Crane NXT - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Sales rose 9.1% year over year to $404.4M, with adjusted operating margin at 21.2%; GAAP EPS was $0.43 and adjusted EPS was $0.97.
• Management reaffirmed full-year 2025 adjusted EPS guidance of $4.00–$4.30, SAT sales growth of +19–21%, CPI sales growth of -2% to 0%, and adjusted segment operating margin of ~25.5–26.5%.
• Operational catalysts: record international currency backlog ($447.2M) and total backlog ($591.6M), CPI gaming orders up sequentially and ~30% YoY, and launch of “Fortress” authentication and Jetscan Ultra products.
• Management guided margin accretion in 2H’25 and accelerated Crane Authentication synergies, targeting ~20% operating margin exiting 2026, supported by CBS execution; tariff impacts (~$25M OP headwind) are being mitigated via pricing, supply chain shifts and productivity.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• International currency strength: SAT sales +32% YoY with core +9% and record international currency backlog (~$400M cited in remarks; backlog in press tables $447.2M), underscoring differentiated micro-optics wins and robust project deliveries.
• New product launches and integration: Fortress launched with a major customer; Jetscan Ultra introduced; De La Rue Authentication integration with OpSec forming Crane Authentication, with accelerated synergy realization underway.
• Cash generation and balance sheet: adjusted free cash flow $67.4M and ~120% conversion; net leverage 2.6x supports continued M&A capacity.

Quote: “We achieved another record high backlog in our international currency business… and are accelerating the realization of operating synergies… exiting 2026 with operating profit margins of approximately 20%”.

What Went Wrong

• Margin dilution and mix: adjusted operating margin fell 290 bps YoY to 21.2% due to lower CPI volumes and acquisition dilution; CPI adjusted OP margin declined 300 bps YoY to 27.0% in Q2.
• Tariff-related headwinds: China tariffs slowed vending orders and stressed CPI margins (book-and-ship ahead of price increases at lower-margin vending; gaming mix improving in 2H).
• SAT GAAP margin compressed (9.3% vs. 16.4% YoY) on acquisition dilution, higher manufacturing costs, and restructuring charges despite higher volumes and productivity.

Transcript

Speaker 6

Today, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Crane NXT second quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we'll open it up for questions. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would like to hand it over to your first speaker today, Matt Roache, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you all to the second quarter 2025 earnings call for Crane NXT. Before we begin, let me remind you that the slides we will reference during this presentation can be accessed via the Investor Relations section of our website at cranenxt.com, and a replay of today's call will also be available on our website. Before we discuss our results, I encourage all participants to review the legal notice on slide two, which explains the risk of forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. Additionally, we refer you to the cautionary language at the bottom of our earnings release and our Form 10-K and subsequent filings pertaining to forward-looking statements.

During the call, we'll also be using non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to the comparable GAAP measures in the tables at the end of our press release and accompanying slide presentation, both of which are available on our website in the Investor Relations section. With me today are Aaron Saak, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Christina Cristiano, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On our call this morning, we'll discuss our second quarter highlights, our financial and operational performance, and our 2025 financial guidance. After our prepared remarks, we'll open up the call to analysts for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Aaron.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Matt, and good morning. I appreciate everyone joining today's call to review our second quarter results. I would like to start by recognizing our NXT team members around the world for their continued dedication and for delivering another quarter of strong execution. As shown in the highlights on slide three, our second quarter performance was in line with our expectations, with sales growth of approximately 9% year over year and adjusted EPS of $0.97. We achieved 120% free cash flow conversion in the quarter, reflecting continued operating discipline. In Q2, we continued to build momentum in our strategic growth areas. Our currency business delivered another standout quarter, again achieving a record high backlog. We also recently introduced new innovative products in our authentication and CPI businesses, which position us well for future growth.

In authentication, we launched Fortress, an advanced proprietary security feature that can be applied to a product surface or label to authenticate the product in real time and to trace the origin of the product to the point of manufacturing. This product was introduced to a major customer and has a strong pipeline for additional applications. At CPI, we launched several next-generation products that will enhance our leadership position using advanced imaging and detection technology. This includes the new Jet Scan Ultra, a high-speed currency scanner that provides counterfeit detection for the banking, gaming, and retail markets. Since the close of the De La Rue Authentication acquisition on May 1, we have made significant progress integrating this business with OpSec to form the new Crane Authentication. I'll provide more detail about our actions in this area in a few moments.

