Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Patrick Donnelly: Hi guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Gerald, maybe one for you to start, understand you are not giving ‘24 guidance. But just on the margins, as you think about high level, the moving pieces as we work our way into next year. Obviously, this year, you have had the FX headwind, the M&A headwinds, the core organic op margin expansion, I think you guys flagged as 100 bps. So, as you look into next year, what should we be thinking about as those moving pieces? Obviously, the dilution from the deal you flagged, you guys are stripping out costs pretty aggressively, which is good to see. But maybe just talk high level how you think about that margin algorithm next year?

Gerald Herman: Hi Patrick. I guess I would say, perhaps just stay tuned. We are going to go through that in more detail in February. And obviously, you have seen some of the moving parts. We have got a lot of pieces here, but we are pretty optimistic in the long-term. So, I think I will leave it at that for just today. We want you to come back for the February ‘24 call, for sure, Patrick.

Patrick Donnelly: I will be there. I appreciate it. And then Frank, maybe just on China, obviously a few questions there. But when you think about the backlog, is that backlog above kind of the, call it, nine months for the company? I mean are we at a year backlog in China? And if it is, given that visibility, how sticky is that order backlog? How often are these order [ph] cancellations? I think there is just a concern with what’s happening over there that maybe the backlog isn’t quite as firm as other areas? I would be curious, as you look historically, what you have seen there? And again, if you can frame up the backlog for us in China specifically, it would be helpful.

Frank Laukien: Yes. No. I mean we – except for – we very rarely, if ever, see any order cancellations. And it is extremely rare. And then of course, we usually have a down payment or something like that, that we retain. When there were regulatory changes in semiconductor and with the U.S. would allow to be delivered to China, I think we had to have – but we have corrected for all of that a year ago or thereabouts, so that’s all long in our system. Other than that, the China backlog is good call, good question. The China order backlog is a little bit higher than our average backlog, I don’t want to quantify specifically. We don’t go into that granularly, but it is above our corporate average. And that has to do also with the fact that there is some – that China bought a lot of big-ticket systems throughout – also in Q2, a lot in Q1.

Some of that has – some of that will even go into next year. So yes, the China backlog is a little bit stronger. And other than a geopolitical crisis, we think there is risk for the entire industry, right. Geopolitically, we know what will happen over the next 10 years. But in terms of Bruker risk and Bruker order cancellations, we just don’t see that. We have valuable instruments. We make our – try to really do great things for our customers. And so we are a reliable company.

Patrick Donnelly: Yes. Appreciate it.

Frank Laukien: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rachel Vatnsdal with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Rachel Vatnsdal: Hey. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the strong quarter guys. I wanted to follow-up on some of these China comments here around the weaker orders. Could you give us what the book-to-bill was in China this quarter? And then just given some of your peers have flagged that, that market has also really continued to weaken throughout through 3Q and into October. Can you give us any more color on when you started to see the weakness in orders? And then specifically, were there any types of end markets, customer types or even product types where you are seeing that more pronounced weakness?