Latest news with #Radiant
Los Angeles Times
20-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Nuclear Power Startups Are Heating up in Southern California, with Radiant's Ultra-Portable Microreactors a Major Player
What if you could deliver a megawatt of energy anywhere in the world a cargo container could be shipped? For an El Segundo-based company, this sci-fi-sounding dream may be much more 'next Tuesday' than 'next planet.' Radiant, a startup that is repackaging and refining traditional nuclear technology into a portable microreactor, is on the home stretch to development and testing of its prototype reactor following a $165 million Series C funding round (bringing total raised capital to $225 million) and the hiring of key executives, including Dr. Rita Baranwal, former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. Baranwal serves as Radiant's chief nuclear officer, and most recently worked at Westinghouse on their modular reactor program. The company also hired Mike Starrett as its first chief revenue officer. In fact, the company recently signed an agreement to build 26 microreactors, including 20 units for an as-yet-undisclosed customer. 'Our focus is on the portability of nuclear power because then you could put a reactor in a place where you would have never imagined possible in the past,' said Doug Bernauer, chief executive and founder of Radiant. 'We have ceramic-coated, poppy-seed-size fuel and helium coolant. That combination means you can't have a leak and you can't damage the environment – you can give people the option of picking a nuclear reactor generator over a diesel generator.' The company is on track to be the first to to develop and test its 1 megawatt (MW) Kaleidos microreactor at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, which is scheduled for next year. The research design and its construction is being conducted by a team that has grown to about 100 employees. Radiant is among five nuclear developers that were announced as recipients of high-assay, low-enriched uranium to fuel reactor demonstrations. These companies, and a handful of others, are racing to be first to market with nuclear microreactors, which offer a clean energy source that can be deployed for a variety of uses that typically rely on diesel generators. They produce about 100 to 1,000 times less electricity than conventional reactors and can operate independent of an electric grid. Use cases include backup generators at infrastructure sites, like hospitals to remote power needs in off-grid areas such as military bases, data centers, ships, desalinization plants and specific industrial facilities. The company expects its nuclear microreactor to be competitive with diesel generators where diesel fuel is priced at $6.50 per gallon. That price is above the average price for diesel in the United States, but it can be well below pricing for fuel in other countries and distant areas that rely on generators for power. Microreactors can provide a steady energy source at a consistent price and will include enough fuel for several years. Nuclear fuel can be replenished in a portable manner. More importantly, the design has a passive cooling system that uses helium gas rather than water to cool the reactor. It is meltdown-proof and leak-safe, ensuring protection of people and the surrounding environment. 'We needed to make sufficient design progress to show the Department of Energy that this small startup in Southern California deserves its portion of this precious material it holds for the industry,' said Tori Shivanandan, Radiant chief operating officer. 'Now we have the funding, we have fuel, and we have the team. We're finalizing the design and getting parts on order. I like to say we have our shot on goal.' That design has been years in the making. The company moved into its current building in El Segundo, a former Hughes Aerospace warehouse, about three years ago, vacating a former dance studio that it used as an office. Leveling up in square footage was essential, as the company was rapidly growing and needed space for hardware to be delivered and the team to expand. The new location was great because it offered access to Southern California's vast talent pool of engineers, but it was in rough shape. Early employees sat in the dark as they worked through building renovations that added heating and air conditioning. Even now, the company temporarily ran out of desks for additional staff and Shivanandan said that she planned to sit in the kitchen for several days until new desks arrived. The genesis of the company was from the desire to explore space and inhabit Mars. Bernauer moved to California in 2007 to work as an engineer at SpaceX. The company was headquartered in El Segundo at the time, and he worked on the Falcon 1 rocket, Falcon 9 rocket and other projects promoted by Elon Musk, such as Hyperloop and the Boring Company, before pivoting to Mars colonization plans. He investigated ways to power development on our neighbor planet, and nuclear power generation compared favorably to other power sources, like solar. However, there were no companies that provided an off-the-shelf solution to launch a small nuclear reactor into space. He originally tried to develop a nuclear program within SpaceX but eventually decided to create Radiant in 2019. 'I started researching nuclear on nights and weekends, looking at Wikipedia, and my curiosity lead down the path of who can do nuclear now, how quickly can they do it and what does it cost?' said Bernauer, who provided some of the initial company funding himself. 