Feb 7, 2012
Operator
Good day and welcome to the ESCO Technologies First Quarter 2012 Conference Call. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded.
With us today are Vic Richey, Chairman and CEO; and Gary Muenster, Vice President and CFO. And now to present the forward-looking statement, I would like to turn the call over to Kate Lowrey, Director of Investor Relations.
Please go ahead, ma'am.
Kate Lowrey
Thank you. Statements made during this call regarding the timing and amounts of fiscal 2012, 2013 and beyond, expected results including sales, cash flow, EPS and profit, the timing and certainty of developments in connection with the SoCalGas project, renewal of our credit facilities, spending on the Smart Grid initiative, future growth opportunities, success in domestic and international markets and other statements which are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the federal securities laws.
These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the company's operations and business environment including, but not limited to, the risk factors referenced in the company's press release issued today which is an exhibit to the company's Form 8-K filed today. We undertake no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Kate Lowrey
In addition, during this call, the company may discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in describing the company's operating results. A reconciliation of these measures to their most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the first quarter and fiscal 2012 results press release issued today and found on the company's website at www.escotechnologies.com under the link Investor Relations.
Kate Lowrey
Now I'll turn the call over to Vic.
Victor Richey
Thanks, Kate. Before I give my perspective of the quarter, I'll turn it over to Gary for a few financial highlights.
Gary Muenster
Thanks, Vic. As noted in the release, we recorded EPS of $0.19 in Q1, which is slightly better than our original internal plan which drove our guidance in November.
This increase from plan would have been even higher had our effective tax rate not been impacted by the loss of a state tax benefit, which negatively impacted the first quarter by $0.02 a share. The EPS decrease from prior year, which was clearly expected, was driven by significantly lower sales in the USG segment resulting from the wind down of PG&E Gas, New York City water and CFE in Mexico.
Gary Muenster
On the sales front, we're pleased to report that consolidated sales only decreased by $7 million or 4% in spite of a $23 million sales decrease at Aclara. Filtration sales increased $7.5 million or 21% with every operating unit within this segment showing significant growth.
Both Crissair and Tek [TekPack] reported 33% sales increases, followed by VACCO at 18% and PTI at 12%. We expect continued strength in Filtration for the balance of the year.
Test sales also increased $7.5 million or 23% as several large Chamber projects were completed in the quarter.
Gary Muenster
While USG sales decreased as expected, we did have a few bright spots in the group as COOP sales increased 42% in Q1 compared to Q1 of the prior year and Doble sales increased over 5% in Q1 versus Q1 of '11. The sales increases were consistent with our plan and are encouraging, given that our first quarter is normally the lightest quarter for COOPs and Doble.
Gary Muenster
During the quarter, we also improved our gross margin from 39% to 39.4% despite significantly lower sales of higher margin products sold to PG&E in New York City in the prior year. SG&A increased $5 million compared to the prior year.
And I remind you that in 2011, we increased our annual investment Smart Grid initiatives at Aclara and Doble by approximately $10 million. As I noted at this time last year, our Q1 fiscal '11 spend rate on these initiatives was not yet fully ramped up and was more back half weighted.
As a result, the prior-year Q1 SG&A does not reflect the full run rate impact of these costs which are now being compared to the amounts in 2012.
Gary Muenster
As we move through the balance of '12, we do not anticipate such large growth in SG&A when compared to 2011 on a quarterly basis.
Gary Muenster
As a result of the lower Aclara sales and the impact of a higher SG&A, our EBIT obviously decreased from prior year. While lower than 2011, Q1 FY '12 EBIT was well above plan.
VACCO and Doble were the biggest contributors, as both reported EBIT margins greater than 20%.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
1 ratio.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
USG had a great quarter in orders, highlighted by the additional $33 million of business with SoCalGas which brings the total firm orders to $53 million with this customer, an additional order worth $6 million with PG&E gas and $32 million of additional COOP orders. As a result of these orders, backlog increased $51 million or 14% from the start of the year, which provides added confidence in our outlook for the back half of the year.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
On the cash flow and balance sheet front, we did use cash in the first quarter. And while this was disappointing, it was mostly timing-related as several large customer receipts expected in late December were received the first week of January.
