Okay. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining the Sidoti August 2024 MicroCap Conference. My name is Julio Romero. I'm the building products and industrials analyst here at Sidoti. We're really pleased to be able to host L.B. Foster. Their ticker is FSTR. With us today, we have John Kasel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bill Thalman, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, and Stephanie Schmidt, Manager of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. The format of this is gonna be a presentation. There is gonna be some time for Q&A at the very end, so if you have some questions for L.B. Foster, please type them into the Q&A section at the bottom. Happy to ask on your behalf. With that, John, Bill, and Stephanie, thanks so much for being here. Thanks, Julio, and welcome, everybody, and thanks for joining Stephanie and Bill with our presentation today. We're excited to deliver a message to you, and we're gonna hopefully resonate with you about why you should be buying the company. Next, Stephanie. A little bit about myself, John Kasel. I, this is my 22nd year with the company. I came in running the manufacturing operations, parts of the company and then was promoted to the commercial end, running all aspects of the company. And then in the end of 19, or 2019, I was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and then in 2021, to the role I'm in today. We'll talk more about that. Next, Stephanie. So as Julio mentioned, we are traded on NASDAQ, FSTR. It's exciting times with the company, and we talk about innovating to solve global infrastructure challenges, but you know, what does that really mean? What it means is we design, manufacture, distribute, and provide field services in industrial markets of transportation, utilities, and building materials and supplies. So in transportation, we serve the rail space, both freight and passenger. We'll talk about that. That's really our largest piece, our global piece of the business. Utilities, we serve the water and sewage, gas markets, and the building materials and supplies is concrete and steel pipe. So as you see on this chart here, we run the company in two different segments: Rail Technologies and Services and Infrastructure Solutions. Our trailing sales is equal to what basically we did in 2023. Our trailing twelve months, $545 million. Our largest segment is Rail Technologies and Services business. That is the, you know, basically the history of the company going back 122 years. And as you see, our sales is throughout the world, but most of our sales is United States, and Canada represents 90% of our sales that we had in 2023. Next. So these next two charts are really what I want you to take away from where we're at, more importantly, where we're going. The key messages as well as what we're gonna talk about related to our investment thesis. Why L.B. Foster? Why spend your money and time on the company? So I'm sure you hear all day today about strategic transformation journeys underway. Well, we are, and we're gonna share with you the work that we... that has accomplished and, more importantly, the expectations we have into the next half a year as well as in 2025 and beyond. You look at the company today, where we're trading. We see this as a very attractive time to come in and be part of the L.B. Foster picture as far as creating shareholder returns to value and strong profitability expansion. Bill and I will lay out to you today what really the tale of two halves, the profitability we had in H1 and the better improvement in profitability we're gonna have in H2, and the cash that comes along with the company. Next. So our structural improvement profitability and as well as just looking at the thesis, you know, we talk about transformation, and the heavy lifting is behind us now. So the portfolio moves that we've needed to make are done, so there's not a lot of ins and outs or happenings, but what we have and how do we really grow the business? And that's the next part of our thesis, is we're really excited about our organic programs. We have the opportunity to continue to grow this company and do what we understand, what we know in the markets we're serving today, so very exciting. We're gonna share with you cash generation, and Bill will get into more details about inflection point, where more cash will be coming through the company, as it relates to the second half year and in 2025 and beyond. And disciplined capital allocation, you know, we do things the way you think through them, and you get people excited about processes. And so we don't spend a lot of money. In fact, only 2.5% of our capital is related... 2.5% of sales is the monies that we spend toward capital. So it's a very capital-light business. So we got organic stuff going on, we made the structural improvements, and we're spending very little money to make it happen. Next. A lot going on in this chart. So the key takeaways I'd like to is, first of all, liquidity. Getting the trading volume. So we were moved out of the Russell 2000 back in 2001, and as you see in the bottom right-hand of this chart, the increased shares that we're having in Q2 versus Q2, respectively, a year ago, is up almost four times. So the Russell has given us that liquidity that we're excited about, and gets more visibility to our company, and it, and should be beneficial to you as well. When you look at our Adjusted EBITDA, the guidance that we provided in 2024, you can see in the midpoint, this is a significant improvement on year-over-year. In fact, it's 12% on Adjusted EBITDA to the midpoint of our guidance. So we feel very bullish about what's going on in this company on a year-over-year. And