Earnings Labs

Huntsman Corporation (HUN)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 29, 2015

$14.09

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Second Quarter 2015 Huntsman Corporation Earnings Conference Call. My name is Denise, and I will be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Kurt Ogden, Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Please proceed, sir.

Kurt D. Ogden - Vice President, Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, Denise, and good morning, everyone. Joining us on the call today are Jon Huntsman, our Founder and Executive Chairman; Peter Huntsman, President and CEO; and Kimo Esplin, Executive Vice President and CFO. This morning, before the market opened, we released our earnings for the second quarter via press release and posted it on our website, huntsman.com. We also posted a set of slides on our website, which we intend to use on the call this morning in the discussion of our results. During this call, we may make statements about our projections or expectations for the future. All such statements are forward-looking statements and while they reflect our current expectations, they involve risks and uncertainties, and are non-guarantees of future performance. You should review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information regarding the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these projections or expectations. We do not plan on publicly updating or revising any forward-looking statements during the quarter. In addition, we will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income or loss. You can find reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings release, which has been posted on our website at huntsman.com. We have chosen to include certain comparisons of our results to prior periods on a pro forma basis, adjusted to include the acquisition of the Performance Additives and Titanium Dioxide businesses of Rockwood Holdings and the related sale of our TR52 product line, used in printing inks, to Henan Billions Chemicals. We believe this helps to provide a better understanding of our Pigments and Additives division. In our earnings release this morning, we reported second quarter 2015 revenue of $2.740 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $385 million,…

Kurt D. Ogden - Vice President, Investor Relations

Operator

Thanks, Peter. Denise, will you please explain the procedure for questions – for Q&A, and then open the line for questions?

Operator

Operator

Sure. Our first question comes from Rob Koort with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed. Robert Andrew Koort - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thanks very much. Appreciate the bridge you provided on slide 8. I was wondering, Kimo, if you could give us a little more granularity on that price-cost benefit, how it's distributed across the segments. And you showed sequentially that it helped a little bit in the first to second quarter. Do you think you're at the end of those raw material benefits as you go into the third and fourth quarters sequentially? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: We should enjoy the same level of margin expansion in the third quarter or similar that we did in the second quarter. In other words, I think we're holding price where we're going to hold price. And I think if there was a delay to our customers, it's gone and we passed through. So, I think we're at a pretty stable level in terms of margin expansion relative to last year. Robert Andrew Koort - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay. And then, Peter, you made the comments around your stock price and valuation. I'm wondering if you shouldn't just call yourself a commodity chemical company because it appears they all have higher multiples. So, some reason the market doesn't want to give you credit for anything you're doing. Do you think it really comes down to the biggest concern I hear from people is that the debt balance doesn't seem to decline and the cash flow generation always seems just out of reach? Can you talk a little bit about how you see that cash flow generation or net debt level trending over the next several quarters? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer &…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mike Ritzenthaler with Piper Jaffray. Please proceed. Mike Ritzenthaler - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Morning. If we could take a step back and maybe take a fresh look at the path of $2 billion in EBITDA, I'd be curious about your thoughts around a couple of things, Peter. I guess first, the impact of currency rates on the goal. It sounds like that might be kind of a $200 million-ish headwind. And I guess secondly on that, whether you see Performance Products and Advanced Materials may be over earning a bit versus that goal? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, I mean, when we set that goal, we did that. Now, it's been just over a year ago. And I think that, as we look at the major changes of this last year, certainly, what we did not see when we put that goal, and I'm not sure anybody saw it, was the impact of currency fluctuation. And I also don't think that anybody would have foreseen a year ago when we saw crude oil prices were at around 100-plus dollars a barrel, where we see crude oil today. So, on one hand, we certainly have been hit by the FX impact of probably around $100 million a year. I would think on the other side that we ought to have seen some sort of (23:05-23:06) at least on a short-term basis of lower raw materials. But look, at the end of the day, the FX impact is going to be longer term for us, and we just got to suck it up and be more aggressive. And as I look at what we originally committed to the market around our Textile Effect, our Advanced Materials, and our Performance…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from James Sheehan with SunTrust. Please proceed.

James Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust. Please proceed

Thanks for taking my question. Peter, could you just give us your outlook for MDI operating rates in the second half of the year and where are those currently taking those by geographic region? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, again, I think that that's always a tough one. I mean, I assume that you're asking how it is from our company's point of view, not the industry. The industry is always a tough one when you see certain facilities that are coming online that are 400,000 tons, 500,000 tons, 600,000 tons. How – what rate and what capacity utilization, so forth, our competitors are able to achieve? At this present time, I'm really not certain of that; nor do I want to speculate on that. I do kind of get a feel, though, that certainly the markets are tighter in Europe and North America than they are in Asia. Asia has seen the impact in the first and second quarter of a lot of capacity coming on stream. I would say that today, as we look at it, that the Asian markets are probably operating in somewhere in the mid – perhaps even little bit lower than that, 80%, the mid-80% capacity utilization. In Europe, you're probably seeing something just shy of 90%, the high 80%. And in the U.S., you're probably seeing something in the low 90s. Again, as you're getting back to the previous comments that I made, as you look at the more commoditized end of that, I think that you're probably seeing a wider variation from the polymeric commoditized side of the MDI chain. That's the part – that's a grade that I can export around the world. I can move it around the world and so forth. In the more downstream derivatized side, which has a limited shelf life, it's expensive to move around the world. And so, when you look at these capacity utilizations, it's important to note that there's also a large section of the MDI business that really is regional. And it's kind of tough to be moving those products around the world.

James Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust. Please proceed

Great. And also on TiO2, you got some synergies occurring. Could you just give us some color on the cadence of your capturing of those synergies in the second half? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Sure. So, we said $75 million for the year. We captured roughly $20 million in the first half. We'll get the $55 million in the second half.

James Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust. Please proceed

Thank you very much. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from P.J. Juvekar with Citi. Please proceed.

Eric B. Petrie - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed

Morning. This is Eric Petrie on for P.J. J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Eric.

Eric B. Petrie - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed

Could you give us an update on your TiO2 utilization and then your inventory levels? And then secondly, are you seeing more competitively priced Chinese volumes in Europe? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: As I look around right – at the industry right now, a quarter ago, we reported inventory rates were up at around 63, 64 days in the first quarter. And right now, we're seeing inventory rates probably around the mid-40 days, 45, 46, 47 days of inventory, which is a little bit lower than I would have expected a quarter ago. As we look at the global price on TiO2 pigments, frankly, we're not seeing a lot of imports coming in from Asia into the European market. And those imports – the amount of those imports today are really quite low. And so, as we look at the amount of imports today, a matter of fact, I'm just looking at a chart here, you go back like two years and it's the lowest it's been over the last couple of years here. And so, it's – I don't think that Asian pricing of TiO2, in my opinion, really affects global markets that well. And if I – if you look at Asia and exports out of Asia going into North America, Latin America, Europe, that really hasn't grown much in the last year or two. It's been very flat. Most of the Asian business that leaves China goes and stays within the Asian market. So, not seeing a great deal of product coming into the European market from North America or Asia. J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think just to comment on price, I think what's happened is I think what we've been calling for a couple of quarters now, with the weakening U.S. dollar, European U.S. dollar prices are – excuse me, the strengthening of the U.S. dollar – U.S. dollar prices in Europe are significantly lower than dollar prices in the U.S. (32:15). And I think we said at the end of the first quarter that differential was sort of the highest it's even been. And the only thing that could happen would be that European prices had to go up, or likely, U.S. prices would come down. And we've seen U.S. prices come down. Prices in euros in Europe are fairly flat. So, in terms of global pricing, you're seeing U.S. prices fall to something closer to a historical differential between U.S. and European dollar prices.

Eric B. Petrie - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed

Great color. And then, did you touch on utilization? And then, secondly, in MDI, you noted slowing demand in China. How do you see second half playing out? And then, remind us what your polymeric versus downstream systems exposure is in the region. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. On TiO2, our capacity utilization rate for us is 86%, 87% capacity utilization. I wouldn't care to speculate what's going on in the rest of the world. I just -it's not published in – I'd just be speculating at this point. What was the other part of your question?

