Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cooper Companies fourth quarter and full year 2009 earnings conference call. My name is [Chris] and I’ll be your operator for today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the call over to our host for today, Miss Kim Duncan. Please proceed.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Cooper Companies fourth quarter and full year 2009 earnings conference call. I’m Kim Duncan, Director of Investor Relations, and joining me on today’s call are Bob Weiss, President and Chief Executive Officer; Gene Midlock, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Al White, Vice President Investor Relations and Treasurer. Before we get started, I’d like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including all revenue and earnings per share guidance and other statements regarding anticipated results of operations, market conditions and manufacturing restructuring plans. Forward-looking statements necessarily depend on assumptions, data or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Events that could cause our actual results and future actions of the company to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements are set forth under the caption “Forward Looking Statements” in today’s earnings release, and are described in our SEC filings including the business section of Cooper’s annual report on Form 10-K. These are publicly available and are on request from the company’s Investor Relations department. Now, before I turn the call over to Bob Weiss, let me comment on the agenda for the call. Bob will begin by providing some highlights on the quarter and fiscal year and then get into some specific details including new products, the market, our strategy and guidance. Following Bob’s remarks, Gene Midlock will comment on the fourth quarter and full year financial results and provide some additional guidance. We will then open up the call for questions. We will keep the formal presentation to roughly 30 minutes of prepared remarks, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A, so the call will last a total of one hour. We request that anyone asking questions please limit yourself to only one question so we may get to as many callers as possible. Should you have any additional questions following the call, please call our Investor line at 925-460-3663. That’s 925-460-3663, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and a copy of the press release is available on our website at coopercos.com under Investor Relations. And with that I’ll turn the call over to Bob for his opening remarks.

Thank you, Kim, and good afternoon, good evening everyone. Q4 highlights, obviously we finished fiscal year 2009 very solid. We had a solid quarter and a solid fiscal year. For the quarter, we generated $58.5 million of free cash flow, we de-levered to 34% debt to total capitalization, we delivered $283 million of revenue, up 6%, 4% in constant currency. Our earnings per share was $0.66 GAAP and $0.67 non-GAAP. This brought our fiscal year 2009 results to a record $1.080 billion in revenue, up 3%, 4% in constant currency, with GAAP earnings per share to $2.21 and non-GAAP which excludes the plant shutdown projects to $2.29. And yes, this was done with accruing bonuses in the fourth quarter of approximately $0.08 per share. In the middle of delivering the solid earnings we generated $129 million of free cash flow, allowing us to de-leverage our balance sheet from debt to cap that began the year at 39% and finished below 34%. The end result is this was a great year at Cooper in what was not the best economy. The key takeaways for the year, yes, we had a solid quarter and a solid fiscal year; we delivered on our objective to gain share in the $6 billion soft contact lens industry; we delivered on our objective to transition to a cash generator from a cash consumer; we delivered on our objective to execute new product rollouts; likewise we delivered on our objective to set the stage for sustained growth going forward, and also to demonstrate that Cooper search goal is a franchise worth investing in. Our new products are driving our growth, our emerging silicone hydrogel portfolio is delivering for the quarter. We had $40 million in silicone hydrogel revenue, up 117% versus the prior year and this brings…

Thank you, Bob. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining our Q4 earnings call. I’d like to start with a few aspects of the balance sheet as I have been doing for the last several quarters. As Bob indicated, in Q4 we generated $78.5 million of operating cash flow and had capital expenditures of $20 million, which resulted in $58.5 million of free cash flow. This was an increase from last quarter’s $56 million and hurdle and interest payment majoring the quarter on our bonds of roughly $12 million. For the fiscal year we generated approximately $129.2 million of free cash flow, of which approximately $123 million was used to reduce total debt to $781.5 million. As an interesting note, our free cash flow per share for the year was $2.84 and we’re quite pleased with that. Total credit availability is approximately $290.4 million and the $650 million revolver is now around $425 million. We decreased the ratio of funded debt to EBITDA from 3.16 in Q3 to 2.93 in Q4. This will result in additional interest savings of 25 basis points for the next quarter, so the revolver will now be at LIBOR plus 100 for the first quarter of this fiscal year. We’re pleased that our cash management strategies that we employed are definitely working, and I would like to reiterate they’re not going to negatively impact the future. We have ample manufacturing capacity in the majority of our product lines, and sufficient distribution capacity for the next several years. Inventories decreased by $22.6 million or 8% from last year, with months on hand at 6.3 compared to 8.1 last year, an excellent job by our supply chain team. Accounts receivable were also closely monitored with DSO’s at 55 days, down from 59 days last year. I’d like…

Operator?