then look at the cash flow. You're looking at $25 million-$30 million in our guidance for the entire second half of this year, as well as what we're looking to do, including free cash flow yields in 2025, 13%-18% is the guidance we're providing. Next. So without getting a lot of details, a period of time between 2015 to 2021 was a very difficult period for the company. But also, I think it was very important for the company, 'cause it was able to self-identify itself and really figure out what was core, what our core competencies are, and how we had to go back to restore value to our shareholders. So on the left-hand side, you see a whole bunch of things that were our headwinds. But more important, what did we actually do? So in 2021, Bill Thalman came on the company as CFO. I was moved from COO to CEO. Ray Betler came on board as chair. Ray is a former president and CEO of Wabtec, and he's, he's the guy that put that company on the map. But we went back to basics. We figured out what the strategy was and how we continue to grow and drive shareholder return. So in the coming charts, I'm gonna show you how we did that. I'm gonna show you what our growth platforms are, and I'm gonna show you how we're getting excited about the opportunities in the second half of the year and going into next year. Next. So here's our growth platforms and returns. So, you know, I talked about segments, how we run the business. So these are, these are spread out across the segments. Let's start with the returns on the far right. So returns are really the legacy part of the company. If you look at the rail products, these are a lot of the components that go in to make a track system, both freight, as well as transit systems here in North America. It's a legacy, it's a history of the company going back 122 years. U.K. Technology Services, this came through the acquisition. We made a Portec and a follow-on acquisition we made with TEW Plus in 2015. A good business for us, but also one that we're, you know, we're watching carefully, and we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. The steel products. Primarily what's going on related to bridge industry, civil construction, as well as what's going on in energy and pipe. So we'll talk about that. But these are businesses in areas that we, we said it can't be part of our growth, related to really restoring the value we need to do in, in driving shareholder returns. Having said that, a lot of cash is generated through these businesses, and they're very, very important to what we do and how we do things. So on the left-hand side are, are also acquisitions that we've made over the last 20 years, that are really have given us the brand recognition that we have in the marketplace today, and Global Friction Management is a, you know, is a global piece of our business, where we're bringing these track solutions and ways for our, our rail operators, both freight and transit, to run their, their rail lines more efficiently and effectively. Total Track Monitoring is really becoming very important today as far as condition monitoring and providing safety for the systems here across North America and the world. Make sure the trains stay on the track, and they're doing what they should be doing. And if they're not, getting heads-up awareness to what's going on, so the train operators can make the corrective actions or proactive actions. And the precast concrete, you know, something we're really, really excited. Well, I'll talk more about that, but it's an area for really growth we do in the company, and it's really infrastructure play that I opened the conversation with today. And the scenario that we did a larger acquisition with in this area, we're gonna continue to grow and expand into Eastern and Southeastern United States. Next. So here you can see, you know, the others were just, I call them words on a page. Here you can see what that heavy lifting looks like. The returns platforms, you can see the rail products is pretty steady. This is the Class I and Class II, and the regional railroads continue to invest year-over-year in their track, track structure, on a sales piece, and then the respective margins, falling 15%-25%. U.K., we made a heads-up decision there just to kind of tap the brakes there, what's going on, till they stabilize their markets, related to the politics and everything that's going on over there. So as far as the growth since 2021, that, that was... You know, we, we intentionally, we're just monitoring that. We like what's going on there, but we're being very careful as far as continuing to grow in that area, till which time the market macro situation changes. And steel products, is where many of the divestitures occurred in the last couple of years, moving some of those commodity-type businesses off our portfolio, as well as really focusing on what we need to do, what we want to do related to the steel products in the business. And you can see the margins down in that area around 15%-25%, which is something we feel very, very good about. On the left-hand side, that's where we're spending our money. That's where we're spending our capital. This is where our organic programs are. So look at the growth we're seeing in Global FM, 24.5% of sales. TTM, that's the safety. These are things that are coming across, and being really a push through by regulatory needs today. Significant growth what's going on in that business, and then precast, something we feel very, very good about. Really understand what we need to do in that market, showing very nice growth on the top line. And the respective margins, when you look at the bottom, gross margin profiles, you know, you got, you got, you know, 25%-45% gross margins across