Eric B. Petrie - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed

The second part was regarding MDI demand in China, you saw slowing this quarter. How do you see second half playing out? And then, what is your crude polymeric versus downstream systems exposure in the region? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Crude polymeric versus downstream, I'm not sure that we publicly have ever broken that sort of granularity out. What we've said is globally, we're roughly 70% differentiated sort of through systems and what we call variance. And that certainly would be higher in Europe and the U.S. than it would be in China and Asia just because those are two more mature economies, as far as the downstream utilization. And between Europe and the Americas, just to remind you, that's 75% of our overall volume, with 25% going in – and not just in China, but the entire Asian region. But as it relates to sort of our mix of business in China and Asia, obviously insulation; it's 40% of our total business. It's well represented in Asia. And in the last couple of quarters, we've seen that building and construction segment soft and we would expect that to continue be soft in the second half. That's a system business. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: If we look at the order patterns – the most recent order patterns that we're seeing internally, I don't see things getting worse in China. But again, that's – I mean, that's kind of on the ground order patterns that we're seeing today. I don't see (35:09) things getting worse. I'm not going to say I see things screaming up through the roof or anything, but I remain – personally, I remain cautiously optimistic. By and large, the Chinese economy is something that longer term we believe in. It's going to continue to have heavy investments in infrastructure and the domestic economy and so forth. And you obviously are going to see some growing pains with stock market and so forth. But by and large, as we look at over the next couple of years, it's going to be a great market for us.

Eric B. Petrie - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Roberts with UBS. Please proceed.

John E. Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

Thank you. Given the TiO2 industry has weakened further, do you think you could participate in additional consolidation? Or have you already bitten off as much consolidation as you can and it's somebody else's turn? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I would just say that as we look at the separation of our TiO2 business, we've publicly said that it's our goal to see that separation occur in an IPO fashion by the end of 2016. Obviously, if something were to occur before then that would allow us to be part of a consolidation play that would create value for our shareholders and be in the best interest of our shareholders before that time period, of course, we'd be open to that. But at this point, I wouldn't want to comment any further on that. J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Any – let me just say that any consolidation opportunity would be in combining with another player and we would not be a cash acquirer of the other business. It would be a reduction of our interest in TiO2. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Fair to say.

John E. Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

And then the Solvay transaction with Cytec today might suggest your Advanced Materials segment could fit with a large number of plastic firms. Instead of separating the most commodity business, have you thought about maybe separating the most specialty? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, at 15 times EBITDA, that does sound interesting, doesn't it? 40% of our Advanced Materials business goes into composites, so they are – there's the Cytec, Hexcel, Toray kind of customer base. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I would just say that again, I don't want to get into speculation and so forth, but I think that this company has demonstrated in the past and we continue to demonstrate that our first and foremost objective aside from running safe operations is creating shareholder value. And obviously, if we saw something that was going to be a benefit to our shareholders and to our company, we're obviously going to be pursuing it.

John E. Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

Okay. Thank you. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Ivan Marcuse with KeyBanc. Please proceed.

Ivan M. Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please proceed

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. You mentioned that you saw a weakness in North America. Do you believe that was weather-related or do you see it as something changing in the industry? And what's sort of your outlook for, I guess, North American construction as it goes for MDI? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I think part of that may have been weather-related in the earlier part of the quarter here. I continue to believe that the U.S. is going to be a sound and growing economy. And again, as we look out over the next couple of quarters and so forth, I think we'll remain bullish on it. J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think folks forget, for our North American business in polyurethanes, while we have a big insulation business, that in the U.S. it's largely commercial insulation, and that's where we saw the disappointment, is in commercial insulation. We do see a strong and growing residential spray foam business in insulation, but still largely a commercial weight in the U.S.

