Okay, so next joining us virtually is Rogers Corporation. Rogers, based in Chandler, Arizona, is a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered, specified electronic materials and components for a wide range of applications used in EVs, advanced driving systems, wireless connectivity, industrial, and consumer markets. With 2024 revenue of $830 million and adjusted EBITDA of $119 million, Rogers operates through two main business units and a small other segment that makes up 2% of sales. The two main segments are Advanced Electronics Solutions, 54% of 2024 sales. They make Engineered Materials focused on power electronics and radio frequency, including high-frequency laminates, cooling solutions, ceramic substrates, and bus bars. The other main segment is Elastomeric Material Solutions, EMS, that makes up 43% of sales. They provide high-performance polyurethane foams and silicones used in EV, HEV, general industrial, portable electronics, automotive, mass transit, aerospace and defense, and footwear applications, among others.
Rogers has 19 million shares outstanding, trading around $75 for around a $1.4 billion market cap, net cash of $160 million for a $1.3 billion enterprise value. Joining us virtually is CEO Colin Gouveia. Colin was elected President and CEO and Director of Rogers in January 2023. He was prior head of the company's EMS business since 2019. Colin has over three decades of experience in specialty chemicals and materials industries. Prior to joining Rogers, he held various leadership roles at Eastman Chemical, Dow, Rohm and Haas, and Imperial Chemical. With that, I'll turn it over to Colin to start us off with an overview of Rogers, and then we'll have a virtual fireside chat.
Thank you. Great to be here. Just wanted to do a sound check to see if people can hear me.
Yep, we can hear you.
Okay, great. Thanks for having us virtually. Beautiful day here in Arizona. Hopefully, it's the same back east.
It's not.
I'll start off on slide five on the presentation. Okay, we have some very exciting opportunities here at Rogers I'd like to talk about, but I'll start with our strategy, which remains unchanged. I've been here just over two years, as was mentioned. When we look at how we're approaching our strategy, we're looking at four different pillars. One is market-driven. Everything we do is aligned around leading secular high-growth markets. We align our business and our technology development, which is our second pillar, around customers and technologies and markets that are growing in spaces where we want to participate. I'll talk a little bit about those secular end markets in the presentation. The third pillar of our strategy would be operational excellence.
We've done a lot of work in the past two years driving and improving all areas of our operational space, including ops, supply chain, and procurement. That's made a big difference in terms of how we've moved our gross margin % from where it had been to where we wanted to get to, and it underpins what we're trying to do. Finally, the fourth pillar would be synergistic M&A. We have a good long track record of bolt-on M&A that really fits well in terms of our overall goals and long-term strategy. If we go to the next slide, Rogers at a glance. We've actually been a standalone company for more than 190 years. We have around 3,200 employees. As was mentioned, our revenues last year were $830 million.
In 2024, we have 15 manufacturing facilities globally, and I'll talk about how that fits into our local-for-local manufacturing strategy a bit more in the presentation. We also have three specific global innovation centers. So it's really important for us to do innovation as close to customers as possible. For a company of our size, we actually have quite a large global presence. I would say roughly 44% of our revenues last year were in Asia, and the remainder were split pretty evenly between the U.S. and Europe. For a company our size, we have more than 70% of our revenues outside of the United States. That's highlighted by the last bullet point here. We have over 5,000 customers in over 70 countries globally. If we go to the next slide.
Thanks, Steve. H ere's a quick glance at who Rogers is in terms of using the lens of how we solve complex challenges. I'll just take a quick walk around here. In the upper left, extend EV range, we have several technologies that go into the EV, HEV space that can help extend battery performance, improve charging times, and extend range of vehicles, which is a key CTQ for many of our customers. As I go around clockwise, the Advanced Safety Autonomous driving, or ADAS, Rogers is actually the market leader in terms of mission-critical technology in radars and antennas to enable ADAS to work properly. That would be anytime you're trying to change lanes and you'd have a light go off in your mirror, that's blind spot detection radar. Also, when you're backing up or trying to park, that's all driven by radar as well.