We continue to have a strong balance sheet with ample capacity for additional M&A. Given the strength and activity in our M&A pipeline, I am confident we will have another transaction to announce within the next year. Finally, we continue to navigate tariff and macro uncertainties and are mitigating these impacts through a variety of pricing and supply chain actions. Given these initiatives, we remain confident in our outlook and are reaffirming our full-year EPS guidance in the range of $4 to $4.30. Now, turning to slide four, I want to take a moment to review our strategy of building a leading industrial technology company focused on solutions that secure, detect, and authenticate. Ultimately, what we do here at Crane NXT is focused on providing confidence to our customers and their consumers that the products they buy and the way they buy them are authentic and secure.

Over the past quarter, we've integrated De La Rue Authentication and OpSec to form Crane Authentication. With this business, we have created a leading position in the authentication market. A key to our success is utilizing the Crane Business System, or CBS, to drive operational improvements in both our existing businesses and those we acquire. With this in mind, I'd like to move to slide five to discuss the actions we've taken over the last 100 days since closing the De La Rue acquisition. As shown on the left side of this page, we now have a market-leading portfolio focused in three areas. First, brand authentication, where we sell advanced security technology for labels, track and trace software solutions, and provide additional online services to the world's leading brands to protect them and their consumers from counterfeiting.

Second, government solutions, where we work with governments to ensure collection of tax revenue and authentication of products. Finally, identification security, where we design and manufacture ID documents for governments, incorporating new security features to prevent counterfeiting. Over the past 100 days, we hit the ground running, deploying the Crane Business System to integrate the business and achieve our planned synergies. These actions include utilizing the 80/20 process to rationalize product offerings, consolidating our site footprint, leveraging scale to drive supply chain savings, integrating the organization to simplify and reduce the cost structure, and implementing improved pricing processes. I would like to thank the entire Crane Authentication team for their hard work during the past quarter. Thanks to their efforts, we are now anticipating accelerated realization of operating synergies, which will lead to operating profit margins of approximately 20% as we exit 2026, ahead of our original expectations.

Let me now hand the call over to Christina to review our second quarter performance in more detail.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. I would also like to start by saying thank you to our associates around the world. We appreciate your hard work. Starting on slide six, we delivered second quarter results that were in line with our expectations. Sales increased approximately 9% year over year, driven by acquisitions and strong performance in international currency. Core sales declined approximately 1%, reflecting the anticipated lower volume in CPI. Adjusted segment operating profit margin of approximately 24% was down approximately 350 basis points year over year, driven by the lower CPI volume and the expected impact of dilution from acquisitions. Free cash flow conversion was approximately 120% in the quarter, and we continue to expect the full-year conversion to be in a range of approximately 90 to 110%. Finally, we delivered adjusted EPS of $0.97.

Moving to our segments and starting with CPI on slide seven, core sales were down approximately 7% year over year, outperforming our expectations, driven by timing of shipments. Adjusted operating margin decreased approximately 300 basis points year over year, reflecting the lower volume and unfavorable product mix, partially offset by productivity gains. We expect margin accretion in the second half of the year, driven by improved product mix from gaming sales growth, as well as productivity programs and disciplined cost management. These factors will result in CPI's full-year operating margin to be between 29 and 30%. CPI ended the quarter with a backlog of approximately $144 million. Most notably, gaming orders were up approximately 10% sequentially and up by approximately 30% year over year. Our gaming OEM customers are at normal inventory levels, and we'd expect gaming to have a strong double-digit growth in the third quarter.

Turning to Security and Authentication Technologies on slide eight, in the second quarter, sales grew approximately 32% year over year, including acquisitions. Core sales increased approximately 9% year over year, driven by higher international currency volume. As a reminder, our U.S. currency business resumed production in Q2 after successfully completing the technology upgrades that will support the new currency series, which we expect to begin release in 2026. This was a significant milestone, and we are very proud of the accomplishments of our team. As Aaron noted, our international currency business continues to perform well, with a new record high backlog of approximately $400 million in the second quarter. We continue to expect mid-single-digit growth for the full year, despite the tough comparison to a strong second half of 2024. Finally, adjusted operating margin of approximately 21% reflects acquisition dilution as expected.

