Importantly, we are harnessing our flexible manufacturing footprint to extract more production from each line.
We expect this to increase in deliveries to increase over the course of the year.
Meat production requirements we recently expanded our global workforce by about 10%.
Intensive management of safety, hiring and supply chain issues continue.
Continued success in these areas is key to maintaining our strong start to the year, specifically on the supply chain, our global sourcing team continues to do an exceptional job of mitigating disruptions to support increased production.
Our wheels repaired parts business is now known as Maintenance Services.
The new name doesn't change the back of this business unit endured a challenging quarter.
Labor markets and supply chain direct disruptions have both impacted its profitability.
Naturally, this lowered our consolidated margins which were below our expectations to begin with.
As we speak to the changes, we're making to improve the performance of our Maintenance Services business unit.
Greenbrier leasing continues to perform very well.
Our investment activity has considerably outpacing initial targets.
Asset utilization, a key performance metric for the leasing business is high at 97.1% for the portfolio that is well-diversified across car types and strong lessee credits as well as maturity ladders.
Additionally, we exceeded the initial investment target for GBX leasing by $200 million to a portfolio of $400 million in only nine months of operations.
This reflects the strong momentum in the business and our core manufacturing markets in North America.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 were suddenly following the end of the quarter.
As a result of well-established safety protocols, our operations have not been significantly impacted at present by the rising cases globally and in North America, but we are closely tracking the rapid community spread of this variant and we're taking all appropriate precautions.
We continue with safeguard protocols and we will enhance these as dictated by best practices as well as adhering to local health authority requirements in the locations where we operate.
In the U.S. and Europe, it appears this wave might peak in the coming months.
There are indications that the current variant carries milder symptoms than previous versions of the virus, particularly for those who are double vaccinated and those with boosters.
Nonetheless, we must remain vigilant.
After two years, the full contours of the pandemic remain dynamic and unpredictable.
Our resolver is effectively to manage Greenbrier through evolving COVID challenges and that resolver remains steadfast.
Our outlook remains unchanged except that we believe it is growing to be much more positive.
We maintain a positive outlook for the fiscal year for a variety of reasons.
These are supported by industry metrics as well as operating momentum, driven by a strong order book, demand backlog and manufacturing ramping.
For example, a portion of idle railcars in North America decreased to 32% in July to just below 20% by December.
Industry forecast for 2022 and 2023 are very encouraging, as Brian Comstock will share with you.
All this suggest that industry fleet utilization is nearing 80%.
And again, Brian Comstock will add more on these points in a minute and we can talk in questioning and answering.
Lorie Tekorius who will be Greenberg's CEO in March takes the helm in very important and exciting time in the long history of Greenberg.
I became the CEO, when we were founded, when my partner and I cofounded a small asset leasing business in 1981.
We entered manufacturing with the acquisition of Gunderson in 1985 and have continued to build on those two foundations.
Today's manufacturing is our largest unit, comprising about 80% of our total annual revenues.
But manufacturing is both driven and complemented by a robust commercial and leasing business, as well as asset management services.
Today, our asset management maintenance services touch about one-third in the North American fleet.
It's been a remarkable journey for me and for the company.
Greenbrier steadily grown industry footprint and today is the leading railcar manufacturer in North America, allowing us to operate and scale.
We also now operated in four continents serving global railcar markets worldwide, with similar market shares issue this.
All of this has been accomplished through the hard work of remarkable people without guidance through their capacity for innovation, discipline management, and unyielding focus on the needs of our customers, as well as our workforce, and other stakeholders.
We've purposely built the company to grow at scale across business cycles.
Under Lorie's administration, she plans to do more of that along with some new initiatives of row.
As global railcar markets emerge from a cyclical trough, one that was really exacerbated by the pandemic.
I'm proud of what the Greenbrier team has accomplished and the market leading positions we've achieved.
I'm also proud of the significant value we've created for our shareholders.
I expect that this will continue for many decades to come.
As Greenbrier continues to drive innovation as an industry, broaden its footprint globally and by product line and expand this leasing and services business.
I also would like to congratulate two directors who served throughout almost the last 18 years to 20 years on our Board, Duane McDougall and Donald Washburn.
Next week, we'll put out a brief congratulatory note marking this milestone, but I want to assure them that we remember them.
I no doubt the Greenbrier will flourish under her administration.
And before I get into the details on the quarter, you may have noticed and I think they'll reference that renamed two of our reporting segments.
We'll prepare in parts segment and now maintenance services and leasing and services is now leasing and management services.