'I was fully committed to making this thing happen.' Radiant is on target to construct its nuclear reactor and test it in 2026. With its recent round of funding, it anticipates that it has raised enough to carry it through construction of a prototype and testing in 2026 as well as the establishment of a larger scale manufacturing facility to ramp up production. At full capacity, the company expects to build about 50 microreactors per year. 'I was blown away by their capability and vision. The nuclear industry needed people from other sectors to come into nuclear because nuclear hadn't built anything new for a long time,' said Dr. Rachel Slaybaugh, partner at DCVC, the Palo Alto-based venture capital firm that led the Series C round. Slaybaugh is a trained nuclear scientist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley and previously served as an independent board member. 'Radiant has gone very fast with not very many resources.' There is a flurry of activity from established companies and startups looking to repackage nuclear energy at a variety of reactor sizes. At the smallest level, both startups and established nuclear companies are developing microreactors, which can be packaged and transported in a shipping container on a truck or even in an aircraft and deployed in a relatively short amount of time. Many of these companies are working with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, which is where they will demonstrate and test microreactor designs. They are designed to use low-enriched uranium with higher concentrations of uranium-235 than the fuel used in conventional reactors. Companies developing microreactors include Torrance-based Antares, which opened a new 128,000-square-foot factory this year for research and development, component manufacturing, and assembly of its first microreactors. The company is targeting testing by 2027. It raised $30 million in Series A financing last year, co-led by Alt Cap and existing lead seed investor Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Rogue, Uncommon Capital, Shrug, Banter Capital, Box Group and Shine Capital. On a larger scale, small modular reactors are typically designed to be connected to an electric grid while providing 50 to 300 MW. TerraPower, a small modular reactor company that was founded by Bill Gates, is developing Natrium, a next-generation nuclear power plant. The Natrium reactor uses liquid sodium as a coolant rather than a traditional water-cooled reactor. Its first plant is a 345 MW facility that is currently under construction in Kemmerer, Wy., and includes a storage system that can boost output to 500 MW. It is being developed as part of a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. In June, TerraPower announced that it raised an additional $650 million in funding from both new investors, including NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA, and current investors, including founder Bill Gates and HD Hyundai, an industry leader in shipbuilding. Gates has invested $1 billion in the company. Not to be outdone, tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon have also signed agreements to explore advanced nuclear technology. While this technology is expanding and the next-generation plants are exploring safer ways to cool reactors, conventional reactors have been phased out in California, and there have been very few new reactors built nationwide, primarily due to the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and changing economics. In California, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was permanently closed in 2013 due to issues with its steam generators. Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which is operated by PG&E, is the only conventional nuclear power plant in California and was in the process of being decommissioned, but a state decision to extend operations through at least 2030 is in place with the possibility of further extensions. Public perception is changing due to increased power demands and the fragile electric grid in the United States. In June, New York Governor Kathy Hochul directed the state's public electric utility to develop and construct an advanced nuclear power plant in Upstate New York with a capacity of one gigawatt of electricity. Furthermore, the nuclear industry has received boosts from the Trump administration, which signed several executive orders to advance nuclear power. Some Army installations could be powered by nuclear microreactors under a May 2025 executive order calling for deploying advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The order, citing national security concerns, directs the Army to establish a program utilizing the technology and requires operation of a nuclear reactor at a domestic military base or installation by Sept. 30, 2028. It is one of a series of orders that seeks to increase the amount of nuclear energy produced in the United States, which is estimated to produce only about 20% of its energy usage currently from nuclear sources. Those orders build on earlier projects. In 2022, the Defense Department awarded a $300-million contract to Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWX Technologies to develop a microreactor that could be transported by a C-17 cargo plane and set up to power a military base for several years before refueling. The U.S. military is a strong customer base for many aerospace and defense startups – and Radiant was selected as a finalist by the Defense Innovation Unit for a potential contract to have its reactor on a U.S. military base – Bernauer still has his eye towards the sky. 'What we have to do is get reactors operating for about five years and then take the thing apart and inspect it to see what's breaking and what's working well. From there, we can make extremely reliable reactors that can operate anywhere,' said Bernauer. 'I want to be able to eventually make the space reactor for Elon (Musk), but to do that, you need something highly reliable and transportable.'
