Butler National Corporation (BUKS)
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Earnings Call: Q1 2023

Sep 16, 2022

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today is Friday, September 16, and welcome to the Butler National Corporation first quarter fiscal 2023 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Operator assistance is available at any time during this conference by pressing zero pound. Your call leaders for today's call are David Drewitz, Creative Options Communications, Clark Stewart, President and CEO, and Craig Stewart, President of Aerospace Group. I'd now like to turn over the call to Mr. Drewitz. Please begin.

David Drewitz
Owner and President, Creative Options Communications

Thank you. Thank you, and good morning to everyone. Before Mr. Stewart begins, I would like to draw your attention to, except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this conference call are forward-looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions as outlined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause Butler National's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. Those risks includes, among other things, the loss of market share through competition or otherwise, the introduction of competing technologies by other companies, new governmental safety, health, and environmental regulations which could require Butler to make significant capital expenditures.

The forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call, and Butler National undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, factors described under the caption of Risk Factors in the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that completed, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Clark Stewart. Mr. Stewart, it is all yours.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Thank you, Mr. Drewitz. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for taking your time to listen to us on this call and discuss the status of Butler National Corporation. I would call your attention to page 15 of the 10-Q, where those risk factors are itemized in one extensive list, and you should review those when you have your time. The quarterly results are good in my mind, given the condition of the supply chain, the employee market, the inflation causing labor costs to increase, and we do have a good cash position and things look good here at Butler National. Just to give you a review of the earnings per share. The quarter ended in 2020, we had $0.00. Quarter ended in 2021, we had $0.04. Quarter ended in 2022, we had $0.01.

For the quarter ended in April, in 2020, we had a loss of $0.02. In 2021, we had $0.01 positive, and 2022, we had $0.04 positive. To give you a reading on our employee status, we have about 307-310 full-time employees, 62-65 part-time employees, so about 370 employees on the payroll. Our backlog status is about $23 million. Last year, that was $24.1 million. Subsequent to July 31, we have received more orders, and the backlog is a little stronger. We're really pleased with that, and if you look at the history, that's pretty much what's happening with the backlog. Component shortages have caused some problems in the electronics part of our business.

We've had to redesign boards, replace components, and do a number of things that had we not had supply chain problems and availability, we would not probably have ever done that, you know? That doesn't mean that's bad. We probably improved ourselves with better supplies. That is the reason we have some fluctuations in the revenue and in the profitability, because we've lost some production time in a couple different occasions where we had to redo the computer boards that run the systems. That's about all I have to say. In summary, Craig, did I miss anything?

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

The one thing I'd point out as well is that first quarter last year had the PPP loan in there as well. It's, you know, in comparison, it's not quite as bad as it looks. I think if we hadn't had the component shortages. The other side of it is looking forward. You know, I think with the orders we're getting at Avcon and, you know, what's come through, a lot of cash deposits, but we didn't have a lot of earned revenue in that period. I think you'll see that come through in second and third quarter pretty strong.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

I think, David, we're ready for questions if we-

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

The sportsbook.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Oh, that. We've got to talk about the sportsbook. I almost missed the biggest exciting event we had, and that's the sportsbook in the state of Kansas. We have agreements with three vendors. Is that right, Craig?

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

Yes.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

We have agreements with DraftKings, Golden Nugget, and Bally's to provide sports support to our casino in Dodge City or through our casino in Dodge City. We have the right to do marketing locations, which we haven't really got fully defined at this point, but up to 50 of those and 20% of those have to be fraternal-type organization like the Elks and American Legion and those type of nonprofits. We can expand that reach out to other locations as the requirements get defined. Is that fair?

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

Yep. Pretty exciting time in Kansas for sports wagering. We are really pleased with our key partners that we have. DraftKings has really stepped up and helped us be incredibly successful on the launch of sports betting that's owned and operated by the Kansas Lottery, but managed by us.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Yeah. We've had minimum, almost no problem with the software of DraftKings on the setup and on the go-live in Kansas. It's geo-referenced to the boundaries of the state of Kansas, which means you can drive across the line into Missouri and your sportsbook goes off. If you come back into Kansas, it comes on. It's a pretty neat deal, and it does work, and it's accurate. We're really pleased with them. They've spent a lot of time with us and done a good job of getting it under control. We should have a major share of the market in the state of Kansas with DraftKings and Golden Nugget and Bally's together. That's where we are on the sportsbook.

