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EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT
EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT 2020 - Q4
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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q4 and Full Year 2020 Meritor, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference to your speaker today, Todd Chirillo, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir..

Todd Chirillo

Thank you, Jewel. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Meritor's Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2020 Earnings Call.

On the call today, we have Jay Craig, CEO and President; Carl Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Villavarayan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, all of whom will be available for questions following the call. The slides accompanying today's call are available at meritor.com.

We'll refer to the slides in our discussion this morning. The content of this conference call, which we're recording, is the property of Meritor, Inc. It's protected by U.S. and international copyright law and may not be rebroadcast without the expressed written consent of Meritor.

We consider your continued participation to be your consent to our recording. Our discussion may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Let me now refer you to Slide 2 for a more complete disclosure of the risks that could affect our results.

To the extent we refer to any non-GAAP measures in our call, you'll find the reconciliation to GAAP in the slides on our website. Now I'll turn the call over to Jay..

Jay Craig

Thanks, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Before we review our results, I would like to take a moment to address the leadership transition plan we announced last week. After nearly 6 years as CEO, I will transition to the role of Executive Chairman of the Board on February 28.

At that time, Chris Villavarayan, our Chief Operating Officer, has been selected to succeed me as Meritor's next CEO and President. Additionally, Bill Newlin, our current Chairman, will become the lead Director of the Board. Since I assumed the CEO position, we have made great strides through execution of our M2016, M2019 and now our M2022 plans.

We have advanced our innovation and product portfolio, strengthened our financial foundation and created a collaborative and diverse organization that fosters growth. M2022 is well underway and we are seeing signs of recovery in our business and industry since the onset of COVID-19, which I'll touch upon more later.

That said, we believe now is the ideal time to set in motion our long-term succession plan. Many of you know Chris, who has been lit Meritor for more than 2 decades and is an integral member of our leadership team. He has had a significant impact on our company during his tenure, and this transition represents a natural next step.

On a personal note, Chris has been a true partner to me, helping to execute our successful and plans. In the months ahead, I will continue to lead Meritor and work closely with Chris as we prepare for a smooth transition. Now let's turn to our results on Slide 3.

Obviously, our fourth quarter and full year results were unfavorably impacted by lower volumes due to the pandemic. However, we were able to partly offset the impact on our margin for the quarter and for the year, with the cost-reduction actions we implemented in the second half.

Carl will give you more detail on the results, but the important takeaway here is the extent to which we are able to preserve our financial stability, considering the significance of the headwind created by COVID-19.

As you see in the center of the slide, we're able to execute well on an approximate 50% increase in sales sequentially from the third quarter to the fourth, with a conversion rate of 22%. All things considered, we recovered from the crisis exceptionally well.

We took aggressive actions to protect the company financially, and most importantly, we took immediate steps to protect our employees while it worked. While certain countries and states where we have operations are experiencing rising case counts, we remain fully operational globally with no limitations at this time. Let's turn to Slide 4.

While the pandemic required a great deal of management attention in 2020, we still had many achievements that support all aspects of M2022. Our safety, quality and delivery metrics were excellent.

With regard to safety, the total recordable case rate was 0.57 per 200,000 hours worked with more than 50% of our facilities reporting 0 recordables for the year. We believe this makes us one of the safest global manufacturers in the world.

This speaks volumes for our team's commitment to each other and is certainly one of the accomplishments I am most proud of during my tenure.

We are honored to receive Daimler's coveted Global Supplier Award this year for providing more than 1 million axles, brakes and drive lines, with excellent quality and parts per million rates during the peak 2019 North American market.

In addition, we are able to repurchase 10.4 million shares in fiscal 2020, were added to the S&P 600 SmallCap Index and announced 4 footprint actions, 3 in the United States and 1 in Europe. We expect these actions to generate annual run rate savings of approximately $10 million and give us added confidence to achieving our M2022 objectives.

In July, we celebrated production of our 100 millionth remanufactured brake shoe. With nearly 50% of remanufactured brake shoe production in North America, Meritor is the industry leader.