Moving to our balance sheet on slide nine, net leverage at the end of the second quarter was approximately 2.6 times, reflecting the term loan used to fund the De La Rue Authentication acquisition. Importantly, our strong free cash flow generation will enable us to continue to invest in organic growth while also paying down debt. We expect to end the year with net leverage of approximately 2 times, which provides flexibility for additional M&A. Moving now to slide ten, we are reaffirming our full-year guidance. We continue to expect SAT sales growth to be between 19% and 21%, including approximately $80 million to $90 million of De La Rue sales in 2025. We expect CPI full-year sales growth to be between negative 2% and flat.

Adjusted segment operating margin is anticipated to be in the range of 25.5% to 26.5%, reflecting dilution from De La Rue, offset by our continued strong focus on pricing and productivity. Finally, we are maintaining adjusted EPS in the range of $4 to $4.30. Now, I'll turn it back to Aaron for his closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Christina. Moving to our final slide, I want to highlight a few key points. First, we continue to drive strong operational execution. Our Q2 performance was in line with expectations, and we're utilizing the Crane Business System to drive productivity initiatives throughout the company. This includes accelerating the realization of synergies with the integration of Crane Authentication and continuing to drive high free cash flow conversion. Additionally, we continue to build momentum in our strategic growth areas, led by our technology leadership. In Q2, we achieved another record high backlog in our international currency business, providing confidence in our full-year sales outlook and giving us strong momentum heading into 2026. Also, as Christina mentioned, the U.S. currency redesign program continues to be on track for a 2026 launch. We are also launching new products across the portfolio, extending our technology leadership position.

These include the new Fortress product in authentication and the Jet Scan Ultra in CPI. Our M&A funnel is active, and our strong balance sheet gives us ample capacity to continue building our portfolio of differentiated technology solutions, delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you again for your time this morning, and I'd also like to thank our dedicated team around the world for their commitment to our customers, our communities, and all of our stakeholders. With that, Operator, we're ready to take our first question.

Speaker 6

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by. We'll compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question will come from the line of Matt Somerville from D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.

Thanks. A couple questions. First, you gave some really helpful color on orders in demand with respect to gaming. Can you go through sort of a similar analysis of the other named CPI verticals, and then maybe comment around how your level of conviction that you can see CPI returned to a sustained positive organic trajectory? I have a follow-up.

Speaker 2

Sure. Good morning, Matt, and thanks for the question. For CPI, I'm very encouraged by where we're at now in gaming. We know this in-market continues to remain healthy, the casino and gaming in-market, and we feel very confident in our number one market position as well. Now we're in the position where the inventory, our inventory at our OEMs, has normalized. We talked about that coming out of the last few quarters. We expected this pivot as we got to the second half of the year, and we're seeing it. We have high confidence here based on the order book and the outlook that we're going to see strong double-digit growth in the second half of the year in gaming, and that's playing out just as we expected.

To go to the other verticals, I think in total they're playing out largely as we expected and really as we talked about last quarter. Vending, as you know, we talked about headwinds from the China tariffs slowing some orders. We discussed that in Q1, leading to some headwinds in sales that we see there for the back half of the year. Retail, some positivity, particularly with custom self-checkout, and I think it's a mixed bag a little bit among the OEMs, and you could see that in some results earlier this week. Financial services, playing out in line with expectations. What's really encouraging here to CPI, to get to your second part of your question about the long-term outlook, is this is a business always in a number one or number two market position, and technology differentiation and leadership is its key.

We're now in the process of launching new products, and we talked about that in some of the prepared remarks. I feel very good about where we're at with CPI. You can see the corner turned, and I think long term, we look at this as a low single-digit growth business going into 2026.

Thanks for that. As a follow-up, can you maybe talk a little bit about how we should be thinking about the back half cadence in terms of revenue and earnings between Q3 and Q4, if there's anything you would want to call out there? You referenced on the slides and in your prepared remarks, Aaron, that you see OpSec, I'll just call it the authentication-related division inside of SAT, generating a 20% operating profit margin. What would that equate to in terms of incremental EPS accretion in 2026 versus 2025 in the acquired businesses? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Matt. Why don't I let Christina take the first one on the phasing in the back half of the year, and I'll take the authentication question.

