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Text: Joining the call today are Tom Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer; Philip Schlom, Chief Financial Officer; and David Nark, Senior Vice President, Marketing Communications and IR.
Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, changes in customer demand and response to products and services offered by the company, including demand by the power generation markets, electrical transmission and distribution markets, the industrial markets and the metal coatings markets; prices and raw material costs, including zinc and natural gas, which are used in the hot-dip galvanizing process; changes in the political stability and economic conditions of the various markets that AZZ serves, foreign and domestic; customer-requested delays of shipments; acquisition opportunities; currency exchange rates; adequate financing; and availability of experienced management and employees to implement the Company's growth strategies.
In addition, AZZ's customers and its operations could potentially be adversely impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
First, I need to express my great appreciation for the way our AZZ employees, their families and our partner stepped up during the COVID pandemic and also during the winter storm that impacted a significant portion of our production just two weeks before the end of our fiscal year.
Due to the concerted and in some cases extraordinary efforts of our employees, we were able to quickly respond and finish out a profitable fourth quarter.
Overall annual sales declined 21% versus the prior-year record, reaching $839 million, with Metal Coatings down 8% to $458 million and Infrastructure Solutions declining by 32% to $381 million.
The lower volumes were driven primarily by the impact on our customers caused by the COVID pandemic as well as the divestitures we made during the year.
I will get into the details of this as we go along.
We're pleased to have completed our 34th consecutive year of profitability and while COVID negatively impacted our results, we were able to take several actions to better position AZZ for the future.
We continue to generate strong cash flow during the year with $92 million of net cash provided by operating activities.
We generated adjusted net income of $55 million and adjusted earnings per share of $2.11 per diluted share.
We were successful in completing the divestiture of our SMS and GalvaBar Businesses during the year.
We closed a couple of galvanizing plants due to both local market conditions and the proximity of our other plants that could efficiently absorb the majority of their business.
We also closed the Surface Technology plant in [indecipherable] and coating lines, two of which were recently brought back online.
In line with our strategic commitment to value creation, we repurchased over 1.2 million shares for $48.3 million and distributed $7.6 million in dividends.
In Metal Coatings, we posted sales of $458 million while achieving operating margins of 23.3% on an adjusted basis, up nicely from the previous year.
The margin improvement was primarily due to driving operating efficiencies and productivity in the face of rising labor and energy costs.
The team completed the acquisition of Acme Galvanizing in Milwaukee near the end of the fiscal year.
We remain committed to delivering on the investments made in our Surface Technology business, but it is important to note that customers for this business were more severely impacted by COVID than on the galvanizing sites.
Our Infrastructure Solutions segment was severely impacted by the COVID pandemic, particularly in the early part of the year.
Sales declined over 32% to $381 million, with adjusted operating income down 52% generating adjusted margins of 4.1%.
We divested the SMS business since it was deemed to be non-core to our long-term strategy.
Restructuring and impairment charges for Infrastructure Solutions totaled $9.2 million for the year.
For fiscal 2022, COVID continues to generate some uncertainty, but our folks are managing disruptions well and keeping our employees safe.
So we are reaffirming our previously issued guidance.
We anticipate sales to be in the range of $835 million to $935 million and earnings per share of $2.45 to $2.95.
Metal Coatings is continuing to focus on sales growth, including leveraging our spin galvanizing operations at several sites.
They are also focused on operational execution and customer service, as labor and operating expenses due to material cost inflation are increasing.
Our Infrastructure Solutions segment has seen a gradual return to more normalized business activity and entered Q1 with some momentum.
Our Industrial business is seeing good results from our expanded Poland facility, although globally the business continues to experience some intermittent project delays due to COVID outbreaks at certain customer sites.
The electrical platform is focused on operational execution and growing it's e-House and switchgear businesses.
For fiscal year 2022, AZZ will continue to execute on strategic growth objectives that drive shareholder value.
At our core, we are a metal coatings company and a manufacturer of products and provider of services that are critical to sustaining infrastructure.
Our commitment to superior customer service is unwavering.
Our ability to generate strong cash flow is based on initiatives to drive operational excellence, manage costs, ensure pricing discipline and emphasis on receivables collection within our operating platforms.
We are confident that our businesses remain vital to improving and sustaining infrastructure, so we are actively working to position our core businesses to provide sustainable profitability long into the future.
For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, we reported sales of $195.6 million, $49.7 million or 20.3% lower than the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020.
Gross margin of $45.8 million for the quarter was $5.3 million or 10.4% below prior year.
