Good afternoon and welcome to the Noble Capital Markets Virtual Equity Conference. I am Joe Gomes, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Noble Capital. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing NN Inc. Following the presentation, we'll have some time for Q&A. NN is a precision component manufacturer with extensive experience in machining, stamping, and precious metal plating. With us today from the company is Harold Bevis, President and CEO, Chris Bohnert, CFO, and Tim French, COO. The floor is yours, gentlemen.
Thank you. Thank you, Joe. We're happy to be here with Noble. They're an important partner for us. We have a quick presentation here. We'll advance forward-looking statements. I'm sure everyone saw those quickly. I want to start off right with an investment thesis for you. The first point is that we're progressing through a strong repositioning and transformation program with an experienced team. Chris, Tim, and I have all done transformations before, and we've done them together. We've worked together before. Where we are is we've delivered seven quarters of result. We just now have our first batch of new programs that we're launching that are on our watch that we've prospected for, secured the wins, and launching now. In that sense, we're at an inflection point of having our first batch of new business that's launching at the company.
It's worth over $50 million at peak annual sales and $30 million this year. There's more to come this year. We're still underway with right-sizing our cost structure. We're really happy with our new business program, and they're starting to come online right now. The second point is our core markets are mainly in North America. About 70% of our volume is United States. Our market's in a slight lull. Our base plan was to grow about 3% on the base business. Instead of that, it's down about 3%. It's really due to some of the new presidential administration things that are happening that ultimately we hope will benefit us. It's meant to as a domestic manufacturer. It's a lull right now, and there's supply chains that are thinning out. It will rebound.
We're recommitting to our guidance, which we've given before, because the decline in the base business is not so much that we can't offset it with extra costs, and therefore we are. The third point is about 48% of our business is tied into automotive globally. There's a tremendous amount of innovation underway, and it's really playing into our hand as a custom metal part maker. There's a lot of custom metal parts on vehicles: steering, braking, autonomous driving, vehicle control sensors, safety, fuel efficiency. We're involved in all those, and we make parts that go into the systems, the metal parts. We have a large existing pipeline, about $750 million, which is almost—it's approaching twice the size of our company. It's given us some new optionality that we haven't had before to cherry-pick and replace the use of capacity we have.
We have alternate use of capacity. We are going through a repositioning. We are at an inflection point. Our core markets are in a little bit of a lull. They will rebound. The point three is that we are in a very innovative environment, and we are getting a lot of looks at new business. That is playing into our strategy. Next, Tim is going to give an overview of the company.
NN is a developer and manufacturer of high-precision parts, machined and stamped parts. We're a strategic partner to global customers, and we service them regionally across around the world. It's a global manufacturing footprint: 24 facilities, six countries, and 49% ownership in China in a joint venture, which I'll talk about in a second. We do focus in multiple business areas: powertrain and safety-critical, mission-critical components that go into automotive, commercial vehicles, and other industrial applications; electrical and electronic components. We have products that work in the grid and smart meter area; industrial components. We are ITAR certified, so we do work within the defense segment. We have facilities that are 13485 and FDA certified. We're also emerging in the medical component pace. We do have strong gross profit and adjusted EBITDA. Cash flow advancement is improving.
We have grown our adjusted EBITDA and deleveraged the company, and we're on track to deleverage again in 2025. We've achieved $160 million in new business wins in the first two years, which is a record for the company. Year- to- date, we are on track to hit our 2025 goal with a year-to-date achievement of $25.6 million. Our strong cost-out program is helping drive the EBITDA improvement, and we're continuing to right-size our global SG&A platform as well. Continuous improvement programs are also improving our margins across the company. Net sales, $449 million. Adjusted EBITDA, $48 million, but 10.6%. We have over 1,100 customers and 3,000 employees globally, plus approximately 700 in the JV that we have in China. We're about 48%. A little less than half the company is automotive. The next largest segment would be industrial, followed by electrical, and then other.
Next slide.