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

We should have the temporary retail sportsbook open out of Boot Hill Casino by the end of September, 1st of October time period. Then looking towards the end of the year of having the permanent one open. End of the year, first part of 2023, we should have the permanent sportsbook open. It should be. You know, it'll be kind of a face lift a little bit from the casino space out there, but it'll be exciting.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Thank you. I think now we're ready for questions. Sorry about that.

David Drewitz
Owner and President, Creative Options Communications

Sure. Excellent. Worth the wait. All right, let's open it up to questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If you would like to state a question, please press seven pound on your phone now, and you will be placed into queue in the order received. You can press seven pound at any time to remove yourself from the queue. Once again, to ask a question, please press seven pound. We are ready to begin. Our first question comes from Mr. Daniel Zeff with Zeff Capital. Go ahead, please.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Hi. Thanks for clarifying the backlog strength and stuff like that, and the prospects moving forward. Can you give us some more detail on the economics, whatever you're able to tell us, of the sportsbook betting situation? Who gets what, and when will it contribute to the bottom line, all things being equal?

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

I'll give you my best guess. How's that? It's basically the state gets 10% of the profit from the sportsbook side.

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

We share with our sports betting partner a confidential amount less than that. As you might guess, the sports betting partner provides us with turnkey solution. As far as predicting out what comes out, it's pretty early to be able to forecast exact numbers what we're doing. We believe that not only will add financial numbers to our situation from sports betting directly, but also indirectly once we get the retail open to draw new customers and patrons in for other activities in the gaming facility.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

I can give you some history here. Two to three years ago, we made a dollar bill chart that was presented to the legislature. When all the dust settled, we ended up with probably 5%-6% of the dollar bet. Or the dollar one, I should say. That's really the profitability of the overall sportsbook, and that's at least public information that we provided to the legislature, the casinos. The four casinos filed that. That's probably pretty representative of what it is.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Very good. Thank you.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Yeah. That's me.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Can you give us a bigger picture? Also, a question, do you have opportunities to grow inorganically? In other words, M&A on either side of your business, and is this something you're thinking about or looking at, and are there real opportunities, or can you grow organically or both moving forward?

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

You know, I think the goal has always been to do both. I know that we are looking right now of trying to grow both inorganically and organically, both the casino side of the house and the aviation side of the house. You know, we just got to be strategic in any acquisitions that might come up and make sure they're good fits. We don't wanna be, I guess, reckless in the way we go out and look for acquisitions. They've got to be a good fit and be accretive to the business. That's kind of where we are. You know, we are looking to grow the company both organically and inorganically.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Thank you.

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

Is that the question, Daniel?

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Yeah. Thank you.

Craig Stewart
President of Aerospace Group, Butler National Corporation

You bet. Thank you.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

The answer there is yes, we'll look at anything that you'd like us to look at. Just send us a message, and we'll check it out.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Okay. Thank you.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

We are actively doing that. I'm just telling you, don't. If you see something you think we ought to be looking at, let us know.

Daniel Zeff
President, Zeff Capital, LP

Okay.

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Zeff. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press seven pound on your phone now. It looks like we have no further questions at this time. Mr. Stewart, do you have any closing remarks?

Clark Stewart
President and CEO, Butler National Corporation

Thank you, Mr. Drewitz. Again, I thank you all for taking your time this morning to review and listen to our discussion of what we're doing here at Butler National. We are very positive and think we're moving in the right direction. Like I say, any suggestions anyone has, please send them forward, and we'll look at them and see if we can grow this company on both sides of the business. Thank you very much. Appreciate all your help.

Operator

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's Butler National Corporation conference call. Thank you for attending.

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