Speaker 5

Yeah, great, and good morning. It's worth repeating that we expect full-year sales growth of 6% to 8% in the SAT segment, with segment operating margin of approximately 25.5% to 26.5%, which is unchanged from our previous guidance. In terms of the phasing, we'll expect a slight step up in core revenue in Q3, driven by CPI, and also a full quarter of De La Rue Authentication in our SAT results, in our non-organic results. We'll also have higher segment operating profit, driven by the pricing and productivity actions that Aaron mentioned, as well as cost reduction measures and continued operating discipline. In terms of the phasing between Q3 and Q4, the phasing of both revenue and OP will be slightly more weighted to Q4. Based on our outlook, we have confidence in the full-year guidance range and the expected sales growth of 6% to 8%.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Thanks, Christina. I just had, you know, again, think of revenue and OP, as Christina said, you know, 1 to 2% kind of weighted to the back half to the fourth quarter versus the third quarter. To your question on authentication, Matt, I think the work here by the teams has been fantastic, deploying CBS very quickly. We're 100 days basically into the acquisition of De La Rue Authentication and integrating that with OpSec. I'm very encouraged by the speed of that execution, and that's where we have line of sight based on the actions we take operationally to really exit 2026 with an OP margin that's going to be approaching 20%. That's a very nice step up from where we're going to end this year, which will be in the low teens. That's based on our business case and our execution of our synergy profile.

In terms of what that means for accretion in 2026, I think that's too early to say. We'll make that part of the 2026 guidance, which we'll do in the first part of the year.

Speaker 6

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Damian Carrasque from UBS. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Speaker 2

Good morning. Morning, Damian.

I wanted to ask you about your SAT guidance, holding the sales growth for the year unchanged, despite a really nice solid second quarter. If I'm just accounting for the De La Rue Authentication deal and FX, it seems like you're implying kind of like a mid-single-digit year-over-year decline in the back half and a pretty notable step down from the second quarter. Could you just help us understand why maybe you're a little bit less optimistic in the second half of the year for SAT?

Yeah, thanks, team. We'll have to go through kind of the sequential numbers you cited there. I think the overall takeaway that you started with is right. We really have had excellent performance, particularly in the international currency business, both in new orders and a strong Q2, which was really some projects, as you know, very project-focused business when central banks want their shipment of their currency. That came into Q2. That's where we're not making a change to the full year. We're just seeing that movement into Q2 and out of part of the second half. It's really a balance, and that's really often driven by our customers and their timing and their request dates. That also, just for context, with the international shipments in Q2 being up, puts some stress on the mix of the SAT margins.

For the full year, we still fully expect SAT margins for the segment to be in the range of around 21%. I think overall, I'm very, very encouraged by this performance in currency overall, and particularly with the U.S. program being on track. The particulars of the phasing, I think we can do the math on that, but there's really no change to our outlook, just a little bit of timing.

Okay, got it. This is the first time I'm hearing about Fortress. Aaron, I was wondering if you could maybe just tell us a little bit more about that, you know, this customer win and what specifically Fortress is, you know, what service Fortress is providing them. I'd love to hear kind of like the other relevant applications you alluded to.

Yeah, no, hey, I appreciate that. Fortress, you know, came into the portfolio as actually part of the De La Rue Authentication acquisition. It was part of why we were very excited about the technology that they're bringing in. At the same time, it was just recently launched. It is new into the market with this first customer. It is fundamentally a materials technology that's applied to the surface of either a label or the product that has a unique identifier that when you take a picture of it with a smartphone camera and use our proprietary app, you can identify the product all the way back to the point of origin and manufacturing or when the marker was applied.

The beauty here, Damian, is it gets provenance all the way back, let's say, to the manufacturing line of the product in a very simple, easy-to-use way for either a consumer or, in most cases, it's the person buying the product, a B2B type, you know, customer. Fundamentally, it's a core technology based on materials that's simple to use. You can see it as kind of part of this good, better, best, you know, technology portfolio we're providing. This would really be at the high end of our authentication type application. In terms of pipeline, given what it is, it can be applied to a whole host of end markets. It can be applied to any label or any product service. Think food and beverage, think, you know, consumer goods.