Gizmodo
12-07-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
The U.S. Is Testing Tiny Nuclear Reactors That Can Go Practically Anywhere
In contrast to other technological advances, the objective for next-generation nuclear reactors seems to be to scale down, not up—an initiative backed by the Department of Energy (DOE). Earlier this month, the DOE announced a conditional agreement made with private firms Westinghouse and Radiant to conduct the first reactor tests at its Demonstration on Microreactor Experiment (DOME) facility, located at Idaho National Laboratory. These experiments, featuring two trailer-sized microreactors, will be 'the first of their kind in the world' and will assist in meeting 'the nation's demand for more abundant, affordable, and reliable power,' the DOE stated in a press release. The microreactors eVinci (Westinghouse) and Kaleidos (Radiant) each produce only 5 megawatts and 1.2 megawatts of power. The DOE defines microreactors as small reactors that generate between 1 and 50 megawatts of power. That's tiny compared to traditional reactors, which are capable of generating around 833 times the power of Kaleidos. That being said, these microreactors aren't meant to power crowded cities. Rather, the compact efficiency of microreactors could greatly benefit small, remote sites that run on less efficient sources. The average U.S. household consumes about 30 kilowatt-hours, or 0.03 megawatts worth of electricity daily—meaning, in theory, Kaleidos on its own could supply many homes in a distant rural area. Not only that, these microreactors are relatively easy to assemble and transportable by train, truck, or plane. That makes them potentially useful in unexpected situations such as blackouts caused by natural disasters or cyberattacks. For eVinci and Kaleidos in particular, the DOE's intention is to employ the microreactors as a possible power source for remote data centers and an alternative to diesel generators, respectively. 'Microreactors will play a big role in expanding the use of nuclear power in the United States,' added Mike Goff, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, in the same release. 'These DOME experiments will test new reactor designs that will be counted on in the future to reliably power our homes, military bases, and mission-critical infrastructure.' The first fueled experiments at DOME are slated to begin as early as spring 2026, operating for up to six months to test technological ability and efficiency.
Business Wire
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Radiant Biotherapeutics Appoints Deborah Geraghty, Ph.D., as President and Chief Executive Officer
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Radiant Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company committed to advancing and delivering transformative MULTi-specific, multi-Affinity antiBODY (Multabody™) therapeutics for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointments of seasoned biotechnology executive Deborah Geraghty, Ph.D., as President and Chief Executive Officer, entrepreneur and venture investor Stefan Larson, Ph.D., as Chair of the Board of Directors, and distinguished physician-scientist Ingmar Bruns, M.D., Ph.D., as Board Member. Stefan Larson, Ph.D., incoming Chair of Radiant Biotherapeutics, commented: 'Dr. Geraghty brings a proven track record of building and transforming innovative biotechnology companies and we are delighted to welcome her to Radiant. Her deep industry expertise and strategic vision make her the ideal CEO to lead Radiant through this next phase of growth as we advance our lead clinical candidate, a 4-1BB agonist, toward clinical trials and expand our preclinical pipeline more broadly across oncology and autoimmunity.' Dion Madsen, outgoing Chair and continuing Board Member of Radiant Biotherapeutics, noted: 'We are thrilled to welcome Stefan and Ingmar to our board of directors as we move towards the clinic with our lead program. The addition of Dr. Larson and Dr. Bruns brings relevant expertise necessary for us to successfully deliver our next-generation biologics to patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. We appreciate Arthur Fratamico's leadership and foundational contributions to the Company during his four-year tenure as CEO.' These appointments follow the company's successful $35 million Series A financing and build upon the recent progress by founding Chief Scientific Officer, Jo Hulme, Ph.D. Multabody™, Radiant's proprietary, best-in-class antibody platform, leverages remarkable avidity on intended targets while exploiting specificity to address multiple epitopes and different disease-modifying proteins. Antibodies developed using the Radiant platform are designed to deliver exceptional potency against both solid tumors and blood cancers, immunological targets, and infectious disease pathogens. Deborah Geraghty, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Radiant Biotherapeutics, added: 'What drew me to this role are the compelling preclinical data based on the strong scientific foundation of Radiant's unique biologic platform and the team that shepherded it this far. The opportunity to drive innovation for patients and realize the value of its application for devastating cancer and autoimmune diseases is energizing and I look forward to bringing these breakthrough therapies into the clinic.' Deborah Geraghty, Ph.D., is an accomplished life sciences executive with over 20 years of experience having built a strong foundation of financial, operational and strategic expertise throughout her career leading innovative biopharmaceutical companies. She most recently served as President and CEO of Anokion SA, a Phase 2 clinical-stage Swiss biotech company focused on developing a new class of immune tolerance therapies for autoimmune disease. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Dimension Therapeutics, where she led Dimension's initial public offering and subsequent acquisition by Ultragenyx in 2017. Her earlier roles include co-founder and Vice President of Project and Portfolio Development at Cydan Development and leadership positions at Aileron Therapeutics as Head of Portfolio Advancement and Infinity Pharmaceuticals as Director of New Product Marketing. Dr. Geraghty holds a B.S. in Biology from Union College, an MBA from Boston College, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Vermont. Stefan Larson, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner at Sectoral Asset Management and serves on several biotech boards including Prilenia Therapeutics, Apnimed, and Stratus Therapeutics. He previously was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and later Venture Partner at Versant Ventures, where he led the establishment of their Toronto-based Discovery Engine and served as founding CEO of Northern Biologics. Dr. Larson co-founded two medical device companies, Perimeter Medical Imaging and Tornado Spectral Systems, and began his career at McKinsey & Company. He holds a in Biology from McGill University, an in Molecular and Medical Genetics from University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University. Ingmar Bruns, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist with two decades of hematology and oncology expertise who currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of Zentalis. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Trillium Therapeutics through its acquisition by Pfizer, then held senior clinical development roles at Pfizer, including head of the hematologic malignancies franchise. Earlier positions include Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at Pieris Pharmaceuticals and clinical development leadership at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Bruns served as an attending hematologist and oncologist as well as a physician-scientist at the University Hospital of Dusseldorf and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has authored over 50 publications in leading journals and holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Lubeck in Germany. About Radiant Biotherapeutics Radiant Biotherapeutics is biotechnology company committed to advancing and delivering transformative MULTi-specific, multi-Affinity antiBODY (Multabody™) therapeutics for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. Radiant's proprietary platform leverages avidity and multi-specificity simultaneously, to generate highly efficacious biologics with superior potency than other antibody platforms, encompassing a new class of biologics positioned to address complex, heterogenous diseases such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. Multabody™ production and manufacturing is flexible, modular and scalable, and leverages existing antibody CMC processes. With offices in Canada and the United States, Radiant has successfully delivered on numerous strategic partnerships that validate the platform's broad scientific and clinical utility. For more information, please visit
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q3 2025 Radiant Logistics Inc Earnings Call
Bohn Crain; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; Radiant Logistics Inc Todd Macomber; Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President, Treasurer; Radiant Logistics Inc Operator Greetings, and welcome to the Radiant Logistics' third quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded. This afternoon, Bohn Crain, Radiant Logistics' Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Radiant's Chief Financial Officer, Todd Macomber, will provide a general business update and discuss financial results for the company's third fiscal quarter and nine months ended March 31, 2025. Following their comments, we will open the call to questions. This conference is scheduled for 30 minutes. This conference call may include forward-looking statements within the meanings of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about the company that may cause the company's actual results or achievements to be materially different from the results or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. While it is impossible to identify all the factors that may cause the company's actual results or achievements to differ materially from those set forth in our forward-looking statements, such factors include those that in the past and may in the future be identified in the company's SEC filings and other public announcements that are available on the Radiant website at In addition, past results are not necessarily an indication of future performance. Now I'd like to pass the call over to Radiant's Founder and CEO, Bohn Crain. Sir, the