the line here. So these are all very good. When you think about this, just kind of think of L.B. Foster is really understanding what we do related to what you see on the right-hand side, leveraging that, getting the cash, and then investing on the left-hand side. That's where the growth is gonna continue to happen in the balance of this year, as well as in 2025 and beyond. Next. So before I turn it over to Bill, and I'll have him come back with a closing remark, this is what gets us excited. Now, there's a lot of, you know, headwinds today related to the political landscape and all everything else going on, and inflation, and all the other things going on, but the need and the monies are there. You got $18 billion that we're showing on this page, of monies that are flowing through the markets that we're serving, the industries that we're serving, the areas that we feel very, very good about, and specifically our growth platforms. Left-hand side, you can see this money is coming through government funding related to what's going on in the transit lines, flowing through the freight lines, and then flowing through the short lines. In the middle, this is the safety, with the new Rail Safety Act in play. Another $1.4 billion of money that's being appropriated to help the railroads really focus on safety and safety, safety initiatives. In the last couple of years, we've really seen a big pickup for the Great American Outdoors Act, and this is our buildings and our CXT legacy products that are getting put around, being placed around the country, and more importantly, as we continue to expand into the east and southeast in the future. So we feel very excited about, you know, the opportunities are there, the funding's there, and we're well poised and positioned to take advantage of that. Okay, next, go on to Bill and financial review, and I'll come back with closing remarks. Thanks, John. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for participating today. My name is Bill Thalman. I'm the CFO at L.B. Foster. I've been with the company a little over three years, and I joined right when the refresh strategy was being developed, and I've been along for the transformation that's been completed thus far. I'm really excited about what we've accomplished, as well as recognizing that we've got significantly more work to do in the coming quarters and years. So Steph, the next slide. Just wanted to highlight that since I joined the company, again, I joined in March 2021, we've completed nine transactions that have significantly changed the growth and profitability profile of the portfolio. You can see those transactions, five divestitures and four acquisitions completed in a little over two years, about two and a half years or so. And the gross margin profile, you can see, across the bottom of the chart there, has increased nicely along that time horizon, as well as some pretty significant top-line growth achieved. And that was all accomplished through very purposeful execution of the strategy of divesting returns-based businesses and deploying that cash to growth platforms that we felt like had the opportunity to grow, and grow at a profitable rate of return. So Steph, on the next slide, breaks that same profile down, but does so on a quarterly basis. You can see the movements in revenue that have occurred on a trailing-twelve-month basis, from where we were in early 2022, and then all the way up to where we are here, at the end of the most recently completed second quarter. And you can see that walk and profitability in terms of margin expansion, 16.9%, all the way up to 21.4%. And I can tell you that, you know, our longer-term goals are to have margins of 22%-23%. We feel like we're in that game right now, and we expect that to continue to improve as the second-half profitability of the organization shows significant growth year-over-year, and we move into 2025 with the benefits of our organic growth programs. So the next slide will maybe unpack those details a bit more, in terms of the first half and second half, results that we've got outlined for 2024. So for the first half of the year, we just reported the second quarter, and as the earnings announcement indicated, it was a bit softer, the second quarter specifically. We had a really strong start to the year in Q1. Very strong organic growth, as well as significant top line, sorry, profitability expansion on a year-over-year basis, first quarter. Second quarter was a little more tempered, and it was primarily related to the rail business, where organic sales were up about 5.5% in total for the first half. But the rail segment was a bit weaker in the second quarter, particularly related to rail distribution and some weakness in that market, both from a profitability point of view as well as a volume point of view. And then, that translated into slightly lower year-over-year EBITDA, down 7.1%, again, due to the weaker distribution market, coupled with some expenses that we incurred related to the restructuring that was just completed, or just announced, here in August. But when you translate that and look at what we provided as guidance for the full year, and what that infers in terms of the second half, this is something that we highlighted in the earnings release as well as during the earnings call, that we feel like there is a very strong outlook for profitability expansion in the second half of the year, based on the midpoint of the guidance that we provided. And that's despite having somewhat softer second-half sales. Again, we don't expect a significant improvement in the rail market in the second half of the year, but the portfolio work that we've done, coupled with the recovery in the U.K., as well