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Text: Today, Greenbrier announced that effective March 1, our founder, Bill Furman will transition to the role of Executive Chairman and the appointment of Lorie Tekorius as Greenbrier's next CEO and President.
In addition to Bill and Lorie, Brian Comstock, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial and Leasing Officer; and Adrian Downes, Senior Vice President and CFO are participating in today's call.
As Justin indicated earlier today, we announced our Board of Directors has elected Lorie Tekorius, Greenbrier's current President and Chief Operating Officer to be the Company's next Chief Executive Officer, a position she will assume on March 1, 2022.
Lorie and I along with the Board have been working toward this goal for several years.
Together, we've built a very strong talent bench.
I'm very pleased with the teams we have in place for the future, and I'm also pleased with the strategy that Lorie has evolved which I think will take the Company to higher peaks.
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Lorie.
Lorie, I know you will do an outstanding job as Greenbrier's next CEO and I look forward to working with you through the transition.
I'm very proud of you.
Everyone joining us today should understand our joint commitment to ensure the smoothest possible transition.
When Lorie become CEO, I will concurrently assume the newly created role of Executive Chair until September 2022, when I will retire from an executive position.
In this role, my focus is on continuing to work with our Board of Directors as well as support Lorie in her transition to CEO.
I will manage as Board member until 2024.
This transaction -- transition is coming at an important and exciting time for the Company.
As we've discussed over the past several quarters, the recovery in our end markets is gaining momentum.
Our fiscal fourth quarter was Greenbrier's strongest quarter of the year.
Greenbrier's fiscal fourth quarter was in fact our fifth quarter in a row with increased new railcar order activity.
It was also Greenbrier's third consecutive quarter with a book-to-bill ratio over 1 leading to a book-to-bill of 1.33 for fiscal 2021.
The spread of the Delta variant has created challenges worldwide for business and society, and it has made the pace of the recovery partly unpredictable.
It continues to impact Greenbrier on a personal level.
Both vaccinated and un-vaccinated individuals across our workforce have experienced isolated COVID-19 infections during the fourth quarter.
I was one of them along with my wife, Jane, despite being both double vaccinated.
Fortunately, our symptoms were mild and we have fully recovered.
Sadly, however, we recently lost another colleague, Pedro Gonzalez [Phonetic].
Pedro was an 18-year veteran of the GRS Kansas City wheel shop.
He was the 10th member of the Greenbrier family we have lost due to COVID-19.
We are supporting his family during this difficult time.
We are urging people to get vaccinated and to keep social distancing.
The health and safety of our employees is paramount.
We continue to maintain a vigilant posture, particularly as we integrate new manufacturing employees in response to expanding production capacity.
Of course, the virus is not the only issue to be faced.
Global markets have been impacted by labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, volatile commodity markets and other disruptive headwinds.
These factors persist into Greenbrier's fiscal 2022, and this is all in addition to what I would term the regular challenges for a manufacturing, maintenance and leasing business as we transition from low production after a rapid downturn and then a rapid spike-up and employment rates to higher employment and greater levels of production activity.
So, this is an environment that demands a disciplined strategy we've adhered to since the outset of the pandemic.
It also demands our best efforts.
Specifically, our strategy has been to first maintain a strong liquidity base and balance sheet, next, to survive the COVID-19 and economic crisis by safely operating our factories while generating cash flow.
Everyone knows that in an upturn, cash is required to replenish working capital and for growth.
And finally, we needed to prepare for and manage well during the economic recovery and the forward momentum in our markets which is now well underway.
Our actions have been purposeful and successful and the result of a strong team effort, a flexible approach and scalable manufacturing capacity or both central to Greenbrier's response to an improving market outlook.
The demand outlook is strong.
It is strong in all of our markets globally, notwithstanding the impact of elevated steel and other input prices to our customers' decision-making processes.
I'm proud of how seamlessly our teams are ramping up to '22 production lines by the end of November from just nine lines of operation at lower rates of production, only nine years ago -- nine months ago, sorry.
This phase of our strategy has presented novel challenges and operational risks as we add a large number of new production lines, many involving product changeovers and adding new people.
Safety, availability of labor and supply chain constraints are key priorities for Greenbrier to manage as production increases.
Importantly, our liquidity position remains strong, maintaining it remains a top priority.
We're balancing efficient management of working capital with protecting our supply chain and ensuring production continuity.