Through the end of January, we're on track with our cash flow projections year-to-date.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
You will see that at quarter end, we reclassified our outstanding debt balance as current since our credit facility expires in 2012. We're in the process of refinancing the existing credit facility and we expect to be wrapped up well in advance of its expiration.
Our bank group is very supportive of our strategic plans and we don't anticipate any problems with future liquidity or strategic growth.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
As noted in the release, we reiterated our outlook for fiscal '12 and '13 and we continue to expect both sales and EPS to grow as previously communicated. Also consistent with our November discussion, 2012 remains back half weighted, with a 30%-70% relationship.
As a reminder, 2012 growth is expected despite a significant sales decrease at PG&E, New York and CFE, and 2013 growth is expected to be significant when compared to 2012.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
I'll be happy to address any specific questions during the Q&A.
Entered orders clearly were the highlight of the quarter as we booked $204 million of new business. This resulted in a consolidated book-to-bill of 133% with all 3 segments showing well over a 1
And now, I'll turn it back over to Vic.
Victor Richey
Thanks, Gary. I think Gary covered most of the operating highlights, so I'll be brief in my commentary about the quarter and my focus will be in the outlook for the future.
I'll start by saying I'm pleased as well with our first quarter operating results, as we came in better than our internal plan with the exception of cash. Entered orders represented one of the best first quarters in our history.
This gives me a solid base of confidence in our outlook for the balance of the year. It was great to see the strength in Filtration, Test and Doble where the sales growth and operating results were outstanding.
Significant contributions of this group continue to reinforce my confidence that we're making the right investments and they will continue to expand our market share and our targeted end markets.
Victor Richey
While Gary mentioned the SoCal additional business, I'll have a few comments around the overall project. First off and most importantly, our relationship with this customer is very strong.
And we view Aclara is a valuable partner on our AMI project. This is confirmed by $53 million of SoCalGas business for today.
In addition, our recent discussions with SoCal senior project executives validated this sentiment as I was told that SoCal remains excited about the project and is fully committed to its success. While the intervenors have added some complexity, SoCal remains confident that this can result favorably.
While SoCal is a big part of our growth over the next few years, all of our businesses will continue to contribute to our success. Doble, ETS-Lindgren and the Filtration businesses all enjoy leadership positions in their respective end markets which contribute significantly to their strong performance in the first quarter.
And these businesses' position has to continue this performance in the future.
Victor Richey
Our outlook for the remainder of '12 remains unchanged. Our projections for significant growth for '13 remains solid.
I'm pleased to show this growth this year and I appreciate the fact that not everyone in the AMI industry has been experiencing the same near-term growth prospects. We are in a fortunate position to be able to project significant growth over the next 2 to 5 years across all 3 business segments, and I continue to be enthusiastic and optimistic about the opportunities ahead of us, both domestically and internationally.
I'm convinced that our 3-segment strategy and end-market diversity remains the strength that differentiates us in the market and allows us multiple paths to grow and weather economic uncertainties today and in the feature.
Victor Richey
On the M&A front, we're seeing opportunities to supplement our organic growth by acquisition. And while our primary focus remains in USG, we continue to see attractive options across all 3 platforms.
We will continue to be prudent and disciplined with today's favorable credit market which I look forward to remain impressive.
Victor Richey
So in summary, we remain in a solid operating position across the company with ample opportunities for growth and we will continue prudent investing in the business to ensure all terms of success.
Victor Richey
So now I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] And we'll now take our first question from Steve Sanders with Stephens Incorporated.
Stephen Sanders
Just a question on kind of moving 1Q to 2Q. So you're sticking with the 30% first half.
We can obviously do the math on that. Is it primarily the COOP orders that will turn quick?
Or is it broad-based sequential strength in the business? Maybe talk about that a little bit.
Victor Richey
It's a couple of things. It was a good bit of backlog that would normally be delivered in the second quarter, in any case and in the second half.