Ivan M. Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please proceed

Okay. And then as a follow-up too, you mentioned that you expect the EBITDA in the second half to be better than the first half. If I do the quick math, it looks like you did $670 million, but that would include around $90 million to $100 million or so of outages, et cetera. So if you look at the second half, is it the way to think about it is that you'll do $800 million in EBITDA plus or is there other moving parts that I need to think about? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I think as I look at the EBITDAs and what we actually generated, including the T&I expenses, typically our fourth quarter on a seasonal basis, like all companies, would be slowing down a bit. And as I would get business conditions in the second half versus the first half, I don't see any raw material change.

Ivan M. Marcuse - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please proceed

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Please proceed.

Daniel Rizzo - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed

Hi. This is Dan Rizzo in for Laurence. Just given that the recent changes, just wondering update on just thinking around the urgency for deconsolidating the Pigment business, has anything changed or what are your thoughts on that? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think when we talk about recent changes and so forth, when it comes to a separation of the business and we've only talked publicly about potential IPO and did say early on the call that there might be other options out there. And I'm not going to go down discuss any detail in those areas. As we look at an IPO, we've also said that we kind of need three things that we think will make for a successful IPO. That would be, we need to be well into our cost improvement program. We need to see a broader economic condition where an IPO would be conducive to the overall – the timing is right from a stock market point of view. And also that there is some visibility going forward in Pigments to where somebody can see a reason to buy the stock in the growth and earnings. And just because you have an IPO doesn't mean – you have the ability to do an IPO doesn't mean that's the right time to do an IPO. So, again as we look, as we said a year ago, looking at the third quarter of this next year, I think that when we start to look at the pricing and the market trends and so forth, our cost reduction, I think that that's something that we still feel very confident about and short of something more attractive coming between now and then. That's something that we remain focused on.

Daniel Rizzo - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed

Okay. Thank you for the color. And then you flagged I think $100 million in pension expense I think for 2015. In 2016, how should we think about the cash flow bridge in terms of pension contributions and potentially planned outages because I think you said restructuring is winding down? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. Pension is really – of course, can be a function of interest rates. But we have said 2017 would be $75 million, and so I think it'll be somewhere between $100 million in 2015 and $75 million in 2017.

Daniel Rizzo - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Frank Mitsch with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please proceed

Hey. Good morning, gentlemen and nice results. Hey, Peter, on the timing of the IPO, just a word of advice, please avoid the summer because this year and the last couple of years have been absolutely brutal and I'm lobbying for my boss to take the next summer off because this is too much to handle. I hear you on the share price. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Frank, I'll make sure that our board take all of your personal needs into consideration.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please proceed

Thank you. Volumes are down 10% on a total company basis, but down 2% on a pro forma basis. I believe I heard you say or keep on saying that volumes are up 8% in Europe. Can you give us a tour of the world and talk about what volumes are going on a pro forma basis? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. I think that as we look on a global basis, we see volumes in the U.S. and Canada, again this is kind of all of the business together, up about 7%; Europe, up about 8%; Asia Pacific, flat; and the rest of the world down 20-ish percent. And a big chunk of that obviously is the PO/MTBE on the rest of the world. So, we export our PO/MTBE volumes, which are 1.3 billion pounds annually. Virtually all of that goes into the Latin America and rest of the world markets for us. So, that's where we saw obviously the biggest change. But again, when you look at Europe and the U.S., strong single-digit growth certainly in excess of the GDP in those respective regions, and that trough is the bread and butter of our business.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please proceed

Wow, interesting. Would you care to offer some sense as to where you think Q3 is starting out in terms of volumes, mid-single digits, low-single digits in terms of volumes? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think as we look at Q3, we're seeing a very similar quarter to what we saw in Q2. I think that we'll see some benefits obviously coming from our cost reduction that will be taking place in our Pigments and Additives and at the same time, we're going to see some of that offset by lower pricing and so forth. Foreign currency, again that's a tough one to speculate, but as we look at where FX is today, I think that that's probably going to be something pretty similar to what we saw in the second quarter. As Kimo said, it'll probably be a little bit less than that. And I would expect to see year-on-year growth in Performance Products, Advanced Materials, and so forth and Textile Effects. So as I look at overall, we had a very strong quarter in Q2 and I would assume that Q3 will look very much like that.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please proceed

Terrific. Thank you so much. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Hassan Ahmed with Alembic Global. Please proceed.