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Michael Weinstein.

The tax rate you’re assuming in the guidance for 2010 if you could clarify that, and then you had such impressive free cash flow in the last six months, why are we not assuming continuations in 2010?

The range of tax and I’ll let Gene correct me if I miss it, I think it’s 14% to 16% in 2010. And is it 15% to 17% on a non-GAAP basis or something like that?

Probably 16% to 18% on non-GAAP.

Relative to cash flow, and cash flow of course we had $129 million of free cash flow this year, we’re targeting a range of $120 to $140 next year. You may recall we initially were targeting close to $150. We took $10 off, which is what it’s going to cost us to complete the shutdowns throughout 2010. And the other thing that happened is we were forecasting in around $100 million of free cash flow, as of September we came in at $129 million of free cash flow for this year. Assume part of that was the impressive reduction of inventory. You only get to take the cash out once so we’re assuming we’re getting some in 2010, but we also got some of what we planned on 2010 we brought forward to 2009. So that’s one of the reasons free cash flow wasn’t as good as it was in fiscal year 2009. So hopefully that answers that question. Next question?

Your next question comes from Jeff Johnson.

Hey, just wondering, Gene, if you could review the bonus accrual absolute dollars in the quarter and maybe go through on gross margin for me, just some of the asset write-downs and [net] the amounts as I look to sequentially build my model here over the next couple quarters.

The total dollars accrued in Q4 after tax was $3.7 million roughly which converts to $0.08. As far as the charges, you want a summary of this year’s gross margin, Jeff, or?

Yes. Let’s assume that the charges we’re talking about 2009.

Okay. So in the quarter, CooperVision had roughly 1.3% of the margin for inventory write-offs, roughly 0.9% on asset write-offs, idle plant of 0.7%, accelerated depreciation of 0.2% and manufacturing restructuring roughly of 0.5%. And then CooperSurgical had roughly a 3% write-off of margin for inventory, had product recall of 1.4% and accelerated depreciation of 0.8%.

Your next question comes from Larry Biegelsen.

On the asset writedowns in the fourth quarter those were not dollar amounts, right? And could you give us the dollar amounts on what you expect going forward so we can build our model that way, please?

Asset write-offs roughly $2.3 million for CooperVision and that’s it. There was none at CooperSurgical.

As far as going forward?

Going forward I would expect it would decrease fairly significantly from this year. We did some very intensive wall to wall asset inventory analysis, identified that equipment that’s going to be obsoleted for new technology and so forth. So it should drop off fairly significantly next quarter.

And we’re looking for a range next year of 58% to 60% and obviously one of the key drivers is we will still have some idle equipment next year because we’re under utilizing the plants as we continue to manage down inventory. We’ll have less headwind from currency and then you’re correct that we had some activity the last two quarters, the third quarter and the fourth quarter, relative to some equipment write-offs and to a lesser extent inventory write-offs. So that all translates to improving trends next year and we’ll move into the 58% to 60% range overall.

Your next question comes from Steve Willoughby.

I’m just wondering if you can give us an update on two things. One, when do you expect to restart the Avaira production lines? And then two, and I’m sorry if I missed it, but when do you expect to launch both the Biofinity multi-focal and the Avaira toric?

Okay, the activity of the Avaira production line, at this juncture we are expecting some time the first high volume piece of equipment will be put into production sometime later in 2010. We’re having very good success with ramping up our what we call fast track, which is proving to be a very supportive and robust production effort. So that has actually helped us delay any need for reactivating the high volume line early in the year. As far as Biofinity multi-focal we plan on launching both Biofinity multi-focal and Avaira toric in the first half of calendar year 2010. There’s been no change in that target event if you will by mid-year.

Your next question comes from Larry Keusch.

Just two things to touch on, the restructuring charges that you took in the quarter associated with Norfolk, I think you had been anticipating that would be closer to $7.5 million and you guys did under $1 million, so if you could just speak to the timing of that restructuring effort. And then the second part of the question is as you think about gross margin on a go forward basis, and you talked about the period costs, should we assume that the second half will really see the step up towards that 58% range, that 60% range that you’re looking for or is it more a steady increase through the year?