Now the COOP orders are certainly developing. We'll start delivering some SoCal in the last quarter and then it's just a matter of we're seeing strength across all 3 business segments.
The fact that we -- our book-to-bill was 133%, I think, gives us a lot of confidence going into the second half of the year.
Stephen Sanders
Okay. And Gary, can you talk a little bit about kind of 1Q to 2Q for the segments?
Gary Muenster
Yes. I would say, Steve, if you look at Filtration, we came in, in Q1 at about $43 million.
It should be slightly higher because that's kind of a steady state business. In the Test business, we should see a significant increase there, close to somewhere in the neighborhood of 35% to 40% on sales, going up from roughly $40 million to over $50 million.
And then in the USG group where we did about $70 million, that should go up somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million to $10 million. And a big driver of that, that Vic didn't point out is on the PG&E gas business that we booked, the $6 million.
Majority of that will ship in Q2 because that's kind of just their kind of annual run rate. So that's a nice pick up to the second quarter.
And corporate's cost should be about the same. So if you roll that through, you should be able to see why we're thinking 30% relationship in the first half.
Stephen Sanders
Okay. And then obviously nice to see the follow-on order from SoCalGas.
Vic, you did mention the intervenors adding some complexity. From what you said, has SoCal changed their schedule at all due to the involvement of some of the consumer groups out there?
Victor Richey
No, not at all. In fact I'd say that the fact that they placed this larger order is a strong signal to us and to others and so their schedule hasn't been impacted at all as a result of that.
Stephen Sanders
And 2 quick ones and I'll get out of the way. It looks like the Test margins were depressed even at this revenue level.
So if there's any color there, that would be helpful. And then the last one is just -- Gary, what's your thinking on the cost of the debt when you redo that over the next quarter or 2?
Victor Richey
Yes, I'll address the first. I mean, it's -- talk about mix all the time.
And in the Test business, that is the business that gets most impacted by the mix that we have. So we had a much larger percentage of the business in the first quarter that were chambers and a cast of things come with that.
So the margins were depressed as a result of the mix and having more chambers, and last of the small chambers and the components going to the first quarter. We see the same projection for the year that we saw before us, so it's really just the timing of those sales.
Gary Muenster
Yes. And Steve, on the cost of the debt that we're in the process of negotiating, obviously we're not going to capture that LIBOR plus 47 basis points that we're sitting on now.
But I think universally, everyone will say that this is a great time to be in the credit markets because the kind of churn that was there over the last 6 or 7 months isn't there. So we're kind of looking at LIBOR plus 100 to 150, depending on where our leverage ratio is.
And I'll also point out that absent an acquisition, we should be able to significantly pay down the debt balance this year. So by the time you get to the second half of the year, these things -- we're not ready to sign today, but certainly within the next couple of months we'll have this locked down.
But we'll have the debt balance paid down enough that the differential in the higher LIBOR plus spread should offset itself in the back half of the year. So we don't see anything problematic.
And should we be successful in some of these M&A transactions we're looking at, that that's not going to be that much more from a cost perspective than the numbers I just said.
Operator
And we'll now go to John Quealy with Canaccord Genuity.
Mark Sigal
This is Mark Sigal for John. My first question, I wanted to talk about longer-term growth rates in Filtration and Test.
In the past, you've talked about those businesses being sort of mid-single-digit growers. Right now, clearly those businesses are outperforming.
So could you perhaps talk a bit, longer-term, are those numbers still valid? Or are you seeing a sort of material change in those businesses?
Victor Richey
What we said today, I mean, I would project they would probably be a little bit higher than that. I think they will still be single digits.
Over time, a bit more upper single digits than mid-single digits. We're seeing aerospace at -- we're seeing -- we're at the front end of a pretty significant ramp, I think, in overall aerospace business.
And then as far as what we're seeing in the Test business, it's really been driven by about 2 things, just our position in the wireless market. And as we've entered the systems market, we're projecting a little bit stronger growth in that area than what we've seen in the underlying business.
