Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (TSX:WPRT)
Canada flag Canada · Delayed Price · Currency is CAD
2.550
+0.090 (3.66%)
Sep 11, 2026, 3:27 PM EST
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: Q2 2018

Aug 10, 2018

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Westport Fuel Systems second quarter 2018 financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Caroline Sawamoto, Senior Manager of Investor Relations and Communications for Westport Fuel Systems. Please go ahead.

Caroline Sawamoto
Senior Manager of Investor Relations and Communications, Westport Fuel Systems

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to Westport Fuel Systems second quarter 2018 conference call, which is being held to coincide with the press release containing Westport Fuel Systems financial results that went out yesterday. On today's call, speaking on behalf of Westport Fuel Systems is Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Gougarty, and Chief Financial Officer, Michael Willis. Attendance at this call is open to the public and to media, but questions will be restricted to the investment community. You are reminded that certain statements made in this conference call and our responses to various questions may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. and applicable Canadian securities law, and such forward-looking statements are made based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements.

Information contained in this conference call is subject to and qualified in its entirety by information contained in the company's public filings. In particular, reference is made to the ongoing SEC investigation and related costs as described in Westport Fuel Systems financial statements and management's discussion and analysis. I will now turn the call over to Nancy.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Westport Fuel Systems second quarter results conference call. For the last two years, we have been relentlessly focused on transforming the company into a profitable, sustainable organization. I am pleased that we have made considerable progress towards this goal. The culmination of our efforts in aligning our costs with revenue, optimizing our product portfolio, divesting of our non-core assets, implementing manufacturing excellence initiatives, and launching Westport HPDI 2.0 has led to this moment. In the past, we have guided that we would achieve positive adjusted EBITDA during second quarter of 2018. We have delivered. This is a huge milestone for us. Furthermore, with the launch of HPDI 2.0 in 2017, our R&D and capital expenditures have decreased significantly, further improving the company's cash flow profile.

We ended quarter two with a healthy cash position of $51.2 million, which has been further strengthened by the recent completion of our compressor business sale for gross proceeds of €12.3 million. With increasingly urgent demands for clean vehicles, we are well-positioned to deliver market-ready alternative fuel solutions across all segments of the global transportation market today. We have a complete product offering that addresses a broad range of alternative fuels, including LPG or propane, natural gas, and hydrogen. Our suite of products are quickly taking advantage of the changing market trends, such as higher oil prices, stricter emission regulations, and customer demanding clean vehicles. In the recent discussions with OEM partners, they said that they have seen a significant increase in CNG car registrations. In Germany, for example, they saw over a 600% increase year-over-year.

Although it is still a relatively small market compared to diesel and gasoline car sales, they believe CNG could potentially reach 5%-10% of the total fleet in Europe. We have come a long way, and we're ready for the next stage of growth. We can now seize evolving opportunities with our valued industry partners. We are doing this by advancing our existing technologies and deepening engagements with industry partners, which will further strengthen our market position. For example, for the aftermarket business, we are investing in targeted R&D to stay paced with new technologies introduced by automotive OEMs. We are also investing in high-pressure fuel systems. As OEMs move from 350 to 700 bar hydrogen storage systems, we are developing higher pressure fuel system components to fit their needs.

This higher pressure hydrogen product family is planned for 2019, and it will complement our portfolio of low-pressure components in order to offer a complete hydrogen fuel cell system. Another example is on our HPDI system. With higher performance of OEM engine platforms, Westport Fuel Systems is advancing higher pressure systems to support the powertrain efficiency improvements, specifically higher peak cylinder pressure. Furthermore, with this shifting landscape, the OEM market is primed for our ready now solutions, especially with the increased anti-diesel sentiment as well as the heightened renewable energy mandates. In particular, we are seeing growth in our DOEM business, which is typically a leading indicator of growing demands for alternative fuel OEM products.

With this growing OEM interest, we have recently hired an experienced leader to lead our OEM activities so we can best build on this momentum and accelerate the pace of adoption, particularly in the alternative fuel markets. While we're really excited about the prospects of our existing business, we also need to make sure that we keep our eye on the future. This is about growing profitably. Our R&D activity will be much more targeted in nature. We anticipate our customers will fund these initiatives in partnership with us. We are carefully evaluating new opportunities and technologies that we expect to underpin future growth of Westport Fuel Systems, but we will do this in a very sustainable manner. I'm going to conclude with three key takeaways today. We are delivering on the targets we set out for ourselves, and we expect to sustain our positive performance.