With over 2,000 machine centers globally, our footprint is perfectly set up to effectively service customers in region for region. Each of the regions has centers of excellence, engineering and design capability, prototype capability, and are basically self-sufficient within servicing the customers in those regions. Our largest region is North America. It's about 65% of the revenue and about 40% of the employees. The next largest segment would be Asia, which is about 15% of the revenue. That's comprised of two wholly-owned manufacturing facilities and a joint venture that, as said previously, has about 700 employees and does about $120 million in revenue. We also have operations in South America and Europe. Again, we're perfectly set up in region for region. It gives us close proximity to the customers and gives us that close feel. Next slide. The two divisions we report under are Power Solutions.
The first one is Power Solutions. It's high-precision, stamped, and assembled metal products. We also do electroplating. The end markets, as I said before, are electric grid, industrial vehicles, medical connector parts, electric shielding, which is also new to us. You'll find us in smart meters, circuit breakers, sensors, transformers, switch gears, defense, and surgical instrumentation. On the bottom of the slide, you can see some of the parts: the connector shields that go into electric wiring harnesses, disconnects on smart meters. We also have medical and surgical instruments. We are capable of in-house rapid prototyping, and we do the design and build of our own dies. We have tool and die makers internal, and we do manufacture our own dies. Our footprint in Power is predominantly in the U.S., but we do have operations in Mexico and China as well.
Mobile Solution is sub-micron precision machined metal products for really mission-critical applications. We're single-digit PPM, world-class quality, and we are focused in the industrial and vehicle market. We have products that go into ICE, BEV, HEV, and we focus in those areas that are really mission-critical: electric power steering, braking, electric motors, gas and diesel fuel systems, emission control for heavy-duty dosing. You can see some of the examples of the parts from precision worm gears, inlet fittings, electric motors, and shafts. Every part is customer design. The key to success is best manufacturing. We don't sell complete assemblies in this area. We're usually a component that goes into a larger assembly, like a steering assembly or braking assembly. Our footprint is U.S., Brazil, France, Poland, and China.
Again, very well set up globally to service customers in region for region, which in this current market environment is perfect as far as being cost-effective. With that, I'll turn it back over to Harold.
Thanks. I just wanted to say a couple of points on our new business program. When we came in two years ago, we did not have the benefit of incoming new wins from the prior management team. So we really, in the last two years, have been winning business and preparing for the launch of that business. We are really in vintage year one. This year is the first set that's on our watch, and it's worked out pretty well. We do not have a big sales force. We have 23 people, each one of them backed up with an engineer. We have a big pipeline of opportunities, about 700 programs. They are about $1 million each. It mirrors our revenue base. We are launching this year 120 programs for the full year. At the same time, we have already won another 57 programs.
We have around 300 programs to launch already, and we continue to build towards that. Where we're headed is pursuing more and more complicated, complex, hard-to-make products and continue to get our gross profit up. It has given us optionality around the use of our assets, which we haven't had before. In the past, the prior management had to kind of hang on to what they had. Now we have alternate uses for our machines, and we're starting to cherry-pick that, given that we've won additional business. This part of the company is running very well. On the next page, we've given out before sub-goals. This might be too much information. If you don't know our company well, I just want you to know that we have tied this out strategically. We're chasing very specific areas that fit our assets and our know-how and that are accretive.
It's working out fine. We're not behind anywhere. I wouldn't say we're ahead anywhere either. We're kind of on track and marching to our plan. This little lull we've had in the market and these tariffs that have been happening hasn't caused us to get off of our game plan here at all. We're marching right through it with our game plan. So far this year, we're ahead of plan on new wins. Lastly, we get questions about China from some people. China is where the automaking world is moving to. It's one of the reasons why the current presidential administration in the U.S. is trying to protect the U.S. market because it's under siege. A brand new car from BYD, who's a top customer of ours in China, is about $10,000. It's about the same price as a high-end treadmill in the U.S.