Before I conclude today and hand the call over to Lorie, I would like to remind our listeners that we do not expect to the market recovery to follow a smooth straight line.
Our industry is still recovering from the shock caused by the pandemic.
Uncertainties and obstacles do remain.
It is clear, however, that our strategy has produced and is producing results, and I believe, we are well on the other side of where we have been.
We are also pleased to recently increased the scale of our leasing fleet through our GBX Leasing joint venture.
Our lease investment provides Greenbrier tax advantaged cash flows.
It reduces and in the future will continue to reduce exposure to the inherent cyclicality of freight transportation, equipment manufacturing and other sources.
At GBX Leasing, we are building a long-term annuity stream with solid credits, longer and balanced maturity ladders and product diversity.
While doing so, we are foregoing some immediate revenue recognition in the short term to build for the future.
All factors considered, Greenbrier is extremely well positioned to navigate the months ahead and deliver further value to our shareholders.
Before electing Lorie as CEO, we thought it is important that she sketch out her strategy for the future.
She spent four to five months in thoughtfully putting together that strategy.
In the future, we'll be happy to share the changes that this will bring, but as a headline we look to technology, diversification and services and other ways to take the cycle out of the inherent manufacturing business cycle and growth of the future.
I want to express my appreciation to Bill and the Greenbrier Board for appointing me Greenbrier's next CEO.
I'm honored and humbled to follow Bill as only the second CEO in Greenbrier's history.
Bill and I have worked together toward this goal for some time and I feel well prepared.
I look forward to continuing to work with Bill on this transition and to build on the strong established foundation he created with our senior management team.
Today, we're reporting results from operation that continue the momentum from Q3.
Volatility seems to be the new norm and Greenbrier's employees rose to the challenge.
The resiliency, flexibility and focus allowed Greenbrier to produce great results in addition to providing excellent levels of service and the production of quality railcars.
Supply chain and labor force shortages in the United States were two of the most notable and unfortunately common challenges we're managing today.
In the quarter, Greenbrier delivered 4500 railcars, including 400 units in Brazil.
Q4 deliveries increased 36% from Q3, reflecting manufacturing successful ramping of production over the last six months.
This is our highest level of production and deliveries since fiscal 2020 and we're pleased to see another quarter of double-digit growth.
Our global purchasing group continues to do an outstanding job, even as disruptions spread from basic raw materials and components to resins, paint and industrial gases.
Our global sourcing team has rapidly responded to changing supply dynamics and continues to take measures to ensure we avoid significant production delays or line introduction.
And while hiring is currently challenging in the US, we're fortunate to have a strong and talented labor pool in Mexico, allowing us to add over 500 employees during the quarter and over the last nine months, we've added nearly 2000 employees in our manufacturing business.
Safety continues to be a priority as we bring back our workforce in a measured manner.
In our North American network of maintenance and parts operations or Greenbrier Rail Services, we continue to make improvements in how we manage our operations and interface with our customers, including license [Phonetic].
The continued focus on safety resulted in a record setting Q4 and full year safety performance.
These positive strides were somewhat offset by labor shortages impacting operating efficiencies and an obsolete inventory adjustment in Q4.
Excluding the inventory adjustment, gross margins would have been similar to Q3.
I'm confident we'll be able to leverage the improvements made in GRS for 2022 and beyond.
Our leasing and services group which include our GBX Leasing operations had another busy quarter.
Nearly 70 million of railcars were contributed into GBX Leasing in Q4, bringing the total market value of assets in fiscal 2021 to almost $200 million.
Subsequent to year end, we acquired a portfolio of 3600 railcars, a portion of which will also be held in GBX Leasing.
This purchase provides commodity, age and credit diversity.
Our GBX Leasing fleet is valued at $350 million at the end of September and continues to gain momentum.
As a reminder, GBX Leasing is currently utilizing a non-recourse warehouse credit facility, a portion of which we expect to term out in the next few quarters with more traditional long term railcar financing.
Our enhanced leasing strategy will provide revenue and tax-advantaged cash flow offsetting the cyclicality of railcar production.
Our capital markets team syndicated 1000 units in the quarter and continues to generate liquidity and profitability.
In fiscal 2022, we expect syndication activity to increase meaningfully as overall demand and production levels rise.
And in the next few weeks, Greenbrier will be publishing its Third Annual ESG Report.
I'm excited about the progress shown in the report on a variety of areas and congratulate our internal ESG team for providing a valuable summary of how Greenbrier is serving its stakeholders.