We have reached an inflection point through our strong operational results with a suite of products that are quickly taking advantage of changing market trends. Finally, we're in a prime position to seize evolving opportunities with our valued industry partners by advancing existing technology and strengthening engagement with industry partners. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike to provide our Q2 financial details.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Thank you, Nancy. As you know, this is my first quarterly call since starting with Westport Fuel Systems in early June. I'm really pleased to be joining the company as it hits this milestone of turning adjusted EBITDA positive. I've been immediately impressed by the talent of the Westport Fuel Systems team and the passion they have for what the company is trying to accomplish. I'm very optimistic about our prospects and believe that we are well-positioned to become a profitable company, providing market-ready products to support alternative fuel usage across all segments of the transportation sector. I've had the chance to speak with all of our analysts and with many of our shareholders and look forward to meeting with more of you in the near future. I'll start with slide five that provides a summary of our second quarter results.

Note that the current and comparative periods have been adjusted to exclude the compressor business for which we completed the sale in July. Cash on hand at the end of the quarter was $51.2 million and excluded the proceeds from this sale. As a side note, as a newcomer to Westport Fuel Systems, I've been really impressed by the company's ability to drive significant value from its assets since the 2016 merger with Fuel Systems, generating meaningful cash proceeds from the sale of the industrial, APU, and compressor businesses, while also developing a streamlined and profitable portfolio of transportation-focused businesses. Onto our financials. We closed the quarter with sales of $80.5 million, a net loss of $5.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $8.6 million.

Operating expenses increased due to unrealized foreign exchange losses of $5.2 million and legal expenses related to the previously disclosed SEC investigation, these were partially offset by a significant reduction in R&D expenses. As already noted, we achieved positive adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2018, delivering on our prior guidance for the quarter. This is a credit to Nancy and the entire Westport Fuel Systems team for focusing the company and its product portfolio on the transportation sector and by rightsizing the company's cost structure to increase cash margins. Turning to slide six, we look at our transportation business segment. Revenues for the second quarter improved by 37% to $80.5 million as compared to the same quarter in 2017. Sales also improved by 26% from the first quarter.

This was a result of stronger sales in almost all of our businesses, including the aftermarket, DOEM, light and medium-duty OEM businesses, as well as from HPDI 2.0. Gross margins improved to $21.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 from $15.3 million in Q2 2017 and $14.6 million in Q1 2018. We're seeing improvement in gross margin as our sales increase, and we leverage the fixed cost bases of several of our businesses. The company is also seeing efficiencies through the consolidation of its manufacturing facilities globally. R&D expenses decreased 47% in Q2 2018 compared to the prior year from $13.6 million to $7.2 million, in line with what we have previously mentioned publicly. We expected this decrease in R&D spend as we transitioned HPDI 2.0 from a product development activity to a commercial sales and marketing support activity.

Going forward, our R&D efforts will now be more focused on supporting sales of our products in the marketplace, and we'll look to have customers support new R&D initiatives in partnership with us. As a result of our higher sales and tightening R&D spend, adjusted EBITDA improved significantly to a positive $7.4 million in Q2 2018 within the transportation segment, from a loss of $5.8 million in Q2 2017 and a loss of $0.7 million in Q1 2018. Turning to slide seven, we'll review the results of the Cummins Westport joint venture. CWI recorded revenues of $86.9 million in Q2 2018, an increase of $34.7 million over Q1 2018, and an increase of $7.4 million over Q2 2017.

As we noted in the Q1 earnings call, CWI revenues were negatively impacted by pre-buy activities that occurred in Q4 2017 in advance of the 2018 requirement for on-board diagnostic compliant engines. It's great to see revenues bounce back so well in Q2. As anticipated, R&D expenses are trending lower, and we expect these expenses to remain at historic lows going forward as the JV isn't anticipating any new major R&D projects going forward. The reduction in corporate tax rates that was recently enacted in the U.S. should increase the after-tax income for CWI. These should translate into higher cash dividends to both partners in the future. In Q2, CWI recorded net income of $15.5 million, or 18% of sales, and during the quarter, Westport Fuel Systems received cash dividends of $7.1 million. Turning to slide eight, we look at our corporate segment.