The new names more closely reflect the customer solutions we provide and have no impact on the financial results.
Greenbrier's fiscal Q1 reflected continued labor challenges in the United States, competitive pricing from orders taken during the depths of the pandemic troughs, and production and efficiencies from line changeover and ramping of capacity.
I am proud of our employees around the world that continue to perform well, even as uncertainty about.
It is certainly an understatement to say that increasing headcount safely by several thousand employees, and increasing production rates by 40% to 50% is challenging.
So with an experienced leadership team, we'll meet this opportunity to scale our operations all up keeping our workforce healthy and safe.
Safety across our organizations has been and will continue to be our number one priority.
And the quarter just ended, we delivered 4,100 units, including 400 units in Brazil.
Deliveries decreased by about 9% sequentially, which primarily reflects the timing of syndication activity, and line changeovers in North America.
Our global manufacturing continues to take a measured approach to increasing production rates and activities as they work through orders taken during this process.
Our global sourcing team continues to perform minor miracles on a regular basis, ensuring we avoid significant production delays.
Our maintenance service business was significantly impacted by labor shortages exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.
These shortages impact throughput, billing efficiencies and profitability.
We've made a number of changes to our hiring and training practices, and we're seeing improved retention rate that maintenance cycle times can be 75 to 90 days.
So it takes some time for the benefits of these changes to flow through the operation.
Further, this business was impacted by lower real change our volume.
I do believe the team has made the necessary changes that will lead to positive results over the course of fiscal 2020 and our maintenance services.
Our leasing and management services group had a good quarter with strong fleet utilization and the integration of a previously disclosed portfolio purchased in September.
Between the portfolio assets and origination from Greenbrier, GBX leasing grew by approximately 200 million in the quarter.
And as of quarter end, that fleet is valued at nearly 400 million, nearly doubling in value across the quarter.
Importantly, this growth reflects a continued disciplined approach to portfolio construction, underwriting and credit quality standards.
We are not pursuing growth at all costs.
In addition to managing our lease fleet, our Management Services or GMS group continues to provide creative railcar assets solution for over 450,000 railcars in the North American freight industry.
When other positive developments subsequent to quarter end, is that our leasing team successfully increased the size of our 300 million nonrecourse railcar warehouse facilities by 50 million to 350 million.
Our capital markets team executed well this quarter, and we expect syndication activities to grow throughout the year, similar to our overall cadence of delivery.
Syndication remains an important source of liquidity and profitability for Greenbrier.
Looking ahead, we see strong momentum for fiscal 2022 and beyond.
We have talented employees and experienced management who are focused on driving results and shareholder value.
I'm very excited about the long-term opportunities for Greenbrier.
And now Brian Comstock will provide an update on the current railcar demand environment.
As mentioned in October, I remain excited about the momentum we are seeing in all of our markets globally.
In Greenbrier's first quarter, we had a book-to-bill 1.5 reflecting deliveries of 4,100 units and orders of 6,300 units.
This is the fourth consecutive quarter with a book-to-bill ratio exceeding one times and reflective of this strengthening environment.
New railcar backlog of 28,000 units with a market value of three billion provides strong multiyear visibility.
These are the type of demand environments where Greenbrier's flexible manufacturing is a vital differentiator.
In addition to new railcar orders, we recently received orders to rebody 1,400 railcars, as part of Greenbrier railcar refurbishment program.
This program is an important part of our growing partnership with our customers to sustainably repurpose North America's aging fleet, to ensure that rail remains the most environmentally friendly mode of surface transport.
As of November 30th, our modernization backlog included 3,500 units, valued at $200 million.
This is a valuable business that is additional to our new railcar backlog and absorbs production capacity.
Each gondolas unloaded weight is reduced by up to 15,000 pounds.
Norfolk Southern will initially acquire 800 of these Greenbrier engineered gondolas.
The work done by Greenbrier and our partner promises significant benefits to all three companies and the freight transportation industry as a whole, as we lead the way to a net zero carbon economy.
One item we are clarifying is the $800 gondolas will be part of the Q2 order activity.
In December, we also announced Greenbrier's joining of the RailPulse coalition.
I'm personally excited about the prospects of this technology with the goal to aggregate North American fleet data onto a single platform.
This has a potential to improve safety and operating efficiency, while providing enhanced visibility to customers, reinforcing rails competitive share of freight transportation.
Greenbrier's leased fleet utilization ended the quarter at over 97%.
We continue to see improved lease pricing in term on all new lease originations and lease renewals as well as continued strong demand for leased equipment.