Okay, I’ll take the restructuring costs that Norfolk as far as the timing, it purely is timing. We’re not per se behind schedule in any of the transfers to either Puerto Rico or to the UK. And then I guess there’s a third piece which is some of our warehouse effort going to Rochester, which is a much smaller part. So we’re really talking more about the timing of the accounting for that activity. There has been no change in estimate. The aggregate amount over the two year period is still $25 million all up. So yes, it was a close call on when does that $7.5 million hit, but it’s still going to show up both by way of idle equipment, most of it was not idle but shortening the life, the utilization of the equipment and it was actual termination payments at the end of when we’re done with the needs for certain groups. As far as gross margin trends, I would assume yes we will pick up and be improving our gross margins throughout the year, so that we would expect to finish and have a stronger gross margin towards the latter part than in the earlier part of the year as we improve efficiency and continue to reduce our headcount.

Your next question comes from Chris Cooley.

When you think about your free cash flow target for next year your goal is between $120 to $140, would you characterize for us whether the balance sheet is assumed to be a source of cash or a use of cash or neutral and maybe some color around that? I mean if I could just quickly for clarification, the guidance for fiscal 2010 it assumes only the restructuring charge from the manufacturing program, no other incremental charges in that number on the adjusted EPS number of $2.45 plus.

Yes, Chris, the only assumption in 2010 is the announced shutdown. No other activity is included in our guidance, the $0.28 I believe it was in guidance. As far as what are the drivers that will assist the $120 to $140 million of free cash flow next year, we’re assuming we’ll probably get another upwards, and Al or Gene correct me if I’m wrong, in the $15 to $20 million range of cash out of the balance sheet, inventory in particular. We already have a good ratio of days sales outstanding so its not that. Our implicit assumption is that we will stay below $100 million in capital expenditures next year and beyond.

Your next question comes from [Josh Jennings] for Peter Bye. [Josh Jennings] for Peter Bye: So just a quick one on Europe and you showed solid growth there, and if you can just give us some color on what you’re seeing there in that region. And then also if you have any insight into some of the latest efforts by CIBA for injunction hearings in Europe, and whether there’s been any impact on the distribution channel due to litigation if at all.

Yes, you’re absolutely right. Europe has proved to be a pleasant surprise this year, just like Asia Pac has been a disappointment I think from a global perspective. But what’s driving Europe is very much Eastern Europe, which has taken off and several countries to and including Poland. And we don’t see that slowing up. Its been pretty sustaining and we’re happy with the progress we made individually in that marketplace. As far as activity in Europe, you may recall that J & J actually won and beat CIBA in the UK. So that’s the one wrinkle throughout Europe where the shoe is on the other foot. And that’s actually one of the wrinkles in terms of any potential for a global settlement. As far as the activity in the rest of Europe, France and Belgium where injunctions are in place, I’m not aware of any major developments the last three months. And in Germany where we expected there was a possibility that J & J might do well, it’s going slower than we anticipated. So at this juncture there’s been no major development in Germany likewise. As far as the implications of the injunctions on Cooper and the field, we did have some noticeable impact initially in Belgium when the injunctions took place. There has been no noticeable impact in France because there was a substantial pipeline fill in anticipation of the injunction by [Visicon] and there was also in the case of France other avenues for certain large chains to access inventory. That has not been shut down at this juncture.

Your next question comes from Amit Bhalla.

Can you quantify what type of benefit you’ll see in the gross margin from the Norfolk headcount reductions versus the base business performance? And when those benefits might hit? And then secondly, can you just give us a sense of what the CapEx requirements are for the Biofinity multi-focal and Avaira toric launches?

The improvement that will show up in 2011, because first we’ll move into inventory before it gets to the P&L, will be ballpark around $15 million, which will be about 1.5% in total. And that will start phasing in. We’ll start seeing some of the benefit in late 2010 and it will accelerate throughout the first quarter of 2011. Capital requirements for Biofinity multi-focal, we have on order more lines of the Biofinity equipment and there are 12 month lead times so we’re expecting that we will probably order another couple of lines throughout this year, bringing our total line count, you may recall we started off with ten lines that can do any of the spheres, the torics or the multi-focals. We then eliminated two of the ten lines bringing it to eight. We then bought one more bringing it back up to nine and we have already on order one more. That will bring it to ten in 2010. As far as the Avaira toric is concerned, that is not an expensive capital project in that we are converting existing toric manufacturing equipment in Puerto Rico onto that platform so it’s more conversion than it is buying strictly new equipment. I’m simplifying that a little bit, but by and large it’s not capital cash intense.

There are no further questions at this time.

Then if there are not, I want to thank everyone for participating in today’s call and with that we’ll be communicating to you our next conference date. I don’t know if we have that yet. We will certainly be communicating that out in the future though. Thank you again. Good night.

Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.