We've just rolled it out to a very large customer in one of our emerging markets and, you know, pretty excited about the pipeline for it as well. Happy to show it to you one day too, Damian, when we meet you in person.

Speaker 6

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Mike Helleron from Baird. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. You've got Pez on for Mike.

Speaker 2

Hey, Pez.

Just hoping you could help a little bit with the margin phasing in the back half. It feels like a pretty meaningful swing. Aaron, I know you mentioned the stress of the margin from the international shipments that came in in Q2, but can you help us a little bit maybe with the puts and takes specifically to the margins in the back half?

Why don't I start and I'll pass it over to Christina? Maybe I'll take CPI because I think it's, you know, the two segments independently. In CPI, we had a really nice quarter in top line sales. A lot of that came from vending where we had customers that placed orders and we had a book and ship in the quarter, getting ahead of our price increase for the tariffs. Vending is at a lower margin profile than the rest of the business, so that created some compression, some stress on the margins. With what we see happening in gaming, and obviously that vending moving out of the, let's say, third quarter into the second, you're going to see a natural accretion in margins along with the other pricing actions we've taken in productivity.

Pretty high conviction there, Pez, in line of sight to our CPI margins on a full-year basis to end the year between 29% and 30%. Christina, I'll pass it to you.

Speaker 5

Just bridging the gap to SAT, we expect SAT margins to be in the low 20% for the full year, as Aaron said. In terms of currency, continued strong performance driven by international, and the year was pretty, pretty evenly weighted. It'll be slightly more weighted towards the second half in terms of margin. As Aaron said, we had a little bit of unfavorable mix coming through in the quarter that'll kind of resolve itself before the end of the year. As you know, we're seeing dilution from the acquisitions about a few hundred basis points, which was expected. Now, with the closing of the De La Rue Authentication transaction, as Aaron discussed earlier, we're accelerating the realization of operating synergies, and that'll drive margin accretion in the second half in the authentication business.

There's also some normal seasonality in OpSec where revenue and OP are typically just a little bit more weighted toward the second half. Considering all those factors, we have high confidence that we'll get to that OP margin target of 21% for the full year with a step up in the second half driven mostly by the actions that we've already taken in Q2.

Excellent. That's super helpful, Claire. I appreciate that. Switching gears a little bit on the M&A front, obviously as we continue to work through the Crane Authentication and the integration of the assets, maybe talk a little bit about how some of the vectors of opportunity have changed, if at all, and maybe some technologies that are more interesting than they were two years ago. Lastly, maybe just give us a little color on how you view the funnel. I know, Aaron, you said you feel confident about closing a deal in the next 12 months, but maybe more broadly talk about how you feel about the funnel.

Speaker 2

Yeah, thanks, Pez. I'll start with the last part. I feel, you know, very optimistic, as I said, and confident that we're going to have another deal in the next year, just based on the strength of the funnel, the activity we have going on, things we've looked at and continue to prosecute. It's as healthy as it's ever been for us in the last two and a half years. That feels very good. As you saw in Christina's remarks, the balance sheet's in very good shape with our free cash flow. We have sufficient firepower to do exactly what we said we were going to do. I think the key here, and maybe to the first part of your question, is we want to continue to apply the same framework, right?

This is a hallmark that's got to be disciplined M&A that's focused on a very clear framework that we put out that I think will serve us well. We don't want that to change. That's around assessing the market, first of all, and looking at technology leadership positions. To your point, with the new acquisitions that we now have with authentication, that opens up new near adjacencies to us around extending our brand authentication portfolio. ID verification now is a one-step adjacency we couldn't have said two years ago when we started the company. I think there is a broader adjacency step that's fueling our funnel. Then we look at these companies, right? That's step two to make sure they have wide moats that have defensible IP, and we could be better or very good owners of those companies. Third, the criteria is around value creation.

We've got to find a path that we can always apply CBS and synergies to generate very good returns. We're going to continue to be prudent, opportunistic as we see targets emerge and keep on this very clear framework that we've established that I think is going to serve us well and be consistent in this approach.

Speaker 6

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Bob Levick from CJS Securities. Your line is open.

Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions.

Hey, Bob.

Hey. I wanted to start with Crane Authentication. Now with De La Rue closed, you've very rapidly built this segment up to scale. Could you talk about the core drivers for this business going forward and maybe break it down between the physical security and tags and then the online security and brand management and digital sales as well? What drives each of those, the physical and the kind of online digital sales for authentication?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Thanks, Bob. I agree with you here that I'm excited by the leadership position we've created and the scale, really by integrating these two together and adding in, again, our core technology that came over from the currency business and microoptics. It's been a very busy 100 days since the close. I've had an opportunity in that time to go around to most of the De La Rue major sites, visit the team, meet with customers, and it's really been fantastic. I think we've done a very good job in the launch of the new Crane Authentication brand. To get a little more precise on your question, I would really think about the business as we showed on those slides in these three buckets. One's around brand authentication, which is a combination of physical and track and trace software.

That grows not only with the growth of the market of branded goods, which is, depending on the brand, call it a mid-single digit to high single digit grower, but also on the fact brands continue to ask for more authentication solutions. You have this ability to be a really strong single digit growth market in brand or single mid-single digit plus growth in the brand market. When you get to the government section that we talked about, government solutions, that's really primarily tax stamps for governments. There, it's really about expansion to not only new products within the governments that we already sell to, but also new governments that want to increase their tax revenues. I think a very solid, consistent mid-single digit grower and a lot of synergies there commercially with our currency business because we're a trusted partner already to the central banks.

You see that and you feel that playing out under the SAT segment and some of the work Sam Keayes is doing. Finally, government ID, that's a new segment for us. Back to one of the questions from Pez right before you. Now we have an ID portfolio that presents opportunities to add more sophisticated technology, upsell technology, just like we do in the currency business, and provides more adjacencies for both organic and inorganic expansion. I see that as a lot of nice tailwinds for the business. That's how I'm thinking about it. We're thinking about it, Bob, in these three segments. That's also where organic investment in M&A could play.

Okay, great. Thanks. Shifting gears a little to the 2026 WICO, the yearly currency order outlook and timing. There's a lot of numbers out there. There's the budget, then there's the currency order itself, which is going to be wide enough to drive a truck through. Ultimately, the final order will come out at some point later, and we'll find out the real number. My question is, can you give us a sense for your expectations towards this? I guess we'll learn the next thing maybe September, October, but give us a sense what you're working towards in calendar 2026 in terms of U.S. volumes and how we should think about it.

Yeah, thanks, Bob. First on the timing, I think you're right. There'll be some truth where September, October timeframe, we don't know precisely. We'll find that out when the Fed publishes it. In terms of the outlook, what we're thinking for our base case is volumes probably in the same range as we've been in this year. The key thing we want to look at is mix. That's really the big driver for our business. That's what we're going to have our eyes on, that mix between, call it the $1 bill and the $100 bill and the varieties, denominations in between. We'll know in the next 60, 90 days where that sits. Mix will be the key for us. Maybe Christina, if you want to add just about the U.S. currency redesign program, where that sits or any more color on that.

Speaker 5

Yeah, I mean, we're super excited about the launch, which we're expecting to start next year. As you know, we resumed production in our U.S. currency papermaking processes in the second quarter, which was very successful and a very significant milestone for our team. I'll take the opportunity to say congrats to our currency team on a job well done. We're feeling really excited about the trajectory of currency.

Speaker 6

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Bobby Brooks from Northwind Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, Aaron and Christina. Now that you've had De La Rue Authentication under your ownership for about 100 days now, and you're on your way to applying, or already on your way of applying the Crane Business System, and even mentioned accelerating those actions, I was just curious to hear maybe some actions that you've already taken or plan to take to elevate the margins there, or maybe where you see the most opportunity for enhancements.

Speaker 2

Yeah, thanks, Bobby. It's 100 days, and we're not on our way to applying, and we were ready to go on day one, and they're well in flight. As a reminder, when you looked at the entire two deals that form Crane Authentication, we targeted about $16 million combined in run rate synergies. We typically target that by year three to achieve those as we apply them. Most of those, the vast majority, are operational synergies. To answer your question, those come out of simplification of the cost structure. Putting together sales, marketing, the management teams of the companies, there's a natural cost structure reduction from doing that. That has been executed to a large extent. There's also rooftop consolidation, and some has been executed, some is coming, and we've indicated that to the teams and respective leaseholders. You get into synergies around product rationalization.