Kurt D. Ogden - Vice President, Investor Relations

Operator

Hello, Hassan? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hassan?

Operator

Operator

Hassan, your line is open. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: (46:27).

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Edlain Rodriguez with UBS. Please proceed.

Edlain Rodriguez - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

Thank you. Good morning, guys. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning.

Edlain Rodriguez - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

Quick question, Peter. You talked about the portfolio shifting and so forth. Now that the Textile business has stabilized somewhat and you've gone through all the restructurings, do you think this still belongs to the portfolio or does is it belong with somebody else? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I still think that there certainly is upside in Textile Effects and I said a year ago that this business in the next year or so, but did not hit double-digit return on asset and EBITDA margins that this will be a candidate for divestiture this last quarter. It hit those thresholds and so forth, and I see the Textile Effects business is being one of our intricate and core businesses. So, yeah. And look, let me just be 100% honest as well. If we were looking to do something with the divesture or something, I'm not sure that this would be the place in which I'd be saying we're making an announcement this business is on the block or something. I have said earlier that we will continue to look at various parts and pieces of our business and evaluate how they are able to bring shareholder value to our company. Textile Effects is certainly one of those. But right now, as we look at the business, certainly, we've seen an improvement in the business because of cost restructuring. I think that we have a very robust product pipeline of new products, growth opportunities. We'll see better than GDP. I think we'll see better growth in that business in our earnings relative to our peers. If I believe for a minute that we didn't have further upside in any of our businesses of either new products or opportunities to expand markets and so forth, I would immediately recommend to our board of directors that that business probably would be more valuable with somebody else.

Edlain Rodriguez - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

That makes sense. Another quick one just a clarification on Performance Products. And I think you've talked about one key risk is being like lower oil prices, but at the same time, you talked about a lot of the products have passed through mechanizing them. So how do you reconcile those two? I mean, why would be there an impact on lower oil prices if you can pass through your cost up or down? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, what we tried to do in that business and some of the very volatile ends of that business that involved our ethylene glycol and some of our intermediates. We want to make sure that we eliminate the volatility of those markets. And so many of those products, not all of them, but many of the products, we've sold them on long-term pulling basis. So we think that will take quite a bit of the pulling out of – we have presently about 60% of our ethylene glycol is filled on a longer-term contractual basis that will involve a pulling element in that number. Again, I think that takes a lot of the volatility out of the earnings of the businesses. The lower oil prices will be a benefit to the vast majority of our Performance Products downstream businesses because it means a lower raw material for those businesses. And because of the tightness in capacity utilization, we have an opportunity to capture that. On the other hand, we do have some of our surfactant products and some of our gas treating products and so forth that are used in the drilling and enhanced oil recovery. We have seen lower demand in some of those areas, but at this point, that's more than been offset by growth that we've seen in other areas of amines and surfactants and the benefit that we've seen in lower raw material prices. So, I know it all sounds a bit convoluted, but at the end of the day, that's the division, in my opinion, that certainly benefits from lower raw material prices, by and large.

Edlain Rodriguez - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed

Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We now have Hassan Ahmed back on the line. Please proceed, sir.

Hassan I. Ahmed - Alembic Global Advisors LLC

Analyst

The alarm clock went off, Peter. Morning. How are you doing? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Hassan. Good to hear from you.

Hassan I. Ahmed - Alembic Global Advisors LLC

Analyst

Sorry about earlier. I actually stupidly rather than hitting the unmute button, hit the hang up button. So, anyway, question around TiO2 supply. Obviously, a couple of moving parts. As we look at 2016, we have – Kimo was talking about the Mexico facility coming online, but also saying that they'll take an equivalent amount of capacity offline. And then we've obviously, through the course of Q2, seen some consolidation in China. So what's your view about TiO2 supply as we look into 2016? And just sort of correlate supply/demand fundamentals in the near to medium term. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, Hassan, I have successfully called the bottom of the market in TiO2 correct about I think for the past three consecutive quarters.