We continue to win new business with important customers and later in the discussion, Carl will review our expected outperformance against the M2022 new business target.

And finally, we received approval from our Board for an incremental $30 million to industrialize medium and heavy applications for our ePowertrain portfolio, more on that in a moment. On Slide 5, you will see additional detail related to the long-term agreement we signed with Daimler.

This is an important contract for us that extends our relationship with Daimler through 2027 and will now put Meritor in standard position for air disc brakes on the Freightliner Cascadia through 2025. Let's look at Slide 6 for an update on electrification.

Essentially, the takeaway here is that we will be in production with our electric powertrain in 2021. The picture on this slide was taken recently at our EE powertrain assembly operation. We are very excited that we are only months away from delivering under the contract we secured with PACCAR for its heavy-duty electric trucks.

In advance of production, the 14Xe is already receiving industry acclaim. Earlier this year, we told you we were recognized as a 2020 PACEpilot Honoree by Automotive News for our Blue Horizon electrification solutions. And recently, Meritor received the Diesel Progress Achievement of the Year and Electric Application of the Year awards.

We believe we will be the first supplier to begin production of electric powertrains for Class 8 electric vehicles, and we anticipate additional production contracts in 2021. Let's go to the next slide. As you know, customers have numerous electric drivetrain solutions to consider.

We are often asked about the remote mount architecture versus the electric powertrain. Meritor's electric powertrain is revolutionary and that we are taking an electric motor and a multi-speed transmission and integrating them into the carrier. We are not just bolting on a motor.

This design is fully integrated and designed to maximize efficiency, performance, weight savings and space utilization. By partnering with the leading motor technology companies in the world, we have designed the electric motor from the ground up to meet and exceed customer expectations and performance targets.

And since this technology is based on Meritor's traditional 14X axle design manufacturing is easier, and OEMs can integrate it into existing chassis using the same mounting locations and hardware.

Although we are prepared to deliver e-optimized axles for remote mount solutions, Meritor's class-leading integrated powertrain architecture is beginning to be the product of choice within the commercial vehicle industry.

We believe we've developed the most advanced electric powertrain for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles in the industry and that it will be game-changing.

On this slide, we have provided the hotlink to meritor.com, where you can get an inside look at the e powertrain production at our plants in addition to a video that shows the differences between the architectures I described. With that, I'll turn the call over to Carl..

Carl Anderson

Thanks, Jay, and good morning. On today's call, I will review our fourth quarter and full year financial results, provide fiscal year 2021 outlook and provide an update on our M2022 financial goals. Now let's walk through our financial results compared to the prior year on Slide 8.

First, I will review our segment results for the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year. Sales in commercial truck decreased by just over $200 million year-over-year. The decrease in revenue was driven primarily by lower volumes in most markets due to COVID-19.

While volumes were down year-over-year, we did see production increase throughout the quarter as we began to recover from the shutdowns earlier in the year. Segment adjusted EBITDA for commercial truck was $24 million, down $48 million from last year. Segment adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 4.3%, down 500 basis points from a year ago.

The decrease in segment adjusted EBITDA and segment adjusted EBITDA margin was driven primarily by lower market volumes. In addition, we increased our electrification spend by $6 million compared to last year.

This was partially offset by cost-reduction actions primarily executed in the second half of the year, lower incentive compensation and operational performance. Aftermarket industrial sales were $226 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, down 22% compared to the prior year.

The decrease in sales was primarily driven by lower volumes in our North America aftermarket specialty and defense businesses. Aftermarket sales were also negatively impacted by $36 million due to the termination of the distribution arrangement with WABCO, which occurred in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.

While revenues were lower, segment adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 15% from 14.2% in the prior year. The margin increase was driven by cost-reduction actions, lower incentive compensation and operational performance, which more than offset lower volume.