floor is yours. Bohn Crain Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining in on today's call. With the benefit of our diverse service offering, we continue to deliver solid financial results and generated $9.4 million in adjusted EBITDA for our third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2025, which is up $4.2 million and just over 80% relative to the comparable prior year period. The comparable year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA was driven through a combination of improvements in our base business operations, along with contributions from our recent acquisitions. For the quarter ended March 31, our legacy US operations generated $1.5 million in incremental adjusted EBITDA, while our legacy Canadian operations generated $0.5 million in incremental adjusted EBITDA. An additional $2 million in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended March is driven principally by our greenfield acquisitions of Seattle-based Cascade Transportation from June of 2024, Houston-based Foundation Logistics & Services from our September '24 acquisition, St. Louis-based TCB Transportation from our December 2024 acquisition and Los Angeles-based Transcon Shipping from our March '25 acquisition, along with the conversion of our strategic operating partner, Miami-based Select Logistics in February of 2024. Notwithstanding these strong results for the quarter ended March 31, we are expecting some near-term volatility in our results tied to the ebb and flow of the ongoing US negotiations around trade and tariffs and estimate that approximately 25% to 30% of our gross margins for the March quarter would have been impacted by the recently announced tariffs. With that said, we also expect that any near-term slowdown will likely result in a corresponding bullwhip effect, with a surge in global trade as these tariff disputes are brought to rest and are encouraged by the deescalation of US and China trade tensions that have occurred over the weekend. In any event, we intend to remain nimble in our response to tariff announcements by the US administration and continue to support our customers in navigating these quickly evolving markets and executing thoughtful supply chain strategies to provide our customers with competitive advantage. As previously discussed, we believe we are well positioned with a durable business model, diverse service offering and strong balance sheet to navigate through a slower freight market. We continue to enjoy a strong balance sheet with approximately $19 million of cash on hand as of March 31, and only $15 million drawn on our $200 million credit facility. At the same time, we remain focused on the long term, staying true to our strategy to deliver profitable growth through a combination of organic and acquisition initiatives, while thoughtfully relevering our balance sheet through a combination of strategic operating partner conversions, synergistic tuck-in acquisitions and stock buybacks. Through this approach, we believe, over time, we will continue to deliver meaningful value for our shareholders, operating partners and the end customers that we serve. We made good progress in this regard over this last quarter with the acquisition of California-based Transcon Shipping, the conversion of our Pennsylvania-based strategic operating partner, USA Logistics and USA Carriers, which is being combined with our existing Radiant operations in Philadelphia, and the conversion of our Texas-based strategic operating partner, Universal Logistics, which is being combined with our existing Radiant operation in Houston. We believe these three transactions are representative of our broader pipeline of opportunities, which includes both greenfield acquisitions, companies not currently part of our network as well as acquisition opportunities inherent in our agent-based network where we can support our current operating partners and their exit strategies. With that, I'll now turn it over to Todd Macomber, our CFO, to walk us through our detailed financial results, and then we'll open it up for some Q&A. Todd Macomber Thanks, Bohn, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, we will be discussing our financial results, including adjusted net income and adjusted EBITDA for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2025. For the three months ended March 31, 2025, we reported net income attributable to Radiant Logistics of $2.541 million on $214 million of revenues or $0.05 per basic and fully diluted share. For the three months ended March 31, 2024, we reported a net loss attributable to Radiant Logistics of $703,000 on $184.6 million of revenue or $0.02 per basic and fully diluted share. This represents an improvement of approximately $3.244 million of net income over the comparable prior year period. For adjusted net income, we reported $6.881 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to adjusted net income of $3.586 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. This represents an increase of approximately $3.295 million or approximately 91.9%. For adjusted EBITDA, we reported $9.398 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $5.208 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. This represents an increase of approximately $4.190 million or approximately 80.5%. Moving along to the