Hassan I. Ahmed - Alembic Global Advisors LLC

Analyst

Right. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And so while I'm hesitant to do that again, I do look at the number of producers that are operating, including Huntsman, in our more commoditized products below cash cost. I look at the slowdown of exports, the uncompetitiveness of exports, and in these conditions today, this is not something that is sustainable going forward simply on the basis that producers can't afford to stay in business if you're paying people to take your product. So as I look at the industry conditions, I know I sound like a broken record on this, but as you look at industry conditions typically and again, I'm talking about the more commoditized side of TiO2. Typically the further and the longer the downcycle occurs in any commodity, the more volatile and the more rapid the improvement will take place. And I'm not sure that that's necessarily going to happen in TiO2. I'm careful to avoid speculating on what competitors may do or why they'd be bringing on additional unnecessary capacity in the industry that's already oversupplied but that's for them to work out. As I look at the overall pricing and the overall margin, this industry is in need of improvement, and I don't think that the customer base of TiO2 is longer term served well by this because it does longer term add volatility and it has less investment into their supply platform. So, I guess, Hassan, what I'm trying to say more than anything else is I look at the margins where they are today and I really struggle to see how they can go materially lower than where they are, particularly in Europe. And I think you'll see continued weakening in pricing over the next course or so in North America as that gets in line with what we're seeing in Europe and Asia. But in longer term, I feel quite confident that as you look out over the next couple of quarters in the year and so forth that we will see margin improvement taking place.

Hassan I. Ahmed - Alembic Global Advisors LLC

Analyst

Fair enough. And changing gears a bit, moving to the MDI side of things, obviously, we have what was supposed to be a Bayer MaterialScience's IPO in the first half of next year. It seems that they're talking about sort of accelerating that and doing it later this year. Obviously, there'll be some valuation ramification associated with that in terms of people trying to assess how to value your Polyurethanes business. But beyond that, in your mind, would there be any market ramifications? Meaning, as a pure play sort of polyurethanes company, would you expect the market to become a bit more rational? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I've always and I'm not going to speculate on a particular play or even product and what that competitively might mean, but I think I've said in past calls that transparency and accountability in any business is healthy for that business. And when a large conglomerate is able to take a division and fold it under another group and another division, I'm not sure how much market transparency and how much accountability is there. When something is brought out and a division has to go through the quarterly spotlighting that we're going through right now when people have to account for margins and expansion, the CapEx and so forth, while it might be a hassle to go through for a company, I think it's a very healthy process to go through and it holds management accountable. And I think that when you look at the recent spin-offs you've seen in some of the competing products that we have, I think by and large it's a very positive thing for the industry. I think that it brings accountability and it brings discipline.

Hassan I. Ahmed - Alembic Global Advisors LLC

Analyst

Very helpful, Peter. Thanks so much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Herbert Hardt with Monness. Please proceed. Herbert A. Hardt - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc.: Good morning. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning. Herbert A. Hardt - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc.: Given the relative lack of success of two of your competitors and TiO2 coming public in the last year, year-and-a-half, has there been any rethinking of taking your TiO2 operation public and trying to do something creative in a different way? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: I don't know. I don't believe so. I think that when we look at those two spin-offs and the timing of the spin-offs and the very structures of the spin-off, I think each of them were unique for the reasons, their timing and the structures, and what liabilities may or may not be with them and so forth. I think that as we look at what we're focused on, what we can control, I think that when we look at the combination of Rockwood, Huntsman businesses, the diversity of technologies and the product ranges from color through to white pigments in TiO2, when we look at the ability to further consolidate in the industry to further enhance our cost competitiveness and so forth, I think that when we take this public, I think it'll be an attractive asset and I think that it'll be a great story to tell in the market. So, I can't speculate and I can't comment on what competitors have done with their divisions but, no, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't continue to proceed forward as aggressively as possible. Herbert A. Hardt - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc.: Thank you for that. But the other question then is when you look at what you paid for the acquisition plus the amount of money that's gone into restructuring, can you give us some idea what the total cost has been? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So roughly $1 billion cash, $200 million of pension purchase price. We think EBITDA in that business this year 2015 will be similar to last year, call it $170 million roughly. So we own the business on a cash basis at purchase, call it, 4.5 times. We're going to add $200 million worth of value in terms of synergies and we'll put $200 million of cash into it. So, in terms of restructuring – so call it $1.2 billion of cash and we think we're going to have a business that will, on a pro forma basis with restructuring benefits, call it, $250 million. So, we think we have an accretive acquisition even at this sort of trough level. Herbert A. Hardt - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc.: Okay. Thank you very much.

