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Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Fri, May 3, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Icahn Enterprises, L.P. First Quarter 2013 Earnings Call, with Felicia Buebel, Assistant General Counsel; Dan Ninivaggi, President; and SungHwan Cho, Chief Financial Officer. I'd now like to hand the call over to Felicia Buebel, who'll read the opening statements.

Felicia Buebel

Management

Good morning, and welcome to our recorded 2013 earnings call. I'll read the forward-looking statements. 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 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 certain non-GAAP financial measures. And thank you. I'd like to now turn the presentation over to our President and CEO, Dan Ninivaggi.

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Thanks, Felicia. Good morning, and welcome to the first quarter 2013 Icahn Enterprises earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are SungHwan Cho, our Chief Financial Officer; and Keith Cozza, our Executive Vice President. I'd like to begin by providing some brief highlights. Sung will then provide an in-depth review of our financial results and the performance of our business segments. We'll then be available to take your questions. Icahn Enterprises net income for the first quarter of 2013 was $277 million or $2.50 per depository unit compared to net income of $49 million or $0.48 per depository unit in the prior-year period. The strong quarterly results were driven by the performance of our Investment and Energy segments. Our investment funds had a return of 9.7% for the first quarter, with strong returns generated by several of our core long positions. In the Energy segment, performance was exceptional at both CVR Refining and CVR Partners. CVR Refining distributable cash flow per unit for the full quarter was $1.76, and exceeded both its IPO guidance in January and the more recent guidance provided in mid-March. CVR Partners distributable cash flow was a record $0.61 per unit, a 17% increase from Q1 2012. In other segments, Federal-Mogul had a solid quarter considering the weak environment in Europe and lower commercial vehicle production globally. ARI's profitability and outlook remains strong due to tank car demand, while the company continues to build its lease fleet and repair services. And this case is achieving the expected benefits for recent investments and capacity expansion in the U.S. and its sharing facility in the Philippines. At the holding company level, we completed a public equity offering of IEP units in the first quarter. We also adopted a $4 annual dividend policy, resulting in a very attractive yield to our unitholders. Providing additional liquidity in IEP units and our new dividend policy are part of our strategy to broaden and strengthen our shareholder base. We also believe creating more liquidity in IEP units will provide us more financial flexibility to pursue our activist strategy and make it even more effective. With that, I'll turn it over to Sung. And then as I said, we'll take your questions.

SungHwan Cho

Management

Thank you, Dan. I will begin by briefly reviewing our consolidated results for Q1 2013, and then highlight the performance of our operating segments, then comment on the strength of our balance sheet. Net income attributable to Icahn Enterprises for Q1 2013 was $277 million compared to income of $49 million in the prior-year period. We ended Q1 with consolidated cash and cash equivalents of approximately $2.4 billion, and a direct investment in the investment funds was $2.6 billion. I will now provide more detail regarding the performance of our individual segments. Our Investment segment had income attributable to Icahn Enterprises of $233 million for Q1 2013 due to the return on our direct investment in the investment funds. The investment funds had a return of 9.7% for Q1 2013, compared to 1.0% for the prior-year period. Since inception in November 2004, the investment funds gross return is 199% through the end of Q1 2013 or 4% per year -- or 14% per year. During Q1 2013, our net equity exposure remained unchanged at 13% from the end of 2012. Our long equity exposure had a 19% return for the first quarter of 2013, while our short equity exposure had a negative return of 9%. Our net credit exposure at the end of Q1 2013 was approximately 8% and generated a return of under 1%. As of March 31, 2013, our Investment segment had approximately $6.5 billion of assets under management, including IEP's $2.6 billion investment in the funds. Now turning to Federal-Mogul. Federal-Mogul's Q1 2013 sales were $1.7 billion, down slightly versus Q1 2012. The Powertrain segment reported sales of $1.1 billion, which was down 2% in constant dollar terms from the prior-year. This was driven by weakness in Europe, which was down 5%, and global commercial vehicles, which…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] You have a question from Daniel Fannon of Jefferies. Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: I was just hoping to touch base on the 2 of the drivers for the strong results this morning, the CVR Energy segment, as well as the hedge fund. Can you guys talk a little bit about -- looking ahead, we've seen a narrowing in the crack spreads. And I know that you guys have a big percentage, I think it's about 60% that's hedged for the year. Do you guys have a bias in terms of which way you think crack spreads might move and what your strategy is? Do you guys generally keep at least about 1 year of activity hedged out? Or how does that work for you, guys?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Daniel Ninivaggi. So well, crack spreads are going to be volatile. We know that as pipeline capacity comes in or other takeaway capacity crack spreads tend to narrow. And then as the production outpaces the pipeline capacity, they tend to go up. I think if you listened to Jack's call yesterday, I think he said he thinks we're kind of at a lower point in the year, and he expects crack spreads to rebound. But that's just part of a cycle. We've had some pipeline capacity come in, and that's -- and well, obviously, the Brent-WTI differential has narrowed, but we think that that's likely to reverse. And crack spreads are likely to expand during the course of the year. Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Okay. So that should only be a situation where you would perhaps limit your hedging activity at this point, looking ahead?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Well, the hedging, so I think you said you thought we're 60% hedged. I don't think we're that hedged. It's somewhat lower than that. Yes, if you take a look at the, again, the CVR earnings deck yesterday, they have the exact number in there, so -- but we'll look at the hedging. We do it opportunistically. I think we've said earlier in the year that they tend to target around 40% on average. But that'll, obviously, move up and down based on market conditions. Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Okay, perfect. And are you -- let's talk a little bit about some of the dynamics of the hedge fund in a sense that you said that there was a number, a couple of positions, which generated most of the gains. Just kind of looking through some of your filings, it seems like the bulk of them came through Netflix. Is there any comments you can make on that?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