North American industry delivery projections saw an increase in nearly 49,000 units in 2022 and over 60,000 units in 2023, given the strong reduction in railcars and storage that continue to congestion as the pores, which is impacting traffic and overall economic growth.
We believe, these projections are very reasonable and see similar dynamics in Europe.
As you can see from our recently announced initiatives, Greenbrier's global commercial and leasing team remains focused on providing innovative solutions to our customers.
Now over to Adrian for more about our Q1 financial performance.
I'll discuss a few highlights and I'll also provide an update to our fiscal 2022 guidance.
Highlights for the first quarter include revenue of $550.7 million, deliveries of 4,100 units which include 400 units from our unconsolidated joint venture in Brazil.
Aggregate gross margins of 8.6%, reflecting competitive new rail car pricing from orders taken earlier in the pandemic and labor shortages.
Selling and administrative expense of $44.3 million is down 20% from Q4, primarily as a result of lower employee-related costs.
Net gain on disposition of equipment was $8.5 million, like many leasing companies we periodically sell assets from our lease fleet as opportunities arise.
We had an income tax benefit of 1.4 million in the quarter primarily reflect the net benefits from amending prior year tax returns.
Non-controlling interest provides the benefit of 5.2 million, primarily resulting from the impacts of line changeovers and production ramping at our Mexico joint venture.
Net earnings attributable to Greenbrier of 10.8 million or $0.32 per diluted share and EBITDA of 42.2 million or 7.7% of revenue.
Moving to liquidity, Greenbrier has a strong balance sheet.
Liquidity of 610 million is comprised of cacheable reforms of the ten million and available borrowings of nearly 200 million.
We are well positioned to navigate any market disruptions we expect to persist into calendar 2022.
As mentioned last quarter, our cash receivable spends at 106 million as of November 30, and we expect to receive most of these refunds in the second quarter of fiscal 2022.
This refund is an addition to Greenbrier's available cash and borrowing capacity.
Liquidity is important to support the working capital needs of the business as we significantly increase new railcar production beginning in '21 and into 2022.
Liquidity also enables Greenbrier to invest in growth, as demonstrated by the railcar portfolio purchase in Q1 and the expansion of GBX leasing at a pace exceeding our initial announcement.
It has also allowed us to continue to pay dividends throughout pandemic during a time of economic uncertainty.
Greenbrier's board of directors remains committed to a balance to find the capital.
I believe that our dividends program enhances shareholder value and attracts investors.
Today, we announced the dividends are $0.27 per share, which is our thirty-first consecutive dividend.
As of yesterday's closing price, our annual dividend represents a yield of approximately 2.3%.
Since 2014, Greenbrier returns nearly 370 million of capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Additionally, you may have noticed an increase of approximately 70 million and Greenbrier's notes payable balance, when compared to the prior quarter.
This non-cash increase is a result of Greenbrier adopting a new accounting standard, which simplified accounting for convertible notes and no longer requires the calculation of debt discount and associated equity components.
We believe the standard provides better transparency to how the convertible notes appear on our balance sheet.
And to be clear Greenbrier did not incur any impact of liquidity or cash flows as a result of this adoption.
Based on current business trends and production schedules, we're adjusting Greenbrier's fiscal 2022 outlook to reflect the following.
Increase deliveries by 1,500 units, now to a range of 17,500 to 19,500 units, which includes approximately 1,500 units from Greenbrier-Maxion in Brazil.
Selling and administrative expenses are unchanged and expect to be approximately 200 million to 210 million for the year.
Gross capital expenditures of approximately 275 million in leasing and management services, 55 million in manufacturing, and 10 million in maintenance services.
Gross margin percent is expected to steadily increase over the course of the year from high-single-digits in the first half to between low-double-digits and low-teens by the fourth fiscal quarter, as railcar's orders during the pandemic trough are delivered and conditions in the maintenance services business improve.
We expect deliveries to continue to be back half waited with a 45%, 55% split.
As reminders in fiscal 2022 approximately 1,400 units are expected to be built and capitalized into our lease fleet.
These units are not reflected in the delivery guidance provided.
We consider a railcar delivered on a lease Greenberg's balance sheet and is owned by an external third-party.
As mentioned in the commentary earlier on the call, momentum continues to build in our business.
And I'm excited about what the future holds for Greenberg.

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q1 earnings per share $0.32.
diversified new railcar backlog as of november 30, 2021 was 28,000 units with a value of $3.0 billion.
greenbrier companies - for 2022, expects increased deliveries of 17,500 - 19,500 units including about 1,500 units in greenbrier-maxion (brazil).

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