That would be another area where Rogers technology enables that. Staying in the ADAS space, adaptable cruise control, that's also radar when you're slowed down and emergency braking is the end result if there's an issue if you're coming up too fast on a vehicle in front of you, also enabled by radar, which is enabled by Rogers technology. In terms of high-efficiency energy conversion, that would be our ROLINX technology, laminated bus bars to move high voltage safely in windmill builds or solar builds, renewable energy space. That's an area where we also participate. As you see, improved reliability in industrial technologies, that would be automation where our ceramic substrate provides the packaging for the semiconductor chips that enable these types of tools and products to work. Finally, I get to smartphone durability.
That would be gasketing and sealing and all types of high-end and high-performing mobile devices. Our radio frequency solutions business that also drives our ADAS business has a huge play in radars and antennas that go into critical defense end applications. If we go to the next slide, we will not spend much time on this, but this is a breakdown of our reportable segments. Three business units make up our Advanced Electronics Solutions business, and several brands come together that are primarily silicone or high-performing polyurethane foam, and they make up our Elastomeric Material Solutions business. If we go to the next slide, I will talk a little bit about applications that are driving our sales and how we are driving innovation into these markets. For Electric Vehicles, all the technologies we produce at Rogers more or less participate in this space. It is about 20% of our sales.
There has been a lot of changes recently in terms of subsidies and adoption of Electric Vehicles, but we're very confident that electrification is a long-term growth platform. We see our business going into this space able to grow in that 15% CAGR range. In the four middle-end applications, portable electronics, renewable energy, aerospace and defense, and automotive radar, that would be roughly 30% of our sales. Those are also what we consider high-growth secular markets. They're growing in the mid-single-digit rate, and we have strong technology from several of our businesses that participate in these areas. When you go to the two end applications on the left, that would be our core business. That's the remaining 45% of our sales.
General industrial would be a wide range of end applications where our total sales into that space would be less than 2% in specific end markets. These would be end markets like semiconductor, HVAC, oil and gas, medical, many other different areas. Wireless infrastructure is related to base stations and antennas for 5G capability and things of that nature. Those businesses are our core business, and they're more of a GDP-type growth business. Steve, if we go to the next slide, I wanted to spend a little bit of time here breaking down in more detail how we participate in EV, HEV. One of our businesses in our electronics business is our ceramic power substrate business. That technology is involved going into power modules, which then go into inverters.
What our ceramic material does is act as the semiconductor chip packaging substrate where semiconductor chips are packaged directly on our ceramic material, which not only serves as the packaging substrate, but also it is the heat sink that pulls the heat out of those semiconductor chips as they perform their function. Where we see a lot of strong growth is that in inverters, in Electric Vehicles, and in some cases industrial, companies are moving from lower-performing silicon chips to silicon carbide. Those chips run hotter, so you need to have better energy removal. That is where our ceramic substrate really shines versus the competition in terms of being the most efficient in pulling energy out of those chips so that the inverters can work more efficiently. Another area is in the battery, depending on the form factor.
It could be pouch, it could be prismatic or cylindrical. We've got solutions that go into improving battery performance, also battery connectivity. We're talking from the EMS business side of things, pressure management, as these battery cells, particularly pouch and prismatic, swell and contract as they charge and discharge. You need constant pressure to ensure peak performance and to extend battery life. We have leading technologies in those spaces. Finally, I can expand just a little bit more. Our radio frequency solutions business, which makes copper-clad laminates, which are the precursors that go into making automotive radar, we have the leading technology, and you can see the number three. It would be corner radars performing all of the activities I mentioned on the previous slide in regards to adaptive cruise control, automatic braking, and blind spot detection.