This is trying to take the best that was Crane, the best that was OpSec and De La Rue, and creating a portfolio that's simplified and still has options for customers at different price points. That also allows for some cost structure rationalization as well. Those are three examples, all of which are being done, all of which fall under our mantra of deploying CBS, Kaizans, different kinds of productivity initiatives, the application of 80/20 to the product lines. All of these tools in the toolkit are getting deployed in real time. Again, high confidence then, because we've deployed and taken those actions, that you're going to continue to see the margin increasing in the authentication business steadily through the rest of 2025 and into 2026, exiting next year with a business that's right at about 20% OP.

Awesome. That's super helpful, Peller. Thank you. Kind of jump into the authentication. There was a Wall Street Journal article out about a month ago that detailed the rising trend of super fake luxury handbags. The stats that really stuck out to me was that LVMH spent about $11 billion on advertising last year, but that compared to only $45 million in anti-counterfeit efforts. As it pertains to you guys, with those stats in mind, my logic leads me to believe that, one, that validates that product authentication is really in its infancy stage, and two, that there is a pretty sizable opportunity for SAT. Do you feel like my logic here is fair? Maybe just any additional comments you'd add or any detail you could disclose about how the team is pursuing the broader opportunity for product authentication in luxury goods?

Thanks, Bobby. I think that logic is incredibly sound. In fact, that's the entire strategic pillars that this business is standing on because we see the same thing. Exactly to your point, you see it reported about. I believe the gap here that we always talk about is it takes these brands, maybe surprisingly, given the numbers like you just quoted, longer to adopt the technology and to implement it than maybe we would all like. We know the trajectory that this is headed on because counterfeiting is not getting better, and the sophistication of the counterfeiters is only increasing, and we occupy the high ground as the leading technology provider in this space. To put it into another one of our customers' analogies, that's where the ball's headed or the puck is headed. We know it's going there.

We're waiting and driving it with those brands to bring up the issues you're seeing and actively working with those customers to adopt different features, whether that's embedded, whether that's covert, call it covert, overt. You're exactly correct, Bobby. That's where this market's going.

Speaker 6

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Ian Safino from Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. This is Isaac Salazan on for Ian. Thanks for taking the question. I just had one.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Isaac.

International. Hey, good morning, everyone. I just had one question on international currency. I know you're limited on what you can say on customers and activity, but maybe if you could help us understand what's driving growth on the international side in terms of mix and volume, you know, if you're seeing higher denominations, and then just overall trends around uptake on microoptics. Thanks.

Speaker 5

Yeah, great. Thanks, Isaac. We have very high confidence in our full-year sales guidance, particularly related to international currency and some important data points. It's just looking at our core backlog, which is up almost 20% year over year, and we expect about 60% of that will deliver in 2025. We expect our backlog to stay in a range of above approximately $300 million for the rest of the year based on our strong orders funnel. What's driving that? It's our differentiated technology. We believe we're the world's leading provider of technology, and we continue to win in the market. This quarter, the growth in the backlog was primarily related to recurring revenue, as we call it, order existing customers that continue to order from us because they trust us to provide the world's leading technology.

We have a pipeline to expect 10 to 15 microoptic wins with new customers for the full year, and we have high confidence that we're going to achieve that target. We're super excited about the trajectory, as I said earlier, and the pipeline is very rich for opportunities for the rest of the year.

Speaker 2

Okay, very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Thank you. As a reminder, that's star one one for questions, star one one. One moment for any questions. I'm not showing any further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn it back over to Aaron Saak for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

All right, thank you, Operator. I think you can see from what we provided in the last day that our Q2 was another strong quarter of execution and performance for the Crane NXT team. I, again, would like to thank all of our associates around the world for their hard work and dedication to the company. I remain confident in our future as we continue to build and grow this company, the leader in technology that secures, detects, and authenticates. Thank you again for all the questions this morning. Thank you to everyone who joined us, and we hope you have a great day, and we'll see you next quarter.

Speaker 6

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.