as a lower SG&A as a result of the restructuring-... You know, we expect to be approaching 29% year-over-year EBITDA growth in the second half of the year, which would translate to a full year, eleven point seven percent, or as John said earlier, nearly twelve percent growth in EBITDA for the full year. So, you know, we're excited about the prospects for a really strong second half. We feel confident that we're we have a roadmap to deliver those results, and that's what's implicit in our guidance that we issued last week with our second quarter earnings. So next slide. Steph will unpack cash flow a little bit more. Our guidance for cash flow for the year was $12 million-$18 million free cash flow, initially, and we updated our guidance to reflect some deferrals of project work in the rail space. What that means is, is that the updated guidance indicated that we were gonna be pushed to break even on cash flow for the year. Now, our business is very susceptible to large swings in cash flow because of timing of, of projects, particularly in the rail distribution space. Depending on when trains are delivered, when project releases occur, we can end up with very large accounts receivable balances at year-end that, that is simply related to collecting those open receivables because of the timing of the delay of, of the shipments, could result in us having somewhat lower cash generation than expected. Having said that, we're still gonna have very, very strong free cash flow generation in the second half of the year, and we have forecasted $25 million-$30 million of free cash flow generation. That'll bring our net debt down to something approaching or around two times. We're actually believing that it'll be slightly below two times by the end of the year. Some of that will be impacted by how much shares, how much stock we've repurchased, because we do have our stock repurchase program. And we announced last week that the board had released some of the restrictions related to those share repurchases. So we'll be looking at buying the stock, given the valuations that are in the market today. And so that's something that will also impact that leverage number. But we feel very confident in our ability to manage cash over the longer term. If you look at the two years, the last two years, 2023 and 2024, our free cash flow generation is about $22 million, excluding an $8 million Union Pacific settlement obligation that wraps up at the end of this year. So that's a number that'll go away, a funding requirement that goes away in 2025. So we feel confident we can build on that $22 million in 2025, with the improving profitability outlook, lower CapEx needs in the business, and the overall management of cash flow for the business, moving into 2025. We do have federal NOLs that'll minimize taxes for the foreseeable future, and again, as I mentioned earlier, we've got our stock buyback program. So long story short, we feel good about the outlook for cash generation, both in the second half of the year as well as the long term, and feel very confident that we can navigate the choppiness that's out there and manage our leverage to reasonable levels over the long term. Next slide, please. So this slide outlines our capital allocation priorities. They're very consistent, and we, as John indicated, have a very systematic approach at looking at allocating capital. We target leverage around two times. We're a little bit elevated, which is normal because of our seasonal working capital needs at the moment, but we expect that'll be back down to that two times level or so by the end of this year. The growth CapEx at the moment is a little higher. Overall, the total CapEx is about $13 million. We would say there's about $4 million-$5 million of growth CapEx within that $13 million, so we're targeting something closer to $8 million of normal CapEx, that we believe will kick in in 2025 from a run rate point of view. We'll do our share repurchase program, which will continue, at its current level, and, with the restrictions removed, we have that greater flexibility to execute that program today. We'll continue to look at tuck-in acquisitions where those make sense to extend our product portfolio reasonably at reasonable valuations. But, you know, we're really focused on driving the organic growth programs that we see in our portfolio to deliver our goals for 2025 and beyond, at least here in the short term. Next slide. So with that, I guess, I'll turn it over to John- Yeah - for closing remarks. All right. Thanks, Stephanie. I'm gonna circle back to where we opened the deck, and as well as give some visibility to 2025. From Bill and I today, the transformation journey is on its way. I will tell you, the heavy lifting is behind us, and we just did a significant SG&A tune-up as well, so 7% of our salary workforce. More importantly, we're focusing on investing in those growth areas that I talked about earlier to make sure we got the right people on the bus in the right seats. We feel this is a very attractive time as far as the company valuations. We talked about the cash generation H2, as well as going to 2025, and as well as just the profitability year-over-year, 12%, 29%, H2 to H2. When you look over on the right-hand side, these are aspirational goals that, Bill and I came up with back in 2021. We're not there as far as revenue. We look at midpoint, guidance we have this year, but we're not that far away when you think about our organic opportunities that we have, as well as the funding I mentioned to you earlier. We're 60, 70, 80 basis points away on margin, so we're continuing to work that, and make sure that we're getting, paid for our technology innovation. And then the bottom line