These would be some of the areas within the EV space where we participate with our technology. A quick note on ADAS, pretty much every EV car being built these days includes ADAS technology, but we also see growth in the internal combustion engine vehicles as well, where ADAS continues to be adopted further for those types of vehicles just because of the safety profile it enables. It has become pretty much standard in many models where perhaps five years ago it was not. It was actually a fairly expensive option. We see good growth from ADAS in both types of vehicles. Steve, next slide.
I think that includes at least the prepared remarks for today, Colin.
That's right. We can just hold on the financial overview. I think that gives us time for the Q&A that we're planning on doing. I'll await the first question.
Okay, great. Thanks again, Colin, for carving out some time. I know you have a lot of meetings going on, but joining us virtually, we appreciate it. We'll open it up for Q&A. I'll start off, but if there are any questions from the audience, please feel free to raise your hand. Colin, we mentioned it a couple of times. You've been CEO for two years now. You've been operating through challenging markets during that time. Can you take us through what you've seen since you took the CEO role? What's been done so far to right-size operations and improve the cost structure and how you feel about the company today?
Sure. Thanks for that first question. Yes, I've been CEO just over two years, and I took over responsibility for Rogers after the deal we had in place with DuPont was not taken over the finish line. There has been a lot of work in the past two years. I'd say we've done work to reset the true north and strategy of the company. We've bolstered the organization by hiring in talent we needed to drive the organization to the next level. In particular, we've made a lot of moves around operations, supply chain, and procurement that have helped really stabilize and expand the capabilities of those functions within the company. Our balance sheet is in great shape. We've managed to pay off all of our debt. We have solid cash flow and a high cash reserve compared to when I took over.
The top-line growth has been a challenge based on the macro headwinds and also related to a lot of inventory challenges coming out of COVID. That has been a focus in terms of us revitalizing and growing the top line. We see a path forward there, but certainly it's been a difficult two years based on the macro in that regard. We're really continuing to push in all areas to grow the company and to improve our performance. I would mention we did a little bit of a portfolio shift where we exited underperforming businesses the first year I was CEO. We've also managed to take cost out in terms of getting our footprint correct in terms of relocating some production to the geographies where the customers were.
I'd say it's been a pretty busy two years, but there's more work to do, but we feel like we're in a good position going forward.
Okay. You mentioned the destocking issues that the industry has seen over the past couple of years. You also mentioned during the presentation the importance of the ceramic product with the shift to silicon carbide. That has been one area that you continued to see destocking, kind of a separate issue from the industry-wide issues that we have seen. Can you just take us through what has happened there and what you are hearing now from the power module customers and when we may see recovery?
Yeah, happy to do that. The destocking issue, I'd break it into two separate issues for us. In 2023, we had seen a lot of customers really ramp up in terms of rebuilding their inventories, and they were over-aggressive in that. That was mostly related to our elastomerics business and mostly related to the end markets that we serve, which we call general industrial. In 2023, our ceramic business actually had its fifth record year in a row in terms of top-line sales and also from a profitability standpoint. What happened in 2024 is that we believe the inventory issues for our elastomerics business have been worked through. Really, it's just still the sluggish environment in the general industrial space, which has led to modest growth. From a ceramic perspective, there's been a large reset in terms of inventory.
That is related to the fact that the ceramic technology goes to the power module producers, who then sell their power modules to the inverter producers. When you look out at the global landscape, about 80-90% of all the world's power modules are built by about 8-10 customers. Those customers have had quite a tough reset this past year. As a result, all the upstream suppliers in that value chain have felt the same issue. Those companies would be Infineon, STMicroelectronics, onsemi. They have been very public in terms of this reset, and it has been challenging. It has really been going on for about 12 months now. We still see several more months of inventories needing to normalize before things begin to settle out and return to normal towards the back half of the year.
That is information coming directly from our customers who are saying the same thing in the public domain.
While that's all been going on, you've continued to invest in ceramic with the new plant in China, adding capacity there. Any changes on the long-term growth prospects of that product or your confidence and how you're feeling about it?