nine month results. For the nine months ended March 31, 2025, we reported net income attributable to Radiant Logistics of $12.384 million on $682.1 million of revenues or $0.26 per basic and $0.25 per fully diluted share. For the nine months ended March 31, 2024, we reported net income attributable to Radiant Logistics of $2.904 million on $596.4 million of revenues or $0.06 per basic and fully diluted share. This represents an increase of approximately $9.480 million over the comparable prior year period or 326.4%. For adjusted net income, we reported $25.459 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, compared to adjusted net income of $15.632 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2024. This represents an increase of approximately $9.827 million or approximately 62.9%. For adjusted EBITDA, we reported $30.866 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $22.083 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2024. This represents an increase of approximately $8.783 million or approximately 39.8%. With that, I will turn the call over to our moderator to facilitate any Q&A from our callers. Operator (Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from Elliot Alper with Cowen. This is Elliot on for Jason Seidl. Could you elaborate more on what drove the outperformance of the base business this quarter? And kind of given your commentary on the bullwhip effect, could you talk about maybe kind of the puts and takes into the June quarter? Bohn Crain It's certainly a little early into the June quarter to have a lot of -- to be able to get at that with any granularity. We certainly saw some kind of slowing or beginning to see some slowing in some of the international trade volumes in response to all the trade tensions that are going on and -- but we'll see kind of how long that lasts in the scheme of things. And kind of early indications for April were that kind of the -- candidly, the business was doing better than I was expecting it to or kind of we're not being as heavily impacted as I thought we might be, but it's certainly kind of early in the process, and it seems like every day, things are shifting around. So it's quite fluid right now. And while we certainly have a fair amount of our business involved in the support of global trade, it also -- these challenges create opportunities, kind of one of our taglines is never waste a good chaos here or don't let the chaos go to waste in terms of the opportunities that it's creating for us to support our partners in navigating kind of the current environment. So we would expect whatever near-term impacts that we will experience, we're pretty optimistic that over time, we will kind of more than offset that through the following surge that's sure to come as folks begin to reset their supply chains. At the same time, as I think you're familiar, we do have a fairly good-sized presence in Canada and Mexico, and they -- and kind of those markets have been kind of quasi-beneficiaries of some of these trade dynamics as shippers are kind of working to kind of navigate within the constraints of these -- what hope to be -- are proving to be interim tariffs. So while there's a lot of uncertainty, I think at the end of the day, we're going to be better than okay, I think. But having said that, the quarter ended June should be soft. I would expect it to be soft. Yes. And then maybe just looking back at the March quarter, I mean, came above kind of where we were coming out for the estimates. So I guess anything to call out there? Was it broad-based strength or any pockets of outperformance you saw? Bohn Crain Todd's got some of the details there that he's looking at. Todd Macomber Yes. I mean it's just -- yes, I mean Canada performed better than I anticipated, I'll put it that way. And we have had -- I mean, some of the files were down on account like for the international, but the margin characteristics were -- per file were up. So it was really broad-based. And then factoring in the acquisitions that we ended up getting done also helped contribute to the overall increase in the quarter. Makes sense. And then you've historically had some good insights into bookings out of Asia. Just given all the tariff news, I mean, curious about any trends you've seen evolve through April and maybe how you're expecting shippers to react and anything out of Asia bookings you're seeing just in the last few days would be helpful. Bohn Crain Well, we all woke up to the same news you did this morning, right? So I think it's a little early to start calling it out, but -- in terms of how folks will ultimately respond. But basically, ocean imports ex China had come to a virtual standstill most recently. But again, I think it's going to be very short-lived. But time will tell, right? But there had been so much kind of movement in terms of trying to find alternative sources or diverting manufacturing sites to Southeast Asia or otherwise where this -- certain things have been set in motion that will have to run its course. So I think it will -- there's been some level of kind of damage done that will have to kind of run its course. And then we'll see kind of how quickly things kind of revert back to some semblance of normal. I'm sure you're aware, a number of the steamship lines have blank sailings, and they repositioned ships kind