It's unbelievable the value differentials that are happening. We're right in the middle of it, and we're benefiting from it. You can see on the right hand, it's very profitable, and we're only going into this market with our best mix. At the same time, there's a big dynamic that's really kicked up, which is Europe is moving its supply chain to China. We're also participating in very, very large movements of part making from Europe to China. We have our hands full with a very good, profitable business in China that self-funds itself and sends back cash to Chris so that he can pay down our loans here that are U.S. domiciled. This is a big part of our company that we're right in the middle of.
Just taking a look at our forward guidance for the year, we put net sales in around $430 million-$460 million range, really dependent on the demand in the auto space primarily. We're roughly flat the prior year on a pro forma basis. We have taken quite a few transformation actions by selling off a piece of business last year as well as carving out lower margin business that we rationalized. Our adjusted EBITDA range for the year is $53 million-$63 million. At the midpoint, it's about 15% versus fiscal 2024 on a pro forma basis. We are rationalizing quite a bit of SG&A and taking a lot of cost out. We've taken two plants out over the last 12 months to improve the EBITDA margins. Harold just talked about new business wins. This year, the range is $60 million-$70 million.
These are looking for foundational wins in stamping, power, and medical this year. We've won a lot of new business in auto in the past couple of years, and we're looking to diversify those wins in the coming year. Our Q1 2025 results have NN on pace to achieve our full year guidance. Free cash flow range for this year, $14-$16 million. This reflects our improved margins as well as the CARES Act, which we expect to receive very soon. Along with the free cash flow, we expect to take our net debt and leverage down throughout the year for the full year. We came in at just over three turns in first quarter. Thank you. Matt, Joe, I'll turn it back over to you.
Thanks, Chris, Harold, and Tim. Great insightful presentation. Let's turn to some questions. We're going to start with the one that's on everybody's mind. You've touched on it briefly, but maybe give us a little more color, is tariffs. What could be the tariff threat directly on NN's business? Maybe a little bit about what could indirect impacts be?
Good question. Metal is a pass-through item for us in all of our agreements. It's indexed and adjusted quarterly. We buy our materials in region and convert them in region and sell them in region. We do not import products into the United States, and we do not export products out of the United States. The big tariff thing is it's U.S.-centric. Nothing happened, for instance, on tariffs between Europe and China. It's just still free trade, if you will. We are not exposed to direct impacts on that. We are indirectly exposed in that the uncertainty that's been caused amongst the end vehicle makers and end equipment makers has caused a tightening of supply chains. We feel the overall demand and GDP impact of this, but it's not a direct business model impact.
We believe that the tariff regime by the current administration, as well as other administration changes, that those uncertainties have caused us to suffer a few percent kind of decline in revenue, which we think will rebound.
Okay, great. Thanks for that. You talked about the large number of new programs that you expect to start up this year. Can you talk about the timing of that? Have you seen any delays for any of these programs, possibly due to some of the tariff stuff that's going out there? When do you expect these new program revenues to be reflected in the top line?
Overall, we've seen a couple of pushes, Joe, but we've seen more accelerations, especially in the auto space. The pressure really is on us to, "Are you done yet?" The end goal is to get ramped up with a new feature that's going to go into a vehicle or a piece of equipment or robotic surgery equipment. We're a tier two part maker. Our parts are going into basically new equipment. Our new business development approach has been and is to participate in the next generation of innovation at our targeted customers rather than a share shift of existing business. We're tethered to new products. We're primarily seeing an acceleration request upon us. What does that mean?
It puts stress onto our tool rooms because we make our own tools, and it causes us to have to fit in trial runs and prototypes and push production out. It is causing Tim some stress in the plants. We expense these costs. We are not capitalizing them. We are just expensing them as we go. The real pressure we have, Joe, is to accelerate a bit. We are not ready to change our guidance for the year on sales, which is what that would entail. On Chris' chart, he said that the record high silver and gold prices might inflate our revenue, and it looks like that is going to happen. We have not reflected that in our sales guidance. It is a pass-through item anyway. Right now, I do not think we are going to net benefit or be harmed by that dynamic, Joe.