No, we won't. We can't comment on our specific position because obviously, Netflix is a public position, and it's been very successful. It was a big driver in the first quarter, but we can't really comment beyond that. Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Fair enough. And one additional question, this is more, perhaps, for modeling purposes. There's a number of movements in your cash during the quarter. Can you walk me actually through the quarter-over-quarter changes for the cash?

SungHwan Cho

Management

Dan, which -- but is there anything specific that you're looking at? Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: I was just looking -- well, just at the holdco level. But I mean, fine, that's something maybe we can take offline if it makes more sense to take that offline.

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. I mean, the big -- we can go through the details offline. The big drivers are, we obviously got a large special dividend from CVR. We had the equity offering, and we had the defeasance of the notes. So those are the 3 big drivers of the cash in the quarter. But we're happy to go through it in more detail offline, if you'd like. Daniel Thomas Fannon - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Fair enough. And perhaps, one more thing, this is perhaps more macro look. How do you guys see the kind of the M&A environment at this point in terms of like potential exits or just activity? I know that previously, with so much cash on the balance sheet at so many companies, it looks like you have pretty attractive opportunity. But just some thoughts as how things have been evolving since the beginning of the year?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. I mean, in short, slower than, I guess, we would've expected. The debt markets continue to be very, very strong. And Carl's talked during the course of the year about how this should be an excellent opportunity for M&A, but it's obviously been slower than most people have predicted. We do think it'll tick up. It's a function of 2 things, obviously, primarily. One is the capacity to do deals, and the debt market certainly fuel that. The second is confidence, right? So the confidence has been a bit up-and-down, and that's probably what's inhibiting it a bit. But we do feel very strongly that there's a great environment for M&A, and that will be a multiyear M&A cycle here. And we'll be able to participate in that.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Andrew Berg of Post Advisory.

Andrew Berg - Post Advisory Group, LLC

Analyst

Just a quick question on Gaming, with the sale of River Palms, can you talk about the EBITDA associated with that?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

I would say, in a word, negligible. We have 2 properties, as you know, in Laughlin and our -- we just decided to invest in the better of the 2 properties. And so that's why we divested it.

Andrew Berg - Post Advisory Group, LLC

Analyst

And in Baton Rouge, can you talk about anything that you want to try and mitigate some of the impacts from the competitive opening there at this point?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. So Pinnacle has had an impact, but it actually hasn't been as bad as we feared, I guess. And we've cut costs significantly. We're driving -- the local gaming has been pretty strong. And on a relative basis, we've done better than the third competitor in that market. And we think it'll be fine. Obviously, Pinnacle's property is a high-end property catering to more regional resort destination-type travelers. We're more of a local's market property, and we think the property's doing okay.

Andrew Berg - Post Advisory Group, LLC

Analyst

Do you feel like it's stabilized at this point?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes, yes, it's definitely stabilized. Last year's EBITDA was very strong driven by a number of things. This year, it should stabilize in the $8 million to $9 million EBITDA range.

Andrew Berg - Post Advisory Group, LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then $620 million of restricted cash, is that all the fund of the business?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes.

SungHwan Cho

Management

Yes, it is. And we actually had to defease the whole -- the bond, including the piece that IEP has owned. So some of that money's going to come back and come back to our cash balance in July.

Andrew Berg - Post Advisory Group, LLC

Analyst

Okay. Can you say how much?

SungHwan Cho

Management

About $43 million, $44 million.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Ken Bann of Jefferies. Kenneth P. Bann - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: I was just wondering, the dividend from WestPoint, does that reflect -- you've improved operations there quite a bit over the years, but does that reflect your optimism about their ability to continue to improve going forward? And what liquidity do they still have at that operations in addition to the $12 million of cash that's left there?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

So yes, the $12 million, we -- basically, they were carrying a large working capital balance for a while. So we've really managed the working capital down very well, and that's really what generated the dividend. And we think the $12 million is more than sufficient to cover the liquidity going forward. I mean, if we had to, we could put a revolver in or something, but we don't think that will be necessary. Kenneth P. Bann - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Right, okay. And you still -- I mean you -- about breakeven at this point, do you think we'll get to a positive EBITDA in the near future on this operation?

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. I mean, we're hopeful that we'll be solidly positive EBITDA this year.

Operator

Operator

I'm not showing any current questions in the queue. I'd like to turn the call back over to management for any further remarks.

Daniel A. Ninivaggi

Management

All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining the call, and we look forward to a successful remainder of the year.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.