of in anticipation of the slower volumes. So it's a little bit of a firefight out there. I guess another call out that I would make to just give a little bit more color is that before some of our most recent transactions, the majority of our international business was -- actually comes to us through our agency stations. And so this -- we'll be less affected on a net basis than you might otherwise expect because our historical kind of trailing 12-month international numbers, much of that comes through our international agent locations. With that said, our most recent acquisition of Transcon, in particular, is focused heavily on ocean imports and out of Asia and kind of the transpacific trade. So we're particularly interested to see how things progress in and around trade and tariffs and what kind of happened over the weekend, which -- I came in early this morning and tweaked the press release a little bit kind of in connection with kind of this very recent news, which we view all as positive and hopefully constructive to kind of getting things moving forward again. Operator (Operator Instructions) Our next question is coming from Jeff Kauffman with Vertical Research Partners. Congratulations, guys. Challenging quarter, solid results. A couple of questions. I guess the first one, I just want to understand what you're saying. When you say gross margin was affected 25% to 30%, is that implying that the AGP of $58 million could have been $70 million or $80 million? Or is that more talking about the percentage of 27% could have been 30% or 31%. What exactly did you mean when you said AGP 25% to 30% was affected? Bohn Crain No, I was saying 25% to 30% of our gross margin is associated with international trade. Okay. So not necessarily that the number could have been 25% or 30% higher, it's just that's how much of your freight was -- okay, touched by it. Okay. Bohn Crain Yes. And what was part of how you should also interpret that -- or you shouldn't necessarily interpret that as necessarily exposure to the downside, right? That 25% to 30% of our business is an opportunity to engage on a real-time basis with our customers to try to kind of help them through the situation because we have -- there certainly are aspects of this. So Jeff, as you might remember, we have a customs brokerage capability and a fairly robust PO management collaboration platform called GTM that came to us through the Navegate transaction. And that team has just been extraordinarily busy on a consultative basis, trying to help customers kind of figure out whether to zig or zag in the context of the information that keeps flowing. And one of the things we probably didn't focus on enough as I'm thinking about it is the removal of the kind of $800 de minimis. Historically, we really weren't active or didn't have much, if any, exposure to that parcel level direct-to-consumer e-commerce play at all. Well, those businesses are getting crushed by that kind of change in the rule and going to, I think, ultimately kind of create more opportunities for us and companies like us because there's a lot of freight that's been moving by kind of international parcel type carriers that are not well positioned to support these trade flows outside of that de minimis relief. And so I think there's going to be kind of incremental opportunity for us around that particular change. So Bohn, I have a big picture question here. I know it's only been a day since we heard about the thought in US, China here. But having said that, there's some things that still are going to be impacted by this even on the reduced level. So I'm just kind of curious in your mind, this isn't really a green light on everything. What do you think is still kind of frozen or stuck in the mud? And what kinds of business for your customers gets kind of unflawed by this change? Bohn Crain I don't know. That's a good question. Before kind of the tariff discussion revealed itself, there was already a move afoot for people to continue to look critically at their supply chains and look to further diversify their sourcing strategies, ultimately, not -- certainly not abandoning China but diversifying to Southeast Asia and India and Mexico or other locations. And I just don't think that -- I think this kind of volatility is just going to reinforce the continued pursuit of those strategies. So I think the kind of whatever metaphor you want to use, the genie is out of the bottle, or the conversation has already been started. I don't think you can kind of put the bullet back into the gun to continue to mix metaphors. So I think this is -- we're just kind of continuing along the journey. But honestly, I take even kind of a broader point of view personally, which is which of these strategies are going to survive the Trump administration because I expect that I and Radiant is going to be here long after Trump's gone. And I just don't -- I fail to see how some of this stuff is really going to be durable. So we're trying not to be too affected. I mean obviously, we're all affected on the near term, but we're really trying to stay the course in terms of our fundamental strategies and not be swayed, if you will, by what ultimately are going to be kind of short-term phenomenon. So you'll see we've continued to be kind of aggressive in our M&A activity. So we're still kind of executing