For the full year, revenue came in just north of $3 billion, down 31% from the same period last year. The revenue decrease was driven primarily by lower market volumes across our segments due to COVID-19. Net income from continuing operations attributable to the company was $244 million compared to $290 million in the prior year.

We did incur $27 million of restructuring expense in 2020 due to the headcount reduction programs executed throughout the year. This was partially offset by $203 million of after-tax income associated with the termination of the company's distribution arrangement in fiscal year 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA was $272 million in fiscal year 2020, translating to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.9%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.12, down from $3.82 in the prior year. Finally, free cash flow is $180 million in 2020. This does include the benefit of $265 million in cash received from the termination of the distribution arrangement.

Excluding this impact, free cash flow was negative $85 million for the full year. Keep in mind, this includes the impact from our factoring programs that were down $77 million this year due primarily from lower European revenue. As markets begin to recover, this will be a tailwind for free cash flow as we move forward.

Next, I'll review our key balance sheet metrics on Slide 9. We ended the fiscal year with a strong liquidity position of over $1 billion, which is up almost $200 million from last year. Our cash on hand is $315 million, which is more than we typically hold.

Given the current environment, we believe it is prudent to run higher cash balances at this time. Our funded status and our pension plans also significantly improved, and we are now in a net global overfunding status on our plans. It is important to note that we achieved this milestone without any cash contributions over the past several years.

Our long-term liability driven investment strategy and strong asset returns drove the increase in the funding status. Moving to our debt maturity profile. We have no significant maturities for the next 3 years.

We recently called the remaining $23 million of 7.875% convertible debt which upon completion will reduce both our outstanding debt and the share dilution associated with its convertible instrument. Furthermore, our 2024 bonds are currently callable, which provides further flexibility to be opportunistic in managing our debt profile.

Additionally, while our leverage is expected to be above our target range in the near term, we do expect to deploy capital to begin to pay down debt in the second half of 2021. Next, I'll review our current global market outlook on Slide 10. You will notice we are giving market ranges wider than our typical guidance.

While most global markets point to recovery in 2021, we are prudently planning for a variety of scenarios. In the North America Class 8 market, we are projecting production levels between 215,000 to 255,000 units. We have seen an increase in orders over the last several months, which could point to the upper end of the range.

At the same time, some of this recent activity could prove to be transitory given the changing conditions associated with the virus. As we look at our other markets, we anticipate Europe will be in the range of 300,000 to 350,000 units.

In addition to the new restrictions currently being imposed in certain European countries, we are also closely monitoring Brexit as we move throughout 2021. For India, we are projecting the market will increase at the midpoint by approximately 80% year-over-year from historically low volumes in 2020.

India was not only severely impacted by the pandemic last year, but also from the transition to the BS-VI emission standard. In the South American market, we expect production in a range of 90,000 to 100,000 units, reflecting relatively stable levels as compared to last year. Let's turn to Slide 11 for our fiscal 2021 outlook.

Given the market assumptions we just reviewed, we are forecasting sales to be in the range of $3.1 billion to $3.35 billion. Our revenue guidance does include approximately $75 million in lower aftermarket revenue from the termination of our distribution arrangement with WABCO.

However, this is expected to be more than offset by over $100 million of new business wins that we will expect to be in the P&L this year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be in the range of 9.2% to 10.2%.

We anticipate converting a greater than 20% on increased volumes and new business wins due to continued performance and net cost reductions we executed in 2020, which will more than offset higher expected incentive compensation this year.

We expect to convert at these levels even while we continue to invest in electrification, which we anticipate at $25 million to $30 million, which is higher than what we spent in 2020. Moving to adjusted diluted earnings per share, our outlook for 2021 is in the range of $1.10 to $1.75.

Keep in mind, our expected adjusted earnings per share is negatively impacted by about $0.15 over 2020 due to higher expected interest expense as a result of the liquidity actions we executed in June.

And finally, we expect to generate $60 million to $100 million of free cash flow, resulting in a conversion rate of 75%, consistent with our M2022 target. Next, I will provide you an update on our progress towards our M2022 targets beginning with new business wins on Slide 12.