As mentioned previously, R&D costs in the corporate segment are now only associated with protecting our intellectual property, including maintaining our patent and trademark portfolios. SG&A costs remained relatively consistent with prior periods, with the exception of legal expenses relating to the SEC investigation, which were a net $2.5 million in the quarter. Turning to slide nine, we show our cash walk. We started the quarter at $55.2 million and ended with $51.2 million. It's important to note that our ending cash balance does not include the proceeds from the compressor business as it was completed after quarter end. The reason for the cash decrease is primarily due to legal expenses relating to the SEC investigation and the buildup of working capital as revenue and production increased during the quarter. Other significant sources and uses of cash were dividends from CWI were $7.1 million.

Capital expenditures were $1.7 million this quarter, a significant decrease compared to prior quarters, and principal and interest payments were $2 million. For the full year 2018, we're maintaining our revenue guidance from continuing operations to be between $235 million and $255 million. For the balance of 2018, we anticipate our financial performance to continue to be positive as compared to what we achieved in 2017. It's important to note that we did benefit from some positive market dynamics and some seasonal trends in Q2 that may not be as strong throughout the balance of the year. As the year progresses, we expect to provide additional color to our shareholders on how we see the year turning out from a financial perspective. With that, I'd like to turn it over to the operator for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Analysts who wish to join the question queue may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question comes from Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer and Company.

Colin Rusch
Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company

Thanks so much, guys. Given the benefit that you had in the second quarter and thinking about the guidance for the back half of the year, I guess we'd like to really get some more granular information around the revenue breakeven level. Should we be thinking about you guys being able to break even with the revenue in a range of the $55 million to $60 million level? What other levers can you pull to keep this streak alive on the cash flow?

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Colin, thanks for the question. Don't think we've done the analysis per se in terms of a specific revenue run rate that gets us to cash flow break or at least, I guess, adjusted EBITDA breakeven. I would say that it would probably be higher than, call it the $60 million level, because we've seen that level for call it the last five quarters, plus or minus. It's probably something higher than $60 million, definitely obviously lower than $80 million. Again, I haven't done the analysis to give you a specific number at this stage.

Colin Rusch
Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company

Right.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

I think key to that also, as you know, is things like product mix. It would be probably the number one thing that I can think of in terms of what would dictate a range as it relates to that number.

Colin Rusch
Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company

Okay. Just a longer-term strategic question, because I know a lot of folks are going to ask about HPDI 2.0. Have you guys looked at moving into adjacent markets in terms of other fuel sources? Obviously, with the core competence around design and managing supply chain, it seems that you could move into the EV space or another fuel source without too much difficulty. Is that something that you guys are looking at considering at some point?

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Colin, again, thanks for the question. I think that you can see that since as we have really looked at our portfolio, that as we looked at divesting, we ended up keeping the hydrogen business. We think that that's very synergistic with our current gas business. We always are looking at opportunities. We see ourselves as an alternative fuel company, so we don't see ourselves totally boxed in, though we have very strong competencies, I'll say, on gaseous fuels.

Colin Rusch
Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company

Great. Thanks so much, guys.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Thanks, [inaudible].

Operator

Our next question comes from Eric Stine of Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Hi, Nancy. Hi, Mike.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Hey.

Hey, Eric.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Good morning.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Good morning. Congrats on the quarter and getting to your milestone. Maybe just on the transportation segment, I know that it's all in one bucket, but maybe if you could just talk about the trends in that business. I would assume that in OEM, DOEM, and aftermarket, it's pretty broad-based, but this was a really big quarter. Just wondering, were there other things in there as well? You had the Algeria contract or development payment. And then maybe just some commentary on the contribution from HPDI.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Well, I'll answer from a financial perspective, which is we saw upticks in sales pretty much across the board, Eric. It wasn't one thing dominating this uptick. I would say probably the segment that showed the biggest increase quarter-over-quarter was the DOEM business. Maybe, Nancy, you can comment, like you described within your prepared comments how DOEM leads potentially into OEM business.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Yeah. Eric, good morning. I would say that from what we see is as we have seen this anti-diesel sentiment there is a lot of, I'll say, pull at this point in time to get vehicles into the showroom by being able to offer a DOEM solution which gives products that can get to the showroom on a pretty fast order. We have seen that market has been quite brisk. I would indicate to you, though, that as we have seen across all our products, oil prices and other things have obviously boosted some of our revenues. We're quite pleased where we are relative to the launch of HPDI, where we think that we have gotten good driver feedback. It's now in the hands of real consumers, and that's really a test of the product.