And then the other piece of it is what we're seeing in Asia. We have got a much stronger ramp-up in India than what we anticipated and it's kind of low small numbers.
Certainly, we've had a lot more success there in the first couple of years than we thought we weren't going to have. And then our China business continues to really rock along very nicely.
Mark Sigal
Okay. And then on the utility solutions side of things, clearly we're seeing an increased emphasis on transformer monitoring in substation automation.
You guys have introduced some new products at Doble and made some progress in new geographies there as well. Can you talk about how those initiatives are tracking?
Are they tracking ahead of plan and just what your thoughts are there?
Victor Richey
It's just a little bit of a mixed bag. They're not a behind plan, I would say.
So they're either on plan -- and we're talking about full introduction early next year, late this year. And then a couple of projects are actually ahead of plan.
So I feel good about the progress that we've made there. We got really good technical teams at Doble and they have been making good progress there.
On the international expansion, that's always a little bit tougher than you think it's going to be. So I would say we're on plan and maybe a little bit behind plan there, but nothing significant.
I would say that the Doble business has performed as expected or just a little bit better.
Mark Sigal
Okay. And just lastly, in prior calls, you guys have talked about some international smart metering opportunities and sort of focusing in on Brazil and Mexico.
Can you provide us any update there?
Victor Richey
I guess the 2 things I would say there -- with Mexico, we have our -- the product's deployed now. It's working very well.
We hope to have another order there in the not-too-distant future, but we don't have a firm time frame on that. But I think the biggest news there is the product's in place.
It's working very well. The customer's very happy with it.
As far as Brazil, we opened an office there fairly recently and in a lot of conversations there we continue remaining excited about that market. I think that the uncertainty there is when it's going to unfold, I do think will unfold.
And a lot of people have an opportunity for success there, ourselves included, just because of the technologies we have deployed there.
Operator
And we'll go next to Craig Irwin with Wedbush Securities.
Craig Irwin
First thing I wanted to focus on a little bit with momentum in the union COOP market obviously, 42% growth is a tough hurdle to match every quarter. But you had some pretty solid growth there last year.
Can you talk about the overall momentum in those customers and whether or not there's something specific that contributed to the very strong growth this quarter? Or if you really are seeing a significant improvement in business trends there?
Victor Richey
Yes, I would say we're looking at 42% every quarter in the last -- in what we're compared to. But we do view our opportunities in the COOPs at least consistent with last year or a little bit better.
I'd say the 2 things -- the 2 major things that we have going for us there are: number one, we really had a very strong aftermarket working with HD Supply. They've been a really good partner for us and they've continued to even improve their reach and their capabilities.
So as we've given more and more opportunity to them to sell our products, they've done a really good job. So that's been a big driver; and then the other one is just introducing additional products to those customers so that the easiest customer to sell to is one you already have.
If they're happy, which I would say that really the vast majority of our COOP customers are. So it's a matter of having a good channel of market and introducing opportunities to upsell to existing customers for COOPs.
Craig Irwin
Great. Next thing I wanted to ask about was the gas AMI market, you've mentioned on prior calls that there are a number of utilities out there considering some pretty large installations.
Maybe not as large as SoCalGas but individually, each of them could be a pretty significant win for you guys. Can you give us an update on some of these projects and whether or not you expect the large amount of spending for pipeline integrity programs to maybe impact this or maybe benefit this throughout 2012?
Victor Richey
Yes. I'd say that we still are pursuing a number of those projects.
They remain in place, I think. The customers are pursuing those.
I'm obviously not going into the specifics but to the extent that people are aware of or aren't in there, then I don't want to make them aware of them. But that market seems to continue to remain strong.
As it relates to -- or some of these other issues that take money away -- I mean, it's always a battle for capital expenditures. But while at the same time SoCal's putting in their AMI system, they're also doing a significant upgrade to the safety of the pipeline.
So both of these things I do think stand on their own. The AMI project can pay for itself.
And so we haven't seen a lot of consumer, a lot of customers kind of backing away from this as a result of other priorities. And that's something I always worry about in the capital business.