Our current expectation for fiscal year 2022 is we will exceed our target of $300 million of new business wins by more than $150 million. Several key developments are driving this outperformance.

Our acquisition of AxleTech, which provides diversification from our linehaul markets is expected to provide between $175 million to $200 million of revenue in 2022. Additionally, we have been able to win new business in both our commercial truck and aftermarket industrial segments.

We are winning new business in every market we serve and across our product portfolio, including in air disc brakes, drivelines and specialty axles for off-highway and defense. And as we go into production with our 14Xe electric powertrain in 2021, we expect revenue will continue to expand in this growing business for us.

Now let's turn to the remaining financial targets on the next page. We are confident in our path for achieving a 12.5% adjusted EBITDA margin by converting on incremental revenue from global markets and new business wins at greater than 20%.

We expect to deliver strong operational performance from reduced material costs, structural cost savings, footprint optimization and further investments to drive automation and efficiency. We also are on track to meet our free cash flow conversion target of 75%, driven by disciplined and focused working capital management.

Our cumulative free cash flow generation for the M2022 3-year plan is coming in lower, however, than our original assumptions due to the pandemic. As a result, this is impacting the amount of future share repurchase activity and our ability to deliver the $4 EPS target.

However, we still expect to achieve earnings per share of $3.40 to $3.60, even with these headwinds. Overall, we are on track to achieve or exceed 3 out of the 4 of our M2022 financial targets. Now I will turn the call back over to Jay for some closing remarks..

Jay Craig

Thanks, Carl. Now let's turn to Slide 14. As you heard today, we have maintained a strong balance sheet and exceptional execution. We earned new business, manage costs aggressively and extended relationships with important customers.

And we are now preparing to begin the next step in our transition from prototype to production of the next-generation powertrain. We look forward to our continued journey in fiscal 2021. Now we'll take your questions..

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from James Picariello with KeyBanc Capital..

James Picariello

Jay, congrats on the decision. And Chris, of course, congrats to you as well..

Jay Craig

Thanks a lot, Jim..

James Picariello

Just on the key bridge items to FY '21 EBITDA, what are the incremental permanent savings you expect to achieve this upcoming year? And to what extent does the unwind of this past year's temporary cost actions present a headwind or an offset?.

Carl Anderson

Yes. James, it's Carl. On the run rate savings we expect to achieve from the reductions we executed last year, it's about $30 million. And if you look at the impact that we had in 2020, we had about $20 million to $23 million associated with just kind of the temporary salary reductions.

And we also had a benefit from some of the headcount actions that we took in the last quarter of the year. So run rate, $30 million as we go forward. In addition, this year, we also have some other more temporary discretion cost reductions that we are planning for as well, which is about $10 million..

James Picariello

Okay.

And that last part, is that tied to the aftermarket industrial restructuring that you announced this morning? Or is that something separate?.

Carl Anderson

No, that would be separate. So -- and then if you think about that as far as, as Jay alluded to, we do expect to have run rate savings, which really will begin in 2022. But for this year, in '21, it's a little bit of a headwind because we do have some expense that we will incur as a result of those actions..

James Picariello

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And on the new business wins, encouraging to see the raised target, right, to greater than $450 million versus the original $300 million. I know AxleTech probably takes care of most of that original $300 million.

And did I hear correctly you expect to realize $100 million in new business wins this year in FY '21 as incremental to the P&L?.

Carl Anderson

That is correct on the last point, yes..

James Picariello

Okay. So the pipeline, the EV pipeline, I think last quarter, the pipeline was maybe $500 million and you had in backlog bookings $200 million.

Are those the right numbers? And have they changed at all?.

Carl Anderson

I think that's still directionally the right numbers as you think about what we have for electrification at this point..

Jay Craig

And I think, James, we're estimating for 2022, we should have approximately $100 million of incremental revenue for electrification..

James Picariello

Right. Okay. So maybe the $200 million is more like $300 million? Or we could....