We think that the feedback and the order book there is pretty much what we expect. We're continuing to see that as we move through the calendar year and we get country incentives and those kinds of things understood that would benefit from HPDI product portfolio, and they would qualify that we're quite pleased with where we are in the launch. Again, I think, as Mike said, very good for us in terms of this particular quarter that we saw really opportunity of increased revenue across all different sectors. I think from our perspective we're finding that this anti-diesel sentiment and that kind of thing, consumers are just really looking for alternatives. Because of the ability of our product and I'll say the nature of it and the cost of it seems to be one of the ones that is benefiting most.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Right. It sounds like there really wasn't the benefit of a large, whether it's that Algeria contract or something else, it was really broad based.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Right.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Including geographies.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Yeah.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Including geographies. Pretty much across the board, barring maybe a couple exceptions, every country seemed to be having a positive quarter for us, which is obviously great.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Right. Absolutely. Maybe just turning to follow up on the previous question about how we think about the rest of the year. Guidance unchanged, which I know at this time of the year is something that you typically do, you did last year. You're also positive about year-over-year growth. Just how to think about that, because those two things don't necessarily match up. It's still fair to say, right, that third quarter, you're going to have your typical step down because of heavy mix towards Europe.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Correct. The reason why we haven't updated guidance is we still are forecasting out the balance of the year, and really still taking a view on a variety of things.

I would say they're everything from currency. As you know, currency

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Yeah

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

has the impact on revenues, and I know this is a number that folks are often looking for. Sequentially, from Q1 to Q2, the EUR dropped, I think 3% versus the US dollar, and that impacted negatively our revenues in Q2 by about $4 million. Obviously we can't predict currencies, but we can at least take a view on them. The other one that's, I guess, is a new one for us is given all the kind of political activity, international political activity, sanctions and tariffs and all those types of things seem to be high on the list of people's minds and questions. Again, we don't see anything near term that is impacting us significantly. Again, we need to take a view in terms of how that may impact us for the balance of the year.

Seasonality, as you point out, Europe obviously kind of shuts down a little bit in August, so that's going to be impactful to Q3. There are other trends. We mentioned DOEM had a very strong quarter. However, as we have model year changeouts towards the tail end of the year, we need to figure out what are OEMs going to be doing. Are they going to continue to work with us on a DOEM basis, or do they transition more to an OEM business line? All those things taken in combination just means that we haven't actually been able to truly forecast out the balance of the year. I think next quarter, we will be able to provide a little bit more granularity in terms of what we're thinking about revenues for the full year.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Got it. I can appreciate that. Maybe last one for me, just China. I'd love to hear the WWI volumes or whatever you can share there year to date, your expectations for 2018, and then maybe just an update on that market, HPDI, how you see that market playing out and also your potential there.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Well, Eric, certainly, we still see China as one of our most significant markets relative to natural gas and especially relative to the usage of LNG in the trucking sector. I would say that China continues to run strong. We don't have specific figures for you relative to WWI at the moment. I would tell you that our discussions continue to understand how we're going to tap that market and being able to utilize HPDI in that market. We continue to work forward on that, and as we get that culminated, certainly we'll make sure that the market understands exactly where we are on that. Again, as we look, I think that China is an important market for us, and we're putting our energy there.

Eric Stine
Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Thanks a lot.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Thanks, Eric.

Operator

Our next question comes from Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets.

Rob Brown
Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets

Good morning.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Good morning.

Rob Brown
Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets

Given the dynamics in the market now, what's the latest on other OEM interest in HPDI? I know you've always worked with other OEMs, but maybe just characterize where that's at and if there's been any uptick in the interest level or traction for new programs.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

I'm so glad you asked that, Rob. The interesting thing is, I think that back in mid-May, the European Commission has outlined a proposal relative to the new standards and targets for the CO2 reductions for heavy-duty trucks. I would tell you that just to give you some color on that, the proposed reduction is 15% wheel, what they call tank-to-wheel reduction in CO2 by 2025, and 30% CO2 by 2030. They're going to baseline the OEMs coming up in calendar year 2019 in order to strike the line of what 15% looks like. I think that as we have over the last several weeks, as this regulation has gotten clearer and understood in the market, we have seen and have had quite depthy discussions with many of the OEMs.