However, gross margins rose to 23.4% of sales compared to 20.8% in the prior year fourth quarter, a 260 basis point improvement year-over-year.
Net income for the quarter was $16.2 million compared to a loss of $10.6 million in the comparable prior year fourth quarter, where the company had recorded a loss on sale of our Nuclear Logistics business and recorded charges related to the impairment of assets within the Infrastructure Solutions segment.
Reported diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.63 per share.
As Tom had earlier indicated, full year fiscal 2021 sales of $838.9 million were down 21% compared to the prior-year sales of $1.06 billion, largely as a result of the impact to the business from the pandemic, divestitures and lower revenues in China as we continue to execute on our existing China backlog.
Gross margins as reported improved to 22.5% from 22.3% on a year-over-year basis on stronger Metal Coatings performance, partially offset by the impacts of the pandemic within our Industrial and Electrical platforms, which are part of our Infrastructure Solutions segment.
Reported operating profit for the year of $61.6 million was $17.7 million or 22.3% lower than the prior year.
Operating profit in the current year was reduced $20 million as a result of our second quarter restructuring and impairment charges as well as losses recorded on the divestitures of Metal Coatings GalvaBar business and Infrastructure Solutions SMS business during the year.
Reported operating margins of 7.3% were down 20 basis points from the prior year.
Full-year operating profit as adjusted was $81.6 million, $25.5 million or 23.8% lower than the prior year's adjusted operating profit of $107 million, mostly as a result of the impact on the Infrastructure Solutions business, where they were impacted more strongly by the Energy market downturn in the pandemic.
EBITDA for fiscal year '21 was $105.2 million compared with $128.5 million in the prior year due to the lower current year earnings, partially offset by a reduction in tax expense in the current year as compared to the prior year.
Full year EBITDA as adjusted for impairment and restructuring charges was $125.2 million or 19.9% decrease from prior year's adjusted EBITDA of $156.3 million.
Cash flows from operations in the current year of $92 million were $50 million -- $50.3 million or 35.3% lower compared to the prior year, on lower net income, higher non-cash charges in the prior year and fluctuations in working capital during the year.
During the year, we continued to invest in the business.
In regards to capital allocation, we were successfully able to navigate tougher market conditions and accomplished the following.
We repurchased $48.3 million in outstanding shares.
We refinanced our $125 million 5.42% senior notes with an upsize offering of $150 million over 7-year and 12-year periods bearing interest under 3%, resulting in $2.5 million of lower annual interest expense.
Even with the pandemic, we were able to reduce debt $24 million, ending our fiscal year with $170 million -- $179 million of borrowings, compared to $203 million in borrowings at the end of last year.
We continue to support growth initiative by internally investing $37.1 million in capital projects during the year.
We completed our Houston spin plant as well as the expansion and modernization of our Poland manufacturing and operations facility.
We acquired one galvanizing and plating operation in January 2021.
We divested as had Tom noted and closed underperforming operations during the year and we continue to pay quarterly dividends.
We maintain a strong balance sheet with plenty of liquidity and continue to evaluate capital allocation strategies as we progress further on our strategic alternatives.
Lastly, we improved our internal controls over financial reporting and successfully remediated our previously reported material weakness related to our tax accounting.
Here are some key indicators that we are paying particular attention to.
For the Metal Coatings segment's galvanizing business, we are carefully tracking fabrication and construction activity, material and labor cost inflation and progress of infrastructure legislation.
For Surface Technologies, we are primarily focused on expanding our customer base and some of our customers may take considerable time in getting back to normal production.
For Infrastructure Solutions, we are off to a decent start with turnaround and outage activity having returned to a normal level and the fall season is currently looking to be quite good.
The Electrical platform is benefiting from transmission, distribution and utility spending and increasing data center and battery energy storage activity.
Finally for Corporate, we are focused on completing the strategic review of Infrastructure Solutions and replacing our credit facility.
We remain committed to our growth strategy around Metal Coatings and achieving 21% operating margins with galvanizing performance being quite steady as we continue to improve Surface Technologies.
We will remain acquisitive, particularly in galvanizing.
For Infrastructure Solutions, we will continue to focus on profitable growth in our core businesses.
Our Infrastructure Solutions business unit should benefit from more normal turnaround and outage seasons and a solid market for T&D, utility and data center, e-houses and switchgear.

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azz inc reaffirms fiscal year 2022 guidance.
azz inc - reaffirms fiscal year 2022 guidance.
azz inc - sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021 were $195.6 million, compared to $245.4 million for the prior year.
azz inc - net income for the quarter was $16.2 million, or $0.63 per share on a diluted basis.

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