Jay Craig

No, of that pipeline, what will be realized in 2022 will be about $100 million..

James Picariello

Understood. Understood. Got it. Last one for me. The fact that receivable I think you might have $75 million left to recover, correct me if I'm wrong.

And just from an industry volume standpoint in Europe, what would be needed to fully recover that amount? I mean is it a 450,000 unit number? How should we think about that?.

Carl Anderson

It's a good question. I think in order to pull a recovery, it would be probably closer to the 400,000 type of production range..

Operator

Next question comes from Brian Johnson with Barclays..

Brian Johnson

Yes. Congratulations again. Carl, I want to first talk about the air disc brake business.

What part of the commercial truck business is breaks? Is that relevant going forward for electric trucks, what are the puts and takes with regen brakes? And are you active to regen index? And then kind of finally, now that WABCO is integrated into ZF, does that change the competitive landscape at all?.

Chris Villavarayan

Brian, this is Chris Villavarayan. I'll take that question. So in terms of our portfolio, somewhere about 1/3 to 40% of our business is our brake business. And it is integral. And if you think about it, obviously, even with electrification, air disc brakes are needed, and so it is an integral portion of our business.

So the win is very significant as we see it. Going forward, you will always need disc brakes even with regen braking, you do need a secondary form of protection, and that's what the disc brakes provide..

Brian Johnson

Okay. And in terms of the competitive landscape, does it change at all with WABCO? Because I remember in the distant past, I think you had the Roadranger JV together.

Just maybe update us on how that changes anything in terms of your competitive position in brakes?.

Chris Villavarayan

No, it doesn't change any of the competitive position. And in terms of this specific win, it's specific to the North American market. And so we don't see that as having any impact..

Brian Johnson

Okay. And in terms of the new revenue target, it's a bit higher than in M22, okay AxleTech comes in, but also, I think your original targeted same 250,000 Class 8 market.

So where should we think about starting -- should we start at $4.1 billion and work our way up and down based on end markets? Or are there other kind of revenue puts and takes we should be thinking about?.

Carl Anderson

Yes. Brian, it's a good question. Yes, I think relative to what we originally laid out in our Analyst Day back in 2018, we had about $3.95 billion of revenue. We are coming out ahead on the new business wins, as we outlined.

But relative to that, we do have some FX headwinds associated with that about $100 million, and we also have some lower market assumptions, if you think, especially in India as well as in China. So I think the revenue line item, all in is still around what we originally planned for, which is around that $3.9 billion, $3.95 billion range..

Brian Johnson

Okay. And then final question, great slide on Daimler. But just light vehicles were all obsessed with the potential for OEMs to in-source e-driveline activities. Can you just recap -- Daimler is one of the more integrated Class 8 players on the -- with Detroit diesel, for example.

Do you expect this to be a very long-term contract? Or do you expect to somehow transition this technology to more of a component supply and have them manufacture it?.

Chris Villavarayan

So Brian, let me take that question again. It's Chris Villavarayan. I think when you think about it, we've had a very long relationship with Daimler. And if you think through the strategy that both companies have had over the past 10 years, that strategy has existed and we've worked well through that.

And through the market cycles up and down, we've managed to maintain or even with that growth share. And so I don't see this dynamic changing. If anything, I think this agreement brings us both together and closer.

And so we do see it as a great win capping on what Jay talked about with respect to how we have done on the quality and the delivery standpoint over the last 2 years. And we can build off that through 2027..

Brian Johnson

Okay. And congratulations again..

Operator

Our next question comes from Joseph Spak with RBC Capital..

Joseph Spak

I'll extend my congrats again as well. Carl, maybe just a first question, and thanks for all the color. I'm trying to sort of follow along at home here.

It seems like with all the different puts and takes you mentioned in terms of incremental restructuring and costs coming back and the step-up in electrification investment that underlying incrementals on just the volume portion is still in that 15% to 20%.

Is that roughly correct?.