Looking ahead, we continue to see positive momentum in fiscal 2022.
Emerging from an economic recession and cyclical trough can be challenging in the best of times, but with the ongoing impact of the pandemic, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, this year is going to be a completely different type of challenge.
I'm pleased that we have talented employees and a strong management team with significant industry experience to guide Greenbrier through the next few quarters.
I remain excited about the long-term opportunities for Greenbrier and proud to be leading into the next part of our journey as a company.
And now, Brian Comstock will provide commentary on the railcar demand environment.
While it feels like much has occurred over the last three months, overall, the economy continues to be trending in a positive direction and economic indicators point to a sustained recovery in rail.
While this recovery seems to be more unpredictable, we continue to think about it as a sharper V-shape recovery with a sustainable crust.
Now, instead of discussing industry statistics, I'm going to focus on a few important things from 2021 and how we are approaching 2022.
In Greenbrier's fourth quarter, we had a book-to-bill of 1.5, reflecting deliveries of 4500 units and orders of 6700 units.
This is the third consecutive quarter of growth in our book-to-bill ratio.
For fiscal '21, Greenbrier generated orders of 17,200 units and deliveries of 13,000 units, which equates to a book-to-bill of 1.3.
International order activity accounted for approximately 30% of this new railcar order activity.
New railcar backlog grew by 2000 units or nearly $400 million of value to 26,600 units with an estimated market value of $2.8 billion.
Operations in each continent we operate in are carrying backlog that supports production well into fiscal 2022.
Notably, we ended the fiscal year with a record backlog for Europe, where we have many production lines booked into fiscal 2023.
Greenbrier's lease fleet utilization ended on August 21 at roughly 94% and has grown to over 96% year to date.
Additionally, we are seeing improved lease pricing and term on all new lease originations and lease renewals.
We have seen recovery in all of our markets.
We have also seen significant increases in raw materials, components and shortages of basic supplies.
We are seeing traffic congestion throughout the network, especially at the ports where a record setting number of ships are waiting to be offloaded underlining the fact that when you shut down large portions of the global economy, turning it back on is not as easy as just flipping a switch.
There will be disruptions and unintended consequences.
However, we continue to see growth opportunities in our global markets.
Europe is beginning to see the benefits of a broad scale economic reforms to address climate change.
We are in the early days of a model shift to freight from polluting and congested road travel to efficient higher speed rail service.
We believe this model shift will drive significant growth in railcar demand in the years to come.
This growth is in addition to replacement demand as fleets in EU countries are ageing with many cars already well past the time for replacement.
Equally as exciting is the future of the North American market.
Right now, we are seeing a return to replacement demand levels, but imagine what will happen when the United States follows a similar path as Europe.
Freight rail is one of the more sustainable solutions because of its environmental friendliness.
Similar to Europe, we see an extended period of substantially higher demand except it involves one of the largest freight rail fleets and systems in the world.
With all that being said, Greenbrier's global commercial team is focused on not only the basic blocking and tackling of new railcar orders, leasing and service solutions, but also in continuing to develop a more comprehensive and integrated approach for our customers globally.
Now over to Adrian for more about our Q4 and full financial performance.
Greenbrier's Q4 performance represents the strongest quarter of our fiscal 2021 year as a result of the continuing momentum we've been seeing in our end markets.
I will speak to a few highlights from the quarter and provide a general overview of fiscal 2022 guidance.
Highlights for the fourth quarter include revenue of $599.2 million, an increase of over 33% from Q3.
Aggregate gross margins of 16.4%, driven by stronger operating performance as a result of increased production rates, syndication activity and lease modification fees.
Selling and administrative expense of $55.4 million increased sequentially as a result of higher employee-related costs.
Adjusted net earnings attributable to Greenbrier of $32.9 million or $0.98 per share excludes $1.2 million or $0.03 per share of debt extinguishment losses.
EBITDA of $70.4 million or 11.8% of revenue.
The effective tax rate in the quarter was a benefit of 14.5%.
This reflects the tax benefits from accelerated depreciation associated with capital investments into our lease fleet.
These deductions will be carried back to earlier high-tax years under the CARES Act, resulting in a tax benefit in the quarter and cash tax refunds to be received in fiscal 2022.
I'm very proud of the close collaboration between our leasing and tax teams that maximized this benefit to Greenbrier over the course of fiscal 2021.