Ceramic's been a very strong growth technology for Rogers over the years. We have a lot of confidence in our market-leading mission-critical technology. This business was acquired by Rogers way back in 2010, and we continue to innovate and drive improvements. We remain the market leader in this category. In fact, the company we acquired and now continue to invest in invented the ceramic technology way back in 1983. It is a core product for us. Longer term, we believe electrification is still the right place to be. With all the market resets, we still see, as I mentioned, a roughly 15% CAGR growth here. China remains a key area for us. What we see in China is a real move towards using the silicon carbide technology in the silicon chip technology versus what's currently being used.
We have a leading technology that is just the right fit with silicon carbide chips. That is actually the product we are expanding into China with. We have good program wins, design wins, which you see will be quite good for us for the next several years and beyond. We believe that to be competitive long-term in China, we need a footprint. It goes just in line with our strategy, which is one manufacturing site in China and then one manufacturing site in Europe, which helps us secure and sell into both markets. That is part of our local-for-local strategy where, as you get into potential tariff issues, we are able to supply most of the products in the company, if not all, in China and Asia from facilities produced or from facilities based there.
We can also supply and produce most of our product lines and technologies in the West to supply the Western demand. We feel like we're set up quite well with a local-for-local strategy, depending how things go with tariffs and other issues.
Okay. Data centers with AI have been a hot topic. You've recently started to mention your entrance into data centers. Can you go over what products you have there, what's the opportunity, and maybe other growth areas that you're excited about as markets normalize?
Sure. Data centers certainly is a hot topic for everybody. We also have technologies in all of our business units that can go into data centers really quickly. First, from a sealing and gasketing perspective, our elastomeric materials business already has wins in certain data center servers. We also have wins with our silicon tapes business, also in the build of servers, etc. That has been a good growth area for us. Where we are also very excited is in terms of the PCB boards where the semiconductor chips sit. Several of the leading companies, chip producers, are looking for improved performance and high frequency in the printed circuit board. We have several laminates that are now in testing with some of the major producers to be the performance layers that go into the PCB stack.
That is also a good growth area for us that we are strongly leveraging with our RF solutions technology. Finally, longer term, energy consumption cooling is a big unmet need. What happens as these data centers expand, increase in power? From our ceramic technology, we are experts in cooling. Longer term, we have several programs going on the ceramic side to help solve that unmet need as the power required to cool these data centers increases. Those would be some of the areas that get us excited about data centers. I would also say in terms of other areas, aerospace and defense remains a strong area for us. That is about 14% of our sales. We see portable electronics having a rebound year this year as consumers become more interested and better understand the value proposition of AI-enabled phones where we have strong content.
Those are some areas of renewable energy that will continue to grow for us. Of course, the EV/HEV space, while it has had its share of challenges, we still believe it is a great place to be this coming year and into the medium and long term.
Yeah. On EV/HEV, you mentioned some of the components you have for batteries. We saw BYD announce the Holy Grail for EVs with the ability to fully charge in five minutes.
We saw that.
Making it comparable to being at a gas station. We know you can't discuss specific customers, but how could Rogers benefit from that? What components do you have that could go into that technology for growth?
Sure. If you're talking about faster charging, it's higher voltage to charge the battery more quickly. In that case, wire and cable in the vehicles may need to be replaced. We look for design wins with our ROLINX high-performance bus bars. Also, those types of materials, the ROLINX laminated bus bars, go into the charging station themselves because it's quite high voltage to charge that quickly. The second area where Rogers would participate is in the battery itself with materials that go into pressure management. As cells are charged or as they expend energy, they swell and contract. You need constant pressure on these cells so that the electrolyte inside the battery is not damaged by the swelling and contracting. Constant pressure, pressure management prevents that from happening. As these batteries charge faster, pressure management could even be more important.
That's right in our power alley in terms of our technology. Those are two areas that come to mind. We've seen what BYD has said. We're certainly interested to have them share more on this. Of course, it's quite the target for all automotive producers. Faster charging is a key unmet need for a lot of consumers.