I think that at this point in time, as you look at these regulations, their options are quite narrow. HPDI happens to be one of the products that is in that narrow option base for them. As you can imagine, for the heavy-duty trucking, that is an area, especially in Europe with these new regulations, is quite important dialogues going on. I think that you can probably sense that the leadership team is spending a significant portion of our time in Europe having these critical discussions. As you know, in mid-September, we have the Hanover Truck Show, and that's also a great opportunity for us to be able to push forward these discussions as well with many of the OEMs.

Rob Brown
Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets

Okay, great. Thank you. That's a good overview. Maybe on the light-duty automotive side, you talked about Europe, CNGs seeming to uptick in interest, maybe just give us a sense of what's going on there. I know diesel is a big part of the market there. Is diesel in your thought shifting to natural gas at this point in the light duty, or maybe just some color on what's been driving that market shift?

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

I think it's several different things. First of all, we're seeing consumer views relative to buying diesel vehicles. They're not so keen on it. They're not sure that they're going to be able to recoup their cost out of it if they try to resell it and that kind of thing. I think also they just, in many cases, as being environmentally conscious in a society, they don't really want to take on diesel vehicles. In addition to that, we're seeing inner cities ban diesel products. Again, as you look at the options that folks have when you do that, natural gas and propane fall right into an area that are very acceptable for these inner city bans. That allows them to take these vehicles into the inner city where the diesel vehicles can't.

Consumers, I think, don't like the restrictions of buying a vehicle that then they can't utilize fully. That is one of the things that's uplifting the demand. Most of it is just raw consumer pull. Obviously, having come out of Europe just a couple of days ago, the prices are quite good for CNG and LPG in that market, significantly lower than that of petrol as well as diesel. That also from a consumer payback standpoint, as they get the vehicle, either an OEM or in what we call our aftermarket modifications, their paybacks are quite good on this. We think that's really what's uplifting, at least in our opinion at this point in time, the European demand.

Rob Brown
Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets

Okay, good. Final question on CWI had a strong quarter. What's sort of your view on the sustainability of that and the profit contribution as well? Do you see that continuing to increase or is this a level that we should think about going forward?

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

I think, again, we don't really guide on revenue for CWI for obvious reasons. I think, if you look at Q1 for all the reasons we've discussed in the past, it was obviously a low quarter. Q2 was a great rebound quarter. I think going forward, revenues in Q2 are more reflective of the ongoing reality versus Q1. Per my prepared statements, I think based off of the dynamics of lower R&D costs and lower tax rates, that more of the revenue dollars should be dropping to the bottom line going forward for that business.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

I guess one other thing to add there is I think that you've seen publicly that there has been some announcements of sizable orders that are coming through with major fleets, UPS, et cetera. All of that, we believe that a good portion of that will take place here in calendar 2018.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

One of the things that we should point out is you may have seen that Cummins had a recent recall, a pretty significant one. Natural gas engines were not part of that recall. CWI joint venture is not impacted by that.

Rob Brown
Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets

Okay, good. That's good to know. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Jeff Osborne of Cowen and Company.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Hey, good morning, guys. Just a couple quick ones here, maybe following up on Rob's question. Many of the CWI announcements have been for replacements of fleets from 2014, 2015. A, can you confirm that? B, are you seeing any new fleets, just given the oil diesel pricing environment that we're in, looking to adopt the technology?

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

I guess we would say that certainly we have a lot of interest. We've been a bit helped by the folks at Clean Energy putting in their Redeem stations. We believe that in certain geographies, particularly California, that this is quite acceptable, you'll see it in big distribution companies. From my understanding, we're seeing it in other applications and other fleet buyers. I think it's a broad-based, I'll say, pull to the market. From that perspective, I think that as we have a full fleet of products, especially that run on renewable natural gas that have zero emissions, we stack right up there with the electric and a very, very reliable product. I think that you can see through the change over the last years relative to the warranty numbers that we have been talking about and that kind of thing.

We've got a good product, CWI, and we've got good market support. Like I said, with the fueling infrastructure that's in place, we're picking up and the winds are favorable in this direction.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Makes sense. Just a couple other quick ones. Mike, for you, the $2.5 million of expense for the SEC investigation, I imagine that ticked up since the February subpoena. Was there any kind of surge spending this quarter or is that sort of the new normal of what the expense rate should be for the duration of the investigation?