with the Adjusted EBITDA, $48-$52 million. This business has seen numbers like this in the past, and we're restoring that profitability. But I also want to let you know, this, you know, this is not a destination in 2025. It's a journey, and we're gonna continue to build this growth platform, stabilize returns, and take our growth opportunities to continue to add value to you, the shareholders. So thanks for your time today, and we'll turn it back to Julio if we got a minute or two for any Q&A session. Thank you. Excellent. Well, thank you guys so much for that rundown. I'll kick off the Q&A with a couple of questions here. John, you mentioned at the beginning that the transportation is kind of largely complete, and then Bill, you also talked about, still some potential for tuck-in deals. So can you guys just maybe talk about, you know, the size and nature of potential tuck-ins, and what portions of the portfolio would make the most sense for you to add to? Yeah, these would be bolt-ons. It would be something that we've... You know, they're relatively small. It's another product line expansion or maybe geographic expansion. So they won't be big, large-scale deals. We don't believe in that. We believe that we have the ability to scale with what we have today. So they'll be relatively small, you know, $10 million, $20 million, $30 million type of revenue, type opportunities, and, but nothing that we're going to really stress the organization with. We feel very good about our organic opportunities we have today. Okay, excellent. And then, you know, thinking about the organic portfolio for a bit, just- Right ... I know you talked about the second half, and the prospects there, but maybe thinking a little longer term into 2025 and beyond, can you kind of just help us think about the organic growth prospects over the next, I don't know, call it a half decade or so, and in each business? Yeah. Well, the more and more, and these railroads are gonna get more efficient in what they do, moving people, moving freight. And the safety and all the requirements to do such is right in our wheelhouse. We're gonna help them be successful in moving people. The good news is, pre-pandemic levels as far as ridership in the U.S. is back to pre-pandemic levels. We feel great about that. But the railroads have a lot to do to continue to compete against the truck and the freight industry. You know, from a global footprint, you know, from an environmental footprint, they represent a very small dimension. So I do think over the coming years, they're gonna be places to go. People are gonna continue to look at railroads to move freight and move people, and L.B. Foster will be well-poised to make that happen. On the concrete side, it's all about continuing to build infrastructure, and our focus continues to be in the south, southeast, and southwest. We have tremendous opportunities there, and concrete is really becoming something. With the storms, hurricanes, natural disasters, concrete is really becoming something that, you know, builders and contractors are starting to spec in and require. So we're in a great place, you know, to see that for years to come as well from a macroeconomic view. Understood. And, you know, one thing top of mind for a lot of folks is the upcoming election here in the U.S. Just how should we think about, you know, the potential impact to Foster one way or the other? Yeah, you gotta go back to the monies that's already there. I don't get too wrapped up in elections. You know, at the end of the day, the need, the need is there, the infrastructure needs are there, and The money will be spent. It's just a question of who's in charge to make it happen. So, I don't get too worried about what's gonna happen in election season. We're in a good, very good place right now, and we will take full advantage of that beyond November. Got it. And speaking of the monies being there, you know, what inning would you kind of say we're in, in terms of kind of feeling the effects of that increased federal funding? You know, when IIJA came out, everything was just so delayed because of the amount of, you know, resources that are required with the permitting and the inspections and all the certifications. We're starting to see that free up now. We're seeing much more work, much more visibility, to that, you know, initial, funding that came out, and there's just more and more behind that now. So I think there's gonna be a real wave. The pent-up demand is there, and in our minds, it's just starting to be released right now. So this is a real good time to, you know, join the L.B. Foster, because, we're gonna be busy, for a long period of time. Got it. And for folks looking for, you know, infrastructure-related opportunities, can you give us the 15-second or so elevator pitch on what makes Foster a compelling value prop? It goes back to what we talked about earlier, and with our technology innovation. We're out in front of making the lives easier and the way they go about their business is easier from a customer point of view. It's easy to do business with L.B. Foster. You know, we make a good quality product, and we deliver it on time. So that's something that really differentiates ourselves, and so we really want to be an extension of what's going on in the marketplace today, so I think we're well poised to make that happen. Our operation locations and our people that make this happen are second to none. So we have a culture, and that's what we've grown for 122 years. We keep building that culture. It starts with people, and it ends with a process. John, Bill, Stephanie, thank you guys so much for taking the time. Thanks, Julio. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today.