In the quarter, we recognized $1.6 million of gross costs specifically related to COVID-19 employee and facility safety.
In 2021, we spent nearly $10 million, ensuring our employees and facilities could operate safely.
The quarter also included an unfavorable adjustment for labor and materials in our lease business as well as unfavorable excess and obsolete inventory adjustments of fields repair and parts.
Adjusted net earnings for the year attributable to Greenbrier was $37.2 million or $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.7 billion and excludes $4.7 million net of tax or $0.14 per share of debt extinguishment loses.
EBITDA for the year was $145.2 million or 8.3% of revenue.
Greenbrier has a strong balance sheet and with liquidity of $835 million comprising cash of $647 million and available borrowings of $188 million, we are well positioned to navigate the market disruptions that we expect to persist into calendar 2022.
You may have noticed the tax receivable has grown to a $112 million as of August 31.
We expect to receive most of these refunds in the second quarter of fiscal 2022.
This is an addition to Greenbrier's available cash and borrowing capacity that I just mentioned.
In the fourth quarter, Greenbrier completed almost $1.1 billion of debt refinancing, extending the maturities of our domestic revolving facility and two term loans into 2026 and 2027.
In addition to the GBX Leasing, railcar and warehouse credit facility, Greenbrier's Legacy lease fleet is partially levered with a $200 million six year term loan while the remaining fleet assets serve as collateral in Greenbrier's $600 million US revolving facility.
Also in the quarter, we repurchased an additional $20 million of senior convertible notes due in 2024 and maybe from time to time retire additional outstanding 2024 notes in privately negotiated transactions within the limitations of applicable securities regulations.
Overall in fiscal 2021, Greenbrier completed $1.8 billion of financing activity including $1.5 billion of debt refinancing and the creation of the $300 million GBX Leasing warehouse credit facilities.
We have effectively doubled the maturity profile of our existing cash at favorable interest rates and removed the 2023 refinancing risks.
Greenbrier's Board of Directors remains committed to a balanced deployment of capital designed to protect the business and simultaneously create long-term shareholder value.
Our Board believes that our dividend program enhances shareholder value and attracts investors.
Today, we announced a dividend of $0.27 per share, which is our 30th consecutive dividend.
Based on current business trends and production schedules, we expect Greenbrier's fiscal 2022 to reflect deliveries of 16,000 to 18,000 units, which include approximately 1,500 units from Greenbrier Maxion in Brazil.
Selling and administrative expenses are expected to be approximately $200 million to $210 million.
Capital expenditures of approximately $275 million in leasing and services, $55 million in manufacturing and $10 million in wheels repair and parts.
Gross margins to be lower in the first half of the year, reflecting a few primary factors.
Production reflects more competitive pricing taken during the pandemic 9 to 12 months ago.
Early in the year, we will have some operating inefficiencies due to product line changeovers and continued production ramping.
As production rates stabilize, operating efficiencies will increase benefiting margins.
More production is scheduled for syndication or leasing fleet activity and will be on the balance sheet until final disposition is decided.
We expect margins to improve over the course of the year as we work through less profitable mix, achieve production efficiencies and other factors.
We expect deliveries to be back half weighted with a 40% front half, 60% back half left [Phonetic].
As Bill mentioned earlier on the call, the introduction of GBX Leasing and our shift and leasing strategy has an impact on our production and delivery activity.
Historically, we would build a railcar with a lease and syndicate it a few quarters later.
Now, in addition to direct sales and syndication activity, a portion of production will be capitalized into our lease fleet.
While this activity reduces revenue and margin in the near term, it creates a long term stable platform of repeating cash flows and income and is part of our strategic shift to smooth the impact of the new railcar demand cycles on our results.
In fiscal 2022, approximately 1400 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 when it leaves Greenbrier's balance sheets and is owned by an external third-party.
We have an experienced management team that has a track record of success in identifying and taking advantage of opportunities as well as managing through the challenges and factors we described earlier.
As a result, we are optimistic that our operating momentum will continue into fiscal 2022, albeit in a non-linear fashion.

user
compname reports q4 adjusted earnings per share $0.98.
q4 adjusted earnings per share $0.98.
q4 revenue $600 million.
appointment of lorie tekorius as company's next ceo and president, effective march 1, 2022.
greenbrier companies - well-positioned to navigate challenges of increasing production rates safely, while ensuring labor and supply chain continuity.

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