Thanks. On tariff and trade implications, I know you're mainly local-for-local, but how are you managing through those headlines? Can you go over any potential direct or indirect impacts for Rogers?
It goes back to our local-for-local production strategy. We feel like that's the best way to mitigate this risk. We've always needed to be close to our customers so we could execute more quickly on their orders, reduce delivery time, and have a more efficient supply chain. As things evolve, we've continued to expand and drive that local-for-local approach. As I mentioned earlier, we more or less have our manufacturing footprint set to produce all our technologies outside of China for the West and then in China for Asia. We'll continue to monitor the situation. It's quite dynamic. It changes every day. We feel like overall, we're in a good position compared to our competition in terms of being able to mitigate anything that might happen in regards to tariffs.
You gave Q1 guidance on the last call. You mentioned it here that you're expecting a pickup in the back half. We're hearing that from a lot of companies. It's kind of the same situation as 2024, where we're seeing tepid first half and expecting a recovery in the second half. What's giving you more confidence this year that we're going to see recovery and return to volume growth?
A couple of things I would point to. First, our portable electronics business, which is 7-8% of our revenues, it really begins to pick up quite strongly in Q3. Q3 is always the strongest quarter for portable electronics as ODMs begin their builds for the end-of-year holidays. The second thing we point to is what I mentioned earlier on power module customers. They all see after a difficult reset in inventory, this should be finishing up and normalizing and returning to growth in the second half of the year. That is also baked into our assumptions. We also are anticipating from talking to our customers a modest recovery in general industrial, which we see that has also been a long time coming. That could be a risk, however, based on how things develop in terms of trade policies.
That is something we cannot control, but we are certainly paying close attention to it. Those would be some of the reasons and assumptions for seeing an increase and uptick in our second half.
Okay. Are there any questions in the room? Otherwise, we have time for maybe one more. You mentioned you became CEO right after the merger agreement with DuPont was terminated, $277 per share. Do you think anything's changed, or is there still a fit there, or could you envision any larger M&A in the sector in this environment with Rogers being in the mix?
Sure. I would say from our perspective, our M&A strategy is really for strategic bolt-ons or tuck-ins, companies that have highly differentiated technology that follow our value creation model, meaning calling directly on OEMs, on the engineers at the OEMs, getting locked in on design prints with differentiated technology. The revenues of those types of companies would be in that $50 million-$75 million, could be slightly higher if we found just the right fit. Our M&A pipeline is quite good. We have a lot in front of us, but the deals are just starting to happen. It has been not what I would call a buyer's market recently. In terms of a bigger deal, I think as we did with the DuPont deal, we are not for sale.
If anything could happen in terms of an offer, our board, it would be their fiduciary responsibility to review it. Currently, we're on track with the strategy I presented in the beginning of the presentation.
Okay. Just maybe one more since you spoke about the M&A strategy at Rogers.
Sure.
There's cash on the balance sheet, about $160 million.
Yes.
What areas are you focused on specifically, and how do you weigh that against share repurchases with the stock price where it is right now?
Sure. Our capital allocation strategy typically has been expanding capacity for organic growth. We have had a higher cadence of CapEx over the past several years. We feel like we have got the capacity now in place for several years now. That spending on organic growth has decreased. The second thing is pay down debt. We have taken care of that. The third would be M&A. The fourth would be return cash to shareholders. We did buy back $20 million worth of stock this past year. We have authorization from the board to do a lot more than that going forward. With what is in front of us, we will carefully analyze the best return to shareholders, be it M&A or buyback. That is how we would make the choice.
It would be what's our strategy, and then what do the financials look like in terms of where we would put that cash to work.
Okay. That is our time, Colin. We really appreciate you making some time for us virtually. Hopefully, we will get you next year in person, but we.
That'd be great.
Wish you the best of success at Rogers.
Okay. Thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate it. Thank you.