Craig Irwin
Great, great. I also wanted to ask about SG&A as we progress through the year.
Can you maybe give us some color on sequential trends for SG&A and whether or not the significant revenue growth you're going to have throughout the year is going to drive an increase in the variable SG&A contribution? Or how should we be looking at this?
Gary Muenster
Yes. I think, Craig, for the second quarter, you can kind of keep the dollars about where the first quarter is because we don't see any growth there.
And then the one thing I want to point out on the incremental investment we made last year, some of that is outside costs where we're using contractors or subcontractors to facilitate the development of some of the more complicated hardware and software configurations. And we're pretty close to product launch on some of those things.
So you're going to see it actually decrease in the back half of the year versus the first half, not gigantically, but at the run rate of where we're at here at about $48 million, I think it'd be fair to keep it there for Q2 and then step it down a little bit, maybe in Q4, put it down around $45 million or $46 million because that's when the incremental outside contractor costs basically are significantly reduced related to the product -- expected product launch dates. So we're not laying people off.
That's not what's driving it down, obviously. It's external costs being eliminated through project completion which is where we'll get the leverage again on the -- so we're going to have 2 levers, the sales growth in the back half which brings along margin improvement at the gross margin side and a lower cost structure in G&A, which is where you're going to see the incremental EPS leverage realized in the back half.
Craig Irwin
Excellent. Another thing I was hoping you might be able to update us on is the Acendant Network.
How are trials there are going, whether or not you have further ongoing development? Or is there some specific customer interest you can maybe share with us?
Victor Richey
I was able to have a full-court press with SoCal with that. The product is working well.
We're getting the data throughput that we expected. We're getting the distance coverage that we expected.
But I would say that what we're really working toward is getting that system deployed in SoCal. I think once we do that, [indiscernible] work, we'll have some additional interest and other customers as we have had.
Quite honestly, we have a limited number of people on that team and they're 100% focused on SoCal today.
Operator
And we'll go next to Ben Schuman with Pacific Crest Securities.
Ben Schuman
Can you give us a sense of the average deal size in the Doble business? Is there any lumpiness there at all?
And will the new product affect that at all?
Victor Richey
It's really -- I mean, there's not a lot of lumpiness. And if you remember the way that business works, about half of it are annual contracts that we have with customers.
So obviously, we have a very good insight into that as we start the year and go through the year. So that piece of it's always rock-solid.
Even with the economic downturn a couple of years ago, that still remains solid. So what you do see then is the hardware sales and service sale's the other piece of it.
It's been very consistent, though, other than the one year. So that's something where the average deal size, we're talking anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 a test set.
So it's not something where one customer falls out and another one does come in. It's not going to have a huge impact on the business.
So it's not such large dollar items that you have the same type of impact with some of these large projects you do in the Test business or the Aclara business.
Ben Schuman
That's very helpful. And can you give us an idea of how you see additional orders for SoCalGas coming in?
Have we seen most of what we're going to see in terms of the pre-volume deployment stuff? Or do you expect additional big orders to trickle in this year if their plans remain on track?
Victor Richey
I think if the plans remain on track, we'll get some additional orders that would probably be in the third or fourth quarter. But the current schedule we see would result in some additional orders, probably not to the same extent as what we have seen thus far, but we would use up.
Operator
And we'll go next to Carter Shoop with KeyBanc.
Carter Shoop
So when we look at your full year guidance, where do you see the most risk? So Gary, what 1 or 2 modeling assumptions do you think are at most risk here when you think about the year progressing here in the next 3 quarters?
Gary Muenster
I'll kind of walk you through each piece of it, Carter, because I think it'll help on kind of the overall view. I think Filtration is pretty stable.
I don't think we have a whole lot of risk there and I think relative, as Vic said, with the aerospace cycle at kind of the front end, I think we're pretty locked and loaded there. So I don't see a whole lot of risk.
Obviously on the Test business, you run into a little bit of calendar risk. These are -- some of these chambers that we have in the back half of the year, they're construction jobs and they could move a month or 2.