Kurt D. Ogden - Vice President, Investor Relations

Operator

Denise, this is Kurt. We're at the top of the hour. I believe we have time for two more questions.

Operator

Operator

Perfect. Our next question comes from Christopher Perrella with Bloomberg Intelligence. Please proceed.

Christopher Silvio Perrella - Bloomberg LP

Analyst · Bloomberg Intelligence. Please proceed

Thank you for taking my question. Peter, could you give a little bit more color on the European volume growth? Was that auto-led construction? What's sort of the mix that's driving growth in the region? Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Oh, I think that it's construction. I think that it's automotive. I think its aero – well, I don't think. Just looking at the numbers, it's aerospace, it's automotive, it's construction, it's growth coming from the Eastern European side in footwear and so forth. Basically, it's installation. As we look across the board, I think that we're seeing a market for us that's growing and is stable.

Christopher Silvio Perrella - Bloomberg LP

Analyst · Bloomberg Intelligence. Please proceed

All right. Thank you very much. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the Bob Amenta with JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

Thanks. Good morning, guys. J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Morning. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Morning.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

I have two questions; one quick one. Just on those 8.625%, you mentioned $198 million, I know some were redeemed in April that I thought took to like $240 million. Did you buy some back since then or did I miss something? J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. There were some purchases. $198 million is the right number.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

$198 million is the right number. Okay. And then, not be beat the TiO2 horse, but obviously, the Chemours' stock is down 50%. And basically, it's just been a rough go of it. I just think, just looking at your equity multiple and then in some ways, you can't control this. On the other hand, it's kind of questions you're just stuck having to deal with. But you're at one to two turns below and yet TiO2 or Pigments is only 10%, give or take, at current levels of your EBITDA. I can only imagine what multiple people are putting on that. What can you do? I mean, Chemours is still trading at 7 times 2016 estimate. Tronox is at 6 times. Your entire company is only at 5.5 times, if we assume roughly $1.6 billion, $1.7 billion next year. I mean – and maybe you don't have an answer, but it's just kind of amazing and mind-boggling that, as someone said earlier, people just – I don't know, they're either too focused on it, or they're not focused on all the other things you're doing. I mean is there anything creative? And I guess the bondholder side of this is, and I know you guys are generally conservative managers, so the fear would be as a bondholder that you start to maybe use debt to basically buyback stock. And I'm assuming that's not what you're looking to do, but I just wanted to confirm that. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I'm not sure that we're in a position to comment on the strategy that would have to be decided on by the board. But I think again to reiterate some of the things that we've said in the past, we do want to…

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

Yeah. I appreciate that. I guess just a clarification on deconsolidation. I was, one, hypothetically view IPO 20%, 30%. From an income statement perspective, would the Pigments business kind of leave the company? Or I guess it just seems like if it's still in any way associated with Huntsman, you're going to feel that drag. So I'm just trying to figure out what maybe... J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Bob, if you IPO 30%, it's still consolidated.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

Yes, it's still. So when you say deconsolidation, you don't mean from a literal... J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, sure, it's capacity consolidation. Obviously, if you take it public, there's opportunity to do secondaries to take it down.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

Right. Okay. Well... J. Kimo Esplin - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: It's a two-step process. But again, we're exploring all of those options and we'll take the best option, but our commitment is 2016.

Robert Amenta - JPMorgan Asset Management

Analyst · JPMorgan Asset Management. Please proceed

All right. Appreciate it. Thanks for the time. Peter R. Huntsman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Kurt D. Ogden - Vice President, Investor Relations

Operator

We want to thank everybody for joining us on the call today. If there are additional questions, please feel free to reach out to a member of the IR team. Thanks again.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect. Have a great day everyone.