Earnings Labs

Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP)

Q1 2012 Earnings Call· Thu, May 3, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Icahn Enterprises, L.P. Quarter 1 2012 Earnings Call with Felicia Buebel, Assistant General Counsel; Daniel A. Ninivaggi, President; and SungHwan Cho, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Felicia Buebel, who will read the opening statement.

Felicia Buebel

Management

Thank you. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements we make in this presentation, including statements regarding our future performance and plans for our businesses and potential acquisitions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that are discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including economic, competitive, legal and other factors. Accordingly, there is no assurance that our expectations will be realized. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by law. This presentation also includes non-GAAP financial measures. Please note that quantitative reconciliations between each non-GAAP financial measure contained in this presentation and its most directly comparable GAAP measure are available on our website by viewing the copy of this presentation at www.icahnenterprises.com/investor.shtml. And now I would like to turn the call over to Dan Ninivaggi, our President.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Thanks, Felicia. Good morning, and welcome to the First Quarter 2012 Icahn Enterprises Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call is SungHwan Cho, our new Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to begin by providing some key highlights for the first quarter. Sung will then provide a more in-depth review of our financial results and the performance of our business segments. We'll then be available to address your questions. Icahn Enterprises net income for the first quarter was $49 million, or $0.49 per depository unit. Our investment funds recorded gross return of 1% for the first quarter. We substantially hedged during the quarter with the performance of our equity long exposure offset by short equity positions. Our Automotive segment recorded 8% OE sales growth on a constant dollar basis, with market share gains in all major regions. Aftermarket sales in North America have stabilized, and sales increases in other regions helped to offset some of the weakness in Europe. Currently, Federal-Mogul is pursuing the creation of separate and independent OE and aftermarket segments. We believe this is the optimal direction for the company as the 2 units have very different customer basis, business models and sales and distribution requirements. In the Railcar segment, strong quarterly shipments and improved pricing drove up Railcar manufacturing revenues by 138% from the prior year period. ARI shipped 2,200 railcars, including railcars for lease in the first quarter of 2012 as compared to 670 railcars in the prior year period. ARI's backlog was approximately 6,200 cars as of quarter end. While orders in the industry have moderated somewhat over the last several months, demand remains robust. Turning to our Food Packaging segment, this case continues to post solid results, with sales volumes improving for NOJAX and fibrous product lines. We expect to open our Philippine…

SungHwan Cho

Management

Thanks, Dan. I will begin by briefly reviewing our consolidated results for the first quarter and then highlight the performance of our operating segments and comment on our balance sheet. As Dan stated earlier, the net income attributable to Icahn Enterprises for the first quarter of 2012 was $49 million, or $0.49 per depository unit. We ended the quarter with consolidated cash and cash equivalents of approximately $3.5 billion and our direct investment in the investment funds of $3.2 billion. To date, in 2012, we have successfully completed a rights offering and 2 debt offerings, which collectively have raised approximately $1.2 billion in cash. Our Board of Directors approved a quarterly distribution of $0.35 per depository unit payable on May 31, 2012. This $0.35 distribution will consist of $0.10 payable in cash and $0.25 payable in depository units. I will now provide more detail regarding the performance of our individual segments. Our Investment segment had income attributable to Icahn Enterprises of $31 million for the first quarter of 2012 compared to income of $253 million in the prior year period. The investment funds had a gross return of 1% for the quarter compared to 9.6% in the first quarter of 2011. As of March 31, 2012, our net equity exposure was 0.5%, down from 21% at the end of 2011. Our long equity exposure had a 11.7% return for the quarter, while our short equity exposure had a loss of 10.6%. Our net credit exposure at the end of the first quarter of 2012 was approximately 10.9% and generated a return of 0.5%. As of March 31, 2012, our Investment segment had approximately $6.6 billion of assets under management. Now turning to Federal-Mogul. Net sales in the first quarter of 2012 were $1.8 billion, up 5% in constant dollars compared…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question today comes from the line of Sachin Cha [ph] from [indiscernible].

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

So I just wanted to get an update on the tender offer for CVR. Want to see if there was any indication on -- before the deadline tomorrow.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes, as we said earlier, the tender offer expires tomorrow at 11:59 p.m., so we'll know then.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Okay. So there's no indication right now where it stands?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

No, we really can't comment on that.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Okay. All right. And just wanted to ask about the -- so if you get the tender -- shareholders to tender, how quickly can you close the transaction? And have you stated publicly what you're going to do with the company, if you get the 90% threshold or above, if CVI is going to continue to trade publicly?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

No. So you may have missed the early part of the presentation. So if we get more than 50% tomorrow, including the shares that we currently hold, we'll close the tender early next week, because the 10 days subsequent offering period where other shareholders can get in at the same price. If we get over 90% either in the original offer tomorrow or through the subsequent offering period, we will do a short-form merger and on 100%.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Okay. And then so CVI stock will cease to be traded?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Correct.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ken Bann from Jefferies & Company.

Kenneth Bann

Analyst

I know you like to keep a lot of cash on the balance sheet at the holding company. Post the CVR tender offer, assuming it's successful, how much cash do you think you'll hold on to at the holding company after that transaction?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. So currently, we have about $2 billion at the holding company. We have -- we said earlier that it would cost about $2.2 billion to close the tender offer in addition to shares that we have. We would draw probably the holding company cash down to $500 million, $600 million, and the rest would be redeemed from the hedge funds. And we sort of target minimum liquidity at the holding company of about $500 million.

Kenneth Bann

Analyst

Okay. And if the CVR then doesn't get sold in the subsequent 60-day period, would you look at all to sell any other assets in order to bring your cash back up or provide additional liquidity?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

There would be no compelling reason to do it. I mean, we'll sell assets if we can get the right price in the right environment, but we wouldn't accelerate the sale of any assets because of that. And we think $500 million is plenty of liquidity there, and obviously, we could hit the market later in the year with other financings.

Kenneth Bann

Analyst

Right. Okay. And then just in the Food Packaging area, there were some production problems at one of the plants last year. Can you give us an update on that? Has that been fixed through the first quarter? And is that plant up and running at full capacity at this point?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. So some of the problems were in our [indiscernible] plant. Those problems were largely corrected in the first quarter, and the plant is doing much better. It's running at full capacity.

Kenneth Bann

Analyst

Okay. It's basically -- is this case still basically sold out on its production for most of the rest of the year?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes.

Operator

Operator

I currently have no more questions in queue.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Okay. Well, thank you very much for joining the call. We look forward again to the balance of the year. And thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may all disconnect. Have a great rest of the day.