So if we're not fully completed with everything that's scheduled in September, something could move to October. But that's really not something that's going to dramatically take guidance down if something did move out.
And I think we have enough leeway in the projects that are in the back half of the year that we should have those locked in. To Vic's point with, I think, Ben on the last call, that's pretty stable because on the service side of the business, these are long-term agreements where you book in a time and material commitment, so that is extremely steady state.
Doble probably in a bad quarter would have $1.5 million of sales risk, and that, again, would be timing. So if you took where they're at in Q1 and put $1 million, $1.5 million around that center point, that's their upside and their downside in the back half.
So the real risk I think comes from what we have modeled in, in the back half of the year for the water business which is obviously the most volatile, the most challenged right now. But fortunately, it's not a big piece of the business.
So I really don't want to go into specifics on what we have in there for water but I'll say percentage of total revenue, it's not that significant. So if our plan were to miss by 10% or 20%, it wouldn't be catastrophic.
The number's that small. So I think water softness is probably #1.
I think the gas projects that we're talking about that Craig had brought up, we don't have those modeled in, in revenue in this year, so that's not something we're concerned about. So I would say on the downside, we probably have $0.05 of risk if everything that we see is risky doesn't happen.
And to the upside, we probably have $0.05 to $0.07 of upside if things accelerate. And as Vic said, if some of these additional SoCal orders come through that we could ship things.
So we feel pretty good. And that's a nice part of this business.
And looking at our backlog numbers where we're at, we feel very comfortable with on the next -- whether we have 7 or 8 months left, that we're in a pretty good spot around the band of risk and opportunities.
Carter Shoop
That's very helpful. And just to clarify, when you say downside risk of $0.05 and upside of $0.05 to $0.07, is that downside of $0.05 to the low end of guidance, and $0.05 to $0.07 of the upside of guidance?
Or is that relative to a number that you guys have that you're looking at in between the 2?
Gary Muenster
Yes. I’d say off the midpoint of the guidance.
Carter Shoop
At midpoint, okay. And then what about the COOP business?
Is that a risk? As we move through the year, obviously the orders and sales have been very strong?
What about in the second half of the year, is that a significant risk that we need to be worried about?
Victor Richey
No. I would say that if anything, that's where some of our upside would potentially come from.
So we will recover some of the downside as the case may be. But we feel pretty good about the COOP orders and a lot of those just in coming over and anticipated I mean we do -- our guys did a good job of really understanding of where those are gonna come from.
And a lot of good existing customers to build out what we already have. The upsell to the customers or where HD had said we've got these things clearly identified, here's where the funding is.
So there's always risk. But I don't think that's a big risk for us today.
Carter Shoop
Okay. And going back to water for a second, based on the lead times for some of your larger projects, I assume that you're not factoring in any large wins in the second half of the year.
Does that mean that you're working on a handful of small to medium-sized municipalities here that you're hoping to land?
Victor Richey
That would be correct. You got that right.
Carter Shoop
And then last question. On Test, obviously a big ramp here in 2Q.
Is that a pretty sustainable level or will we feel a bit of a drop down in the 3Q, 4Q time frame?
Gary Muenster
I think you'll see a little bit of a ramp down, probably somewhere between the value or the sales volume in Q1 and Q2. So it's not going to be at the level of Q1.
It's going to ramp-up and then step down. And what the ramp up is driven on -- there's 2 relatively large chambers that are kind of in the $4 million to $5 million each that are going to drive that Q2.
And so it is going to step down, but not to the level of Q1 sales.
Operator
And we'll go next to Sean Hannan with Needham & Company.
Sean Hannan
So if I could circle back to the Brazilian market, there was a question on that a little bit earlier. I was looking to see if you could elaborate a little bit for us.
The dialogue that you've had with the utilities there, I think that you've talked about half a dozen. You've been in dialogue with 2 specifically that may appear a little bit more promising.
Can you share with us, perhaps, what these utilities are looking to accomplish in terms of full deployment or targeted smaller deployments in the territories, say, like a CFE-type of approach? And then how would you look at the size of the opportunity from a point and perhaps a broad range dollar perspective?
