Earnings Labs

Graphic Packaging Holding Company (GPK)

Q1 2010 Earnings Call· Thu, May 6, 2010

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Graphic Packaging first quarter 2010 earnings conference call. After the speakers’ remarks there will be a question and answer session. (Operator Instructions) Now, I would like to turn today’s call over to Mr. Brad Ankerholz.

Brad Ankerholz

Management

Welcome to the Graphic Packaging Holding Company’s first quarter 2010 earnings call. Commenting on results this morning are David Scheible, the company’s President and CEO and Dan Blount, Senior Vice President and CFO. I would like to remind everyone that statements of our expectations in this call constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements including but not limited to statements related to product price reductions, movement in raw material and commodity prices and the expected effect on the company’s results, cost reduction benefit, capital expenditures, cash pension and contribution and pension expense, appreciation and amortization, interest expense and net debt reduction are based on currently available information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company’s present expectations. This risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the company’s substantial amount of debt, inflation of and volatility in raw materials and energy costs, volatility in the credit and securities markets, cut backs in consumer spending that could affect demand for the company’s products, continuing pressure for lower cost products and the company’s ability to implement business strategies including productivity initiatives and cost reduction plans. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements as such statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements. Additional information regarding these and other risks is contained in the company’s periodic filings with the SEC. David, I’ll turn it over to you now.

David W. Scheible

Management

We are pleased with our first quarter results. Our margins continued to improve and it was very encouraging to see some demand improvement across our business as tons sold increased both sequentially and versus the prior year period in all three of our segments. Execution on our cost reduction plans and improving operating efficiencies in both the mills and converting plants contributed significantly to continued earnings growth. When comparing to last year’s first quarter adjusted net earnings per share improved to $0.04 a share from a loss of $0.04 a share in 2009. Adjusted EBITDA increased more than 11% to $145 million and our adjusted EBTIDA margin increased roughly 170 basis points to 14.4%. We also ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio under 5.6 and believe we are in excellent position to continue reducing our debt levels this year. Although volumes increased, sales in our core paperboard packaging segment declined a modest .7% versus the prior year quarter. The decrease in net sales was primarily driven by lower pricing from contractual pass throughs related to raw material deflation that we experienced in 2009. Paperboard packaging demand for both CUK and CRB strengthened during the quarter. In total, volumes in this segment increased 1.7% over the prior year quarter. We produce approximately 2.3 million tons of paperboard every year and our mills ran full in the first quarter with operating rates in the mid to upper 90s. We saw order activity in the quarter as both CUK and CRB backlogs are currently a full week longer than a year ago. Performance at the mills was excellent in the quarter through a series of ongoing improvement initiatives we continue to reduce [rate] to grade cycle times and increase trim roll utilization at our mills. The result was record levels of…

Daniel J. Blount

Management

As David indicated, we are pleased with our first quarter results which continue to show year-over-year margin improvement and position us well to achieve the full year targets that we shared during our last call. Now, I will turn to the first quarter financials for more detail. First, we will discuss revenue and EBITDA performance then move to cash flow, leverage and liquidity. As a reminder, when I refer to EBITDA and EBITDA margin in my discussion I am referring to adjusted numbers. These adjustments are detailed in attachments to our earnings release which is posted on our website. They principally relate to the non-recurring charges incurred during the integration of Altivity and the refundable alternative fuel tax credit that expired in 2009. Both current year and prior year EBITDA results are adjusted to produce comparable financial reporting. We will continue to see integration charges through mid year but the level will decline meaningfully in the back half of the year as the integration efforts are substantially complete. Starting with net revenues, we see that total volumes increased 2% over the prior year while as a result of lower pricing overall sales declined 1.5% to $1,004,000,000 in the first quarter. The $15 million decline in sales breaks down as follows. First, $8 million increase from stronger volumes in all three reporting segments. Volumes in the paperboard packaging segment grew 1.7% and multi-wall back and specialty packaging grew by a combined 4.6% over the prior year. Second, a $21 million decline from lower pricing. The lower pricing results principally from deflationary adjustments related to lower raw material costs in 2009. Because the majority of the raw material deflation occurred in the first half of 2009, we expect the year-over-year price delta in the second quarter to be in the same range…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co. Ian Zaffino – Oppenheimer & Co.: You mentioned some of the cost reductions, can you just get a little bit deeper in to that exactly what are you going to be doing, when do you think we’ll start to see the realization of that? Then the other question would be as far as the growth prospects I know we talked about really secular trend away from plastics in to paper and I think in particularly some beverage containers. Can you give us an update on that initiative to?

David W. Scheible

Management

Let me try the first question. What Dan said was that in the first quarter we saw roughly $39 million worth of year-on-year cost improvement in the business. So what I would say is we are seeing the impact of the synergies and continuous improvement process both in the mills and in the carton plants. We’re offering a lot less carton plants this year than we did last year and we’re a lot more efficient in the mills so we would expect that level of performance to continue for 2010. That’s sort of where we are in the cost reduction. On the trend in cartons, yes we’ve seen a good substitution for solid fiber in to corrugated as well as in to some plastics. There are some new products being introduced by a number of our customers [inaudible] in the east coast introduced what we call a cap it product which replaces the [hi-cone] rings that traditionally hold bottles together and we believe there is clearly a significant expansion of that opportunity in the carbonated soft drink arena as well. During the quarter, we also had a number of applications where in club stores where our customers are using our Z-Flute laminated structures to replace corrugated packaging in the process and that honestly helped drive the year-on-year volume demand in board that we sold either internally or externally.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Mark Kaufman – Rafferty Capital Markets. Mark Kaufman – Rafferty Capital Markets: I wonder if you could comment a little more on the Altivity merger expenses in the quarter and what you see going forward for the rest of the year on that line?

Daniel J. Blount

Management

I think the non-recurring charges in the quarter were just over $8 million. Firstly, what that is related to is the remaining costs for the plant closures. We have two plants that we announced in 2009 that we are closing in 2010 so a lot of that cost relates to that. Additionally, we have some other activities that we’re going to have some non-recurring charges on in the second quarter and so I think you’re going to see a number in that type of magnitude for the second quarter and then for the third and fourth quarter it should very dramatically taper off. We’ve completed most of the integration activities and you’re just seeing some of the cost roll through based on the accounting rules. Mark Kaufman – Rafferty Capital Markets: I have one follow on question, any idea what your reported tax rates are going to be for the back half of the year or I should say for the next three quarters? Any type of range? I know you’re not paying any taxes to any great degree.

Daniel J. Blount

Management

What you’re seeing flow through the quarters is pretty much the amortization of goodwill and the way it flows through the tax line. It’s a non-cash item so you’re going to pretty much see that item appear every single quarter at the same magnitude.

Operator

Operator

At this time there are no further questions. I’d like to turn it back over to Mr. Ankerholz for any closing remarks.

Brad Ankerholz

Management

We appreciate the call and we’ll get back to work here and talk to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.