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Phibro Animal Health Corporation (PAHC)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Sep 17, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Phibro Fourth Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, CFO, Richard Johnson. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Phibro Animal Health earnings call. We're going to be talking about both our fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 2014 today. We'll provide an overview of our quarterly and annual results for 2014. We'll also talk about our guidance for our fiscal year 2015. And then we'll, after our presentation, as the operator said, we'll open it up to your questions. On the call today are Jack Bendheim, Chief Executive Officer; and myself, Richard Johnson, CFO. Before we begin, let me remind you that the earnings press release and financial tables can be found on the Investors section of our website at pahc.com. We're also providing a simultaneous webcast for this morning's call, which can be accessed on the website as well. Today's presentation slides and the replay and transcript of the call will also be available on the website later today. Our remarks today will include forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from these projections. For a list and description of certain factors that could cause results to differ, I refer you to the forward-looking statements section in our earnings press release. Our remarks today will also include references to certain financial measures, which were not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or U.S. GAAP. I refer you to the non-GAAP financial information section in our earnings press release for a discussion of these measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures are included in the financial tables that accompany the press release. And with that, I will turn it over to Jack Bendheim for some introductory remarks.

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Thank you, Dick, and thank you to all of you for joining us on this call today. I'm proud that we once again able to deliver strong top and bottom-line performance in our fourth quarter, capping off a truly transformational year for Phibro Animal Health. The transition from a private to a public company is understood to be a difficult one. That is a testament to the work and focus of my colleagues throughout the organization that we're able to meet and exceed our targets despite many distractions. At the end of this call, Dick will be sharing with you some of our goals for the fiscal year we embarked upon in July. We continue to see multiple opportunities across overall Animal Health business units and have tremendous confidence on our ability to deliver both top and bottom line growth, while at the same time, continuing to invest substantially in growing our sales organizations related to our key initiatives. I will now turn it back to Dick and look forward to answering any questions you may have at the end of the call.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Thanks, Jack. Turning to Page 5. Let's look at our consolidated results for the fourth quarter. We had net sales of $183.7 million that was $19.5 million of sales growth or 12% over the same quarter last year. That sales growth was driven by our Animal Health segment, better than $13 million of growth and 13%. In addition, our Mineral Nutrition business had very nice sales growth in the quarter, over $6 million, again, 13%. And our Performance Products business was stable year-on-year. So dropping down through gross profit and operating expenses. Gross profit, 29.5% of sales, grew at the same rate of -- roughly the same rate, slightly faster than sales grew 13% overall. And SG&A, about $41 million. That includes a loss on an insurance claim that I'll talk a bit more about later. And the good chunk, well, of the $8 million increase in the fourth quarter, $5.3 million of that increase was at one-off insurance claim. So x that claim, $2.6 million or 8% growth in SG&A for the quarter. Coming down to adjusted EBITDA, $24 million -- $24.2 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, $4.6 million of growth or 23%. And really, all segments contributed nicely to that EBITDA growth. And then coming to a pro forma adjusted EPS number of $0.22 for the quarter. And you'll see the footnote on, if you're looking at the webcast slides or also, in the press release, we have shown you EPS on a pro forma basis as if the IPO and refinancing has been in place for the entire periods. And in addition, we've adjusted out certain either onetime or ongoing expenses to come to an adjusted EPS number. We also reflect -- in the adjusted EPS; we are reflecting cash income taxes because our GAAP…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Erin Wilson from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Erin Wilson

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Great. Can you speak to the fundamental demand trend across the livestock industry in the U.S, particularly as it relate to the poultry and dairy markets, and what's embedded in your guidance as it relates to that fundamental utilization trend or demand trend?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Erin, it's Jack. I mean, what we're seeing, especially in the United States, across is a continuing growth in poultry and I think a quite strong growth in poultry