Victor Richey
I would say that Brazil, at least as we understand it today, will probably play out -- if something in between what we see in CFE in Mexico and what we see in the U.S. And what I mean by that is we could be a little more aggressive once they make a decision and start deployment in what we see in Mexico, where even though $20 million of deployment there is probably a large same amount of deployment in Mexico today, it's still how you use deployment obviously.
But I also don't think Brazil is going to go and say, "Okay, we're just utility of 4 million endpoints is going to go full out with this technology and we're going to start tomorrow and we're going to finish in 5 years." So I think it's going to be something in between those 2 approaches.
As far as what they're looking for, I think that'd still be undetermined if you have gone through some of the same observations as what we saw here as -- we just need automated AMR or we need full-scale AMI or do we need something in between. So I think they're still trying to figure that out and that's one reason it hasn't moved forward as quick as it has, or as what we anticipated.
The government is still involved making some decisions. My view is that they're probably going to end up again somewhere in between.
I don't think they need all of the -- some of the things that we're seeing at some of the U.S. utilities.
But they're probably going to want to do more than just agree to meet. So as a result of that, because of the technology that we have, the robustness of the technology, the capabilities that we have with the technology that we plan to deploy there that we've tested there, I think we're well positioned both from a technology standpoint and being able to do it as well from a price point to be able to do that economically.
Sean Hannan
That's helpful, Vic. And then just to follow-up on that, though, for at least the 2 major utilities that perhaps are going to be a little bit -- or looking a little bit more promising, can you give us a sense of when we aggregate the 2, what we're looking at in terms of millions of endpoints or thousands of endpoints?
Victor Richey
Well, I think once we get to full deployment, again, I think it's going to be a long period of time. I mean, you're talking about over 10 million endpoints.
Sean Hannan
Terrific. And if I could jump to the water side, is there a possibility -- can you discuss what you've been seeing out of the distribution agreement that you entered into with Global Water?
Has there actually been any tangible traction since the announcement? Are some of the expectations that you have in the back half of the year actually tied to that agreement?
And then any thoughts around the timing of when that sales channel could maybe be a little bit more meaningful to your revenues since the share reach of Global Water is pretty notable?
Victor Richey
My understanding is that we've got a couple of wins through Global Water. I think like most of these agreements, it does take some time to get some real traction.
You have to have some successes. And we're not counting on a big change in the second half of the year.
We still have our own sales force. We think it's going to be augmented by these guys, as well as we continue to look for other distribution channels into that market.
As you now, that's the most fragmented of all of the utilities. They've been in lot of markets.
There's so many other and a lot of small ones. And so we look at a number of ways to go there but I think we're off to a good start with Global.
And while we're not counting on a huge amount from them in the second half, certainly think we'll start to get some traction by then.
Operator
And we'll go next to Richard Eastman with Robert W. Baird.
Richard Eastman
Gary, could you just repeat the segmentation on the Filtration piece of the business? I think you mentioned aerospace was up 12, which would I guess be PTI?
And what did you say for VACCO and Tek?
Gary Muenster
You're talking about for Q1?
Richard Eastman
Yes, just kind of year-over-year.
Gary Muenster
Yes, Crissair and Tek were both up about 33% in revenue. VACCO was up 18% and PTI was 12%.
Richard Eastman
And then just -- I'm a little curious on the margins here. I guess, the margin profile almost suggests a very VACCO-heavy mix.
And I'm a little bit curious. Is this a pretty sustainable run rate at the 19% level with the mix as you see it?
Gary Muenster
Yes, let me -- we keep Tek in there obviously for legacy reasons. Tek is not banging out EBITs at the pure Filtration level.
So PTI is basically sitting 19% to 19.5% on the EBIT side. VACCO, as you know, continues to kind of be in the mid-20s.
And where we're really seeing tremendous strength is from Crissair, which continues to incrementally step up. We did some really attractive things on the price side.
And now that they've been around for a little over a year, we have our cost disciplines and our supply chain disciplines in place. So their margin is fast approaching PTI.