Carl Anderson

I think, Joe, it's probably closer to the upper end of that range, but that is directionally correct. And then obviously, from that point, if you layer in the cost savings that are now more permanent,as well as the footprint optimization, that's what drives the incremental conversions north of 20% as we go forward..

Joseph Spak

Okay. On the '21 guide, just on the industry outlook, I think you're below some recent third-party forecasts that were just revised higher. Is that just some typical Meritor management prudence or is there something you're seeing....

Jay Craig

No. I think, Joe, those estimates by the industry analytic firms have been extremely volatile. You've seen people changing them almost on a weekly basis.

And as you would expect, that wide range of guidance is how we're running the company internally, and we want to be prepared, as Carl said, if there's uptick in the pandemic and unfortunately, required shutdowns, particularly in Europe or North America, we could see those volumes come down from the higher end in towards the midpoint of the lower end.

And we want to make sure the company is prepared to operate successfully at that light end to that range. As I told our Board last week, this is probably the most uncertain time in terms of market estimates I've ever seen in my tenure with the company. So we're just trying to make sure we keep all the optionality open for running the company..

Joseph Spak

Okay. On the new business target, $150 million higher.

Can you tell us how much of that incremental $150 million has already been achieved? And how much more is to go? How much of that $150 million is electrification? And also, does it include the additional ePowertrain awards you indicated you expect on Slide 6?.

Carl Anderson

Yes. I think, Joe, as we signaled on the -- just in my prepared remarks, if you think about '21, we are anticipating to have a little bit north of $100 million of new wins coming into P&L that wasn't in last year. If I kind of look at where we ended up last year, we ended up just on total net basis, a little bit less than $100 million.

So it really kind of implies we have north of $200 million that will come into '22 in order for us to achieve those targets that we laid out. This is all inclusive of even -- at least to date, some of the electrification awards, obviously, if we're successful in the near future with adding some others that will be incremental..

Joseph Spak

And then one last....

Chris Villavarayan

And a good way to think about that last part, Joe, is that the electrification portion, as Jay pointed out, would be about $100 million in 2022..

Joseph Spak

Okay. Last one for me, just on the '22 margin bridge. You still say, a portion of that's from normalized global markets. And Jay, I appreciate your comment that it seems more uncertain than ever. But it seems like at least North America, even what you're talking for '21 is pretty close to $250 million, which I think is really normalized.

So is it fair to say that, that margin bridge unless North America goes in excess of normalized is really dependent on international markets?.

Carl Anderson

I think it's -- Joe, yes, I mean, if you look at what we're expecting, we are looking for increases in Brazil, India. We also are planning for the additional new business wins as well as what we're -- in Europe as well. So it is really outside of North America that we expect to really generate the incremental revenue in '22..

Operator

Our next question comes from Ryan Brinkman with JPMorgan..

Ryan Brinkman

Just relative to the $6 million headwind to commercial truck EBITDA in 3Q from electrification initiatives, are you able to quantify the extent to which those costs -- what costs either on an absolute level or a year-over-year basis are maybe factored into the '21 guide? And then just taking a step back from that, too.

I recall you in the past saying that ultimately, you expect electrification to be accretive to margin, including I imagine because you're providing more value-add technology, et cetera.

Should we think about the incrementals for electrification associated revenue tracking above the sort of more normal-ish 20% conversion? And then as you get those higher incrementals and they compare to the investments, at what point in time and what year do you think is it 2022, et cetera, after the ePowertrain launches, et cetera, that ultimately, the electrification business does become accretive to the overall all-in margin?.

Carl Anderson

Ryan, thanks for the questions. As it relates to just on the cost actions, if you think about it, it's probably best to think about it on a year-over-year basis. We did have about $30 million of cost actions that affected and came into the P&L in fiscal '20.

I would say 2/3 of that was really along temporary cost actions and salary reductions, with 1/3 of that being more permanent in the actions we executed back in the late third quarter for us.

As a result, if you kind of flip into '21, on a run rate basis, we do expect about $30 million of cost savings from all of those headcount reduction actions we executed. In addition, we are also planning for about $10 million of, I would say, other cost items as well for next year.