Okay. I'll take a couple here from the audience. First one is, what is your capacity utilization? If you were to fill your capacity, how much incremental revenue would that generate?
That's one for Tim.
That's a loaded question that varies from region to region. For example, in our Asia region, we're running 24/7 today. We ultimately will be looking at some form of an expansion over there. We do have some footprint left that we can occupy. When you get into the other regions, we're not running full 24/7 in those facilities. In some cases, we're only running one shift, which means we have significant capacity available on existing equipment as well as existing footprint within the facilities. I couldn't put a global number on utilization because it does range from region to region, but it's significant.
We think we're running around 50%, Joe.
Yeah, yeah. Give or take, yeah.
Okay. Fair enough. I'm going to combine a couple of questions here because they're both talking about the medical segment. One would like to know how much revenue is medical currently generating, and at what level would you report that as a separate segment? Another question is, what are the big opportunities in medical, and when could those materialize?
Yep. The re-entry into medical for us has been deliberate. We really are focused on orthopedics and equipment, equipment and implants. On the equipment side, pins and structural members. Those are the strength members. We had to get recertified. We had to hire salespeople who had relationships. We had to hire an engineering manager that knew how to quote, knew the lingo. We had to update our certifications. Tim ordered some specialized equipment. We had to build a pipeline. Day one, we had no pipeline. The business was sub-$15 million. We're now over $15 million, and we've secured new wins that were launched this year. They're little-ish. Our first big win in medical is around the corner. It's one we've been working on for a little over a year.
We don't want to say who it's with, but when we do win it, we're definitely going to talk about it. It's robotic surgery equipment. It's the reusable parts in robotic surgeries. It's right down our alley. It's made on a certain type of machine, a Citizen L32, nine-axis lathe, to get geeky about it. We have 95 of those machines in-house that we make other types of parts with. Now we're buying them set up to make medical parts. We're really happy with where we are with that, Joe. We could go faster if we spent more money, but our cash flow game plan has been to pretty much spend the cash that we're generating. We've done that. The main use of our free cash flow has been severance.
We've gotten rid of 650 people, 20% of our workforce when we walked in the door. We've hired back about 100 in China. We closed two plants. The free cash flow we've been generating, we've been spending it. We've been spending the normal amount on CapEx, which is around $15 million-$16 million. We've been running kind of free cash flow neutral. We could have gone a little faster in certain areas, but it would have made us be negative free cash flow, and we didn't want to be that aggressive. We're at a turning point with our EBITDA and with the severance, the mega severance behind us, where we're going to be free cash flow positive going forward. We now are at the point where we could turn it up in medical. What would we do?
Hire more salespeople and generate, put more lines in the water, if you will, to get the pipeline going faster. That is one thing we're talking about right now.
Okay. Thank you for that. I'll leave Chris out of the question. Chris, here's two for you. One is, how much is the CARES Act payment you expect? The second one is, what's your thinking on how best to address the preferred equity, kind of what creative options are at your disposal will help remove the overhang presented by the pref?
Yeah, yeah. Great question, Joe. The CARES Act has been a long process for the business, and we're finally at the tail end, waiting on final approval. It's about $12.5 million, and we're expecting that sometime this year, hopefully in the next quarter. With regards to the prep, we took care of the ABL, extending that in December. We extended the term loan five years in April. The prep is really the last, the third leg of the capital structure that we need to redo. We're looking at a lot of different options. I think the business is on a trajectory to grow. We're hoping that will give us some more optionality on dealing with the prep. Right now, it's around 12.5%.
It is a little bit less expensive prep in the grand scheme of things, but we're hopeful that we'll have some optionality on that in the coming quarters.
Great. Harold, Tim, and Chris, we've come to the end of our allotted time. We've covered a lot of ground today and got significant insight into what NN does, its markets, and opportunities. We appreciate you taking the time to participate in our conference, and we wish you and the company the best in the future. Thanks again.
Thank you, Joe.