So Tek is kind of in the low to mid-teens. So obviously, they're below the group average.
So if you kind of split it between Tek and the 3 filtration companies, Filtration is in about 20.5% and Tek is at about kind of 14%. And when you allocate it based on the revenue distribution, that's how you blend it out to the 19.1%.
So we're doing some things at Tek to continue to get that up, but we don't see a 20% EBIT coming out of Tek. So if you think of Filtration as kind of staying in that -- the 3 companies together in that kind of 20 range and Tek being in the 13 to 15 range, I think you can model it out over the balance of the year that when the volumes go up, we should be a little better leveraged.
Richard Eastman
Yes, okay. All right, very good.
And then can I just ask, on the USG business, can you just talk for a second or 2, was the COOP revenue number around 23? I was just trying to do the math there quick.
Gary Muenster
24.
Richard Eastman
Yes, okay. And then the delta in -- of CFE, New York City Water and PG&E gas were probably around minus-27 or so.
Does that sound right?
Gary Muenster
Yes. Well, yes, CFE was about 10, negative 10 comp.
We did a little over 3 this year as we're winding down the phase 2 on that. And if you remember last year at this time, we were kind of crossing over the end of phase 1 and the start of phase 2.
So last year, we did about 13.5 at CFE. So incrementally, that's the biggest individual delta.
And then PG&E gas is about a $5 million negative comp and New York City is about $8.5 million. It went from about $9.2 million to about $300,000 because I think we're -- you never say done, done but we're pretty close to done, done.
Victor Richey
So a short answer, I think you got about the right number.
Richard Eastman
And then has there been any significant activity at Toronto?
Gary Muenster
It's just been steady state as we run through that. It's not going as fast as we thought it was when we we're originally ramping it up.
But in the first quarter here, we did about $2 million. So -- and that's about what the -- quarterly run rate's been.
So we're on track to kind of keep it at that 8-ish million a year.
Richard Eastman
I'm kind of looking at the Aclara RF and I'm trying to kind of get the revenue number in there and it seems like maybe that's $15 million or $16 million. I don't know if you still split the business like that but...
Gary Muenster
Well, we group it together. It's a little lower than that.
Richard Eastman
Yes, okay. All right.
And then just a question, I think, Gary, I think you had mentioned this and Vic may have as well, but just given where the EBIT came in, in the quarter, commentary was that, that was well above plan. And I'm -- so you're -- what was your EBIT assumption for the quarter?
Gary Muenster
Well, I mean, I wouldn't say well above plan. But we had it projected as being several cents lower than what we ended up doing.
Richard Eastman
Yes, okay. And that's the tax rate comment.
Okay.
Victor Richey
Oh no, that's plus the tax rate. So I'd say we did a couple of cents better than what we had projected.
And then the tax rate, had it not been for that, we would've gone higher is what we're trying to say.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] We'll go next to Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets.
Jeremy Hellman
I'm just trying to reconcile a couple of things from some of the guidance oriented comments you made, just want to make sure I've got -- have jotted down these numbers right. It sounds like Q2 over Q1 on a revenue basis you're looking to be up somewhere $20 million, give or take.
So am I right at that first signpost on the road?
Gary Muenster
Yes, a little over $20 million.
Jeremy Hellman
Okay. So that would put your first half revenues in the, call it $325 million, $330 million range.
And so then if I hold that 30-70 first half, second half split, that would put the year-over-year, the full year revenue growth well past that low to mid-single-digit number or growth rate that you're talking about. So I'm just trying to reconcile that apparent disconnect.
Gary Muenster
I think what the disconnect is when we talked about the split, it's really on the EPS. So we're not talking about sales at 37 EBIT and what we're looking as far as [indiscernible]
Operator
That concludes today's questions. Now I'd like to turn the call back to Mr.
Vic Richey.
Victor Richey
Okay. Well I appreciate everybody's interest, and we'll talk to you next quarter.
Gary Muenster
Thank you.
Operator
That concludes today's conference. Thank you for attending.