Esterline Technologies Earnings Call INSIGHTS: Countermeasures Programs, Build Rates

On Thursday, Esterline Technologies (NYSE:ESL) reported its third quarter earnings and discussed the following topics in its earnings conference call. Take a look.

Countermeasures Programs

Sam Pearlstein – Wells Fargo: Can you just talk a little bit about – you mentioned that your countermeasures programs, now that they’re in hand what does 2013 look like versus 2012 for the countermeasures business? Is there any way to size, what that will look like year-over-year?

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: I’ll take the first stab at that. Sam, this is Brad. Clearly, our European business is recovering strongly from the experience we’ve had in 2012. I mentioned specifically in my comments. On the other hand, our businesses in the U.S. is relatively flat year-over-year for countermeasure demand as we can see at this point for ’13.

Sam Pearlstein – Wells Fargo: Then also the C-130 upgrade for the Saudi is that a fourth quarter event that you expect to book that or is that going to move into the next year?

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: As I indicated on the call on August 6, our expectations are that that will take place this fiscal year. Excuse me, this calendar year.

Sam Pearlstein – Wells Fargo: Then one last question for Bob is just you’ve done a great job in terms of paying down debt. Can you just talk a little bit about what sequentially in this quarter, we’ve seen interest expense actually move up rather than down and what’s your expectation for the fourth quarter run rate for interest?

Robert D. George – VP and CFO, Corporate Development and Secretary: So when you say sequentially Sam are you talking about…

Sam Pearlstein – Wells Fargo: From the second quarter to the third quarter.

Robert D. George – VP and CFO, Corporate Development and Secretary: I do not have the specific answer. My guess is that on EBITDA basis we might have moved up one of our metrics blocks in interest expense on the term loan. That is an educated guess however.

Build Rates

Michael Ciarmoli – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Brad, Maybe just if you can, can you comment on the T-6B what rate you’re running at right now and are you back to the rate you were at prior to the bankruptcy?

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: Yeah, Michael, this is Brad. The build rates this year have been in flux and a little bit hard to track, but the bankruptcy situation we’ve been monitoring receivables and so we haven’t really been shipping in incomplete sets of cockpits. So a little difficult to say, but going forward, it looks like the build rate at T6B, and I’ll look over to Bob to make sure I’m correct on this. I believe its four aircraft per month.

Robert D. George – VP and CFO, Corporate Development and Secretary: Yes.

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: Which would be eight cockpits for us.

Michael Ciarmoli – KeyBanc Capital Markets: So, you’re going to get back to where you were kind of and no hiccups there?

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: Yeah.

Michael Ciarmoli – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Then just, shifting I guess to Souriau, Bob based on the comments, $250 million year-to-date that would imply that the revenues dip sequentially from $90 million in the second quarter, down to $77 million was that just programs, order timing, I mean it sounds like based on the full-year that’s going to snap back up to the $90 million. So what was the reason for the weakness in this quarter?

Robert D. George – VP and CFO, Corporate Development and Secretary: Well, one aspect there Michael, is the exchange rates for the euro continue to move down. So the translation effect was fairly significant in the third quarter. You are correct, our expectation at Souriau for the fourth quarter is a movement to back up.

Michael Ciarmoli – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Then just the last one Brad. You mentioned some potential helicopter orders. Can you give us a little more detail about potential customers or size of those opportunities?

R. Brad Lawrence – Chairman, President and CEO: Yeah. The opportunities are large. I’ve been cautioned that we can’t speak specifically on that. Timing is near. So stay tuned for an announcement. I’m sure we’ll make a press release on those orders when they arrive.