And then on your electrification question, I think we're still kind of in the ramp-up mode. As Jay articulated, we are beginning production this in '21, a little bit later in a couple of months. And then obviously, we're going to be ramping up through '22 and then beyond.

So I think our expectation is this will be accretive at some point, but I would say, over the next couple of years, we're still going to be kind of in ramp-up mode and will be a little bit of a headwind for us..

Ryan Brinkman

Okay. That's very helpful.

And then just relative to capital allocation, I think I heard you say, is that right that you'd be starting to repay debt in the back half of next year? And also just comments on capital expenditure outlook? Is it a little bit less than in recent years? And how should we think about that trending in light of electrification investments impacting EBITDA, too? And then how do you weigh the debt paydown versus you've been buying back shares in recent years in terms of priority, et cetera?.

Carl Anderson

Yes. As it relates to capital allocation, we are committed to ensure we maintain our strong BB credit metrics. And as you think about -- as we think about the current leverage, it's obviously inflated this year just due to the absolute drop in EBITDA dollars.

As that kind of comes back, we anticipate to grow back into the balance sheet and be able to have those type of BB credit metrics as we go forward. We are planning, though, in the second half of the year to repay some debt in order to ensure we accelerate that path.

And then as we kind of get into '22, we will be looking at again as far as allocating capital to share buybacks. We'll be assessing that at that point. And then on your capital expenditures questions, it's about $85 million, very similar to what we did last year. That's something that as the year goes on, we'll continue to take a look at.

But we tend to, as you know, have CapEx as a percent of revenue, somewhere between the 2.7% to 3% range, and we're very comfortable in that..

Operator

Our next question comes from Itay Michaeli with Citi..

Itay Michaeli

Jay, Chris, congrats to you both.

Carl, just to follow-on the prior question, just to clarify, with the fiscal '22 free cash conversion outlook today, does that still translate just to over the original kind of $200 million plus you guided to originally in 2018?.

Carl Anderson

It's pretty close to that, Itay. When you do the quick math on that, I think it points to about $190 million, but yes, it's right around that range..

Itay Michaeli

Great. And then as we think about just the new business progress and kind of how we think about maybe margins beyond markets normalizing.

What's a good way to think about incremental margins, specifically on new business going forward?.

Jay Craig

I think it depends, Itay, on which segment it comes through. Certainly, as we see new business coming in through the AxleTech acquisition or in our specialty and off-highway, that would be at the higher end of the margin profile relative to that segment that it resides in with aftermarket.

As far as the other truck revenue, new business, we're always striving to have the incremental new business to be at or above what the current business is. And I think you've seen over the last 6 years or so that, that track record has been pretty strong. So it really depends on the mix of that business.

And we do have quite a few wins that are in the specialty and off-highway areas. So we could see that segment get a disproportionate share of the new business wins..

Itay Michaeli

That's very helpful. And maybe just lastly, back to the balance sheet, and I apologize if I missed this. Carl, as you kind of -- I think you mentioned earlier, maybe it was Jay that you want to run with a little bit higher cash balances now just given the crisis.

Any thoughts that we could think about in terms of how the company wants to run with minimum liquidity or even a leverage target in the next sort of 12 to 18 months?.

Jay Craig

I think I'll start off and ask Carl to fill in. Carl did just mention it on a previous question. But remember, our first priority in capital allocation is to maintain our strong BB credit metrics. We believe that has served us and investors extremely well over the last 6 to 9 months as we've been through this crisis.

And it has validated our belief that, that's a critical benchmark for us to maintain. So that will be the first and foremost goal in the capital allocation and then as you've seen historically with us, we do not let cash sit idly on our balance sheet, but we'll deploy any excess cash beyond that in shareholder-friendly ways..

Operator

I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Todd Chirillo for closing remarks..

Todd Chirillo

Thank you for joining our call today. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Have a great day..

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect..

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