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

For obvious reasons, we probably shouldn't be predicting specific costs associated with that. I would say that there was obviously a pickup in activity, which obviously spoke to the increase in that cost. Again, going forward, it's very dependent on how the investigation goes.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Got it. Just as we think about you hitting EBITDA positive in the second half, are you backing out any expenses associated with that or are you putting that in the model?

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

As it relates to, you'll see the table as it relates to our adjusted EBITDA, that we do include that as an adjustment because we obviously don't believe that this is going to be a recurring cost over the long term for the company. The other thing actually to note is some of the costs associated with the investigation, legal and other, we do expect to be able to recoup some of those costs through our D&O insurance. There is a leveler, if you will, as it relates to that. Obviously, we can't predict exactly what those recoup levels are going to be, but there should be some ability to get some dollars through our insurance.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Makes sense. Switching gears a little bit, I was intrigued by your comment that the delayed OEM business was the one that was up the most sequentially. I would have thought HPDI 2.0 was just given the minimal volumes.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Well, it was up as well. I mean, it was up, but it was amazing how up our OEM business. Nancy and I were just in Cherasco last week, and we see the activity in the parking lot in terms of cars coming in and cars coming out on a daily basis. Nancy sits there and counts the number of cars. That's not a reflection that HPDI is not growing.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Year-over-year, HPDI probably is higher because we went from zero to where we are now.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

I think in my answer I did describe sequentially. Anyways, that's not a reflection that HPDI is not performing well. It's the fact that OEM had such a stellar quarter.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Got it. Then can you just remind me, maybe putting 2017 in perspective, the mix of the legacy fuel systems business, what % was OEM versus delayed OEM?

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

I don't think we provide that kind of granularity.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Okay. Fuel Systems did as a public company. I wasn't sure.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Got it.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Yeah. 2017, we were blended, I don't remember making that split.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Okay. Fair to say that delayed OEM is more than half the business?

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

No.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

No.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

No.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

No. The larger segment of our revenue still come from the aftermarket business.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Got it. You talked about the delayed OEM transitioning to OEM. Is there a margin implication of that? Obviously, it's more strategic with the OEM itself, how does that impact profitability, either positively or negatively?

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

I don't think it has a major impact on it. I think that when you go to the OEM environment, one of the good things is that we have a more predictable schedule and that kind of thing. We are able to, I'll say, predict and schedule suppliers and those kinds of things. It has, I'll say, a 26-week framing relative to what they're doing and that kind of thing. I think also on the OEM side, once you get it in, they can cross with one engine, then any vehicle that uses that particular engine, we can get increased volumes in a quite quick way. I think the other benefit that we've had on the OEM side is we've had really significant increase in terms of the content on the vehicle because they see Westport as the go-to company across all systems.

We're sort of on the OEM side, we gain the benefit from volume, but we also gain the benefit for more content per vehicle.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Makes sense. The last one I had for you, Nancy, you talked about the hydrogen uptick and greater interest there. Can you just be a little bit more granular as to what specifically you're providing into that ecosystem? It'd be helpful to understand that. Thank you.

Nancy Gougarty
CEO, Westport Fuel Systems

Well, I would say the products that we currently provide are on what we call the low-pressure side of the fueling system. As we get closer into and take the outtake of the tank, that's where the higher pressure products are really required. We have great position with a variety of different fuel cell folks that use our products. As they are demanding the 700 bar products, we're right aligned with them. This will allow us to not only have the low pressure side, but also the high pressure side of the system. We can continue to partner with them as their business grows.

I think that it's interesting, the hydrogen, as we look at it, that is one of the alternative fuels, like I said, that's quite synergistic with us because it tanks and all kinds of things that we're very used to doing. This is a good reapplication of our skillset.

Jeff Osborne
Analyst, Cowen and Company

Perfect. Appreciate the detail. Thank you.

Michael Willis
CFO, Westport Fuel Systems

Thanks, Jeff.

Operator

Once again, any analyst who wishes to ask a question may press star, then one. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Caroline Sawamoto for closing remarks.

Caroline Sawamoto
Senior Manager of Investor Relations and Communications, Westport Fuel Systems

Thank you everyone for joining us today. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to the Westport Fuel Systems investor relations team. Thanks again.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.