the same strategies, notwithstanding kind of the noise of tariffs. And then along those lines, currency has moved a lot in the last 90 or 100 days. How do you think the battlefield of the road map, whichever metaphor you want to roll with here, changes as a result of the changes in the currency flows? Bohn Crain I don't know. That one -- I'll leave that to the economists. What I would tell you is we have a little exposure to the Canadian dollar based on what's happening based upon our business up there. Outside of that, most of our business is conducted in US dollars. Now that's not to say -- so I can't sit here today and tell you what the landed cost of a particular widget, the sensitivity of the landed cost of a widget based upon the exchange rate relative to the pound, that's -- we would have to have several bottles of wine to answer that question. Okay. Well, I can't get your wine right now, but let me throw just one last one in. You did mention kind of a mucky fourth fiscal quarter here and maybe a bullwhip sometime in the next fiscal year. But I think going into the release today, consensus was thinking that fourth quarter is normally a pretty strong quarter for you fundamentally. Maybe it will be your second best quarter this year. Do you still feel that the fourth quarter might be the second best quarter this year? Or would you kind of put the caveat that there's just so much we don't know, we can't still be thinking along those lines? Bohn Crain Yes. I think traditional sensitivity or traditional seasonality is kind of out the window right now. We still don't have great visibility to how quickly things are going to change or how people are going to react to this news or how durable this news is or what tomorrow's tweet might be. So I would say, at least for me, I'm expecting softness in the June quarter. And so I would not -- so I guess to answer your question more precisely, I would not expect it to be our -- June to be our second strongest quarter, if I had to. But. Your feeling is that, yes, what you might lose in the June quarter, at some point, you recapture in fiscal '26? Todd Macomber Right. That's what we think. Operator As we have no further questions on the line at this time, I would like to hand the call back over to Mr. Crain for any closing remarks. Bohn Crain Thank you. Let me close by saying that we remain optimistic about our prospects and opportunities to continue to leverage our best-in-class technology, robust North American footprint and extensive global network of service partners to continue to build on the great platform we've created here at Radiant. At the same time, we intend to thoughtfully relever our balance sheet through a combination of agent station conversions, strategic tuck-in acquisitions and stock buybacks. Through our multipronged approach, we believe we will continue to create meaningful value for our shareholders, operating partners and the end customers that we serve. Thanks for listening and your support of Radiant Logistics. Operator Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Radiant Logistics beats expectations to start year
Radiant Logistics posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter of the year but noted a recent slowing in international trade volumes will likely weigh on results in the second. The Renton, Washington-based 3PL reported adjusted earnings per share of 14 cents for its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, 10 cents higher than the consensus estimate and 6 cents higher year over year. Consolidated revenue increased 16% y/y to $214 million. Revenue net of purchased transportation expenses increased 10% y/y to $58 million. Management from Radiant (NYSE: RLGT) said even with the U.S. and China agreeing to step down tariffs while trade talks continue, its fiscal fourth quarter ending June 30 will likely be soft. It said roughly 25% to 30% of the recent quarter's gross margin would have been impacted by previously announced tariffs. However, it doesn't believe the slowdown means that shipments will be lost. 'With that said, we also expect that any near-term slowdown will likely result in a corresponding bullwhip effect, with a surge in global trade as these tariff disputes are brought to rest and are encouraged by the de-escalation of U.S – China trade tensions that occurred over the weekend,' said CEO Bohn Crain in a Monday news release. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $9.4 million in the quarter was 81% higher y/y. Approximately $2 million of the increase was tied to recent acquisitions. Radiant ended the quarter with $19 million in cash and only a $15 million outstanding balance on a $200 million credit facility. The company said its acquisition of Houston-based operating partner Universal Logistics closed at the beginning of the month. Universal has been operating under Radiant's Airgroup banner since 2001. The acquisition was the third of the year for the company. Shares of RLGT were up 5.3% in after-hours trading on Monday. More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: Forward Air touts Q1 achievements, investors await next steps Saia, others buying 10 Yellow Corp. terminals Forward Air looks for a fresh start in Delaware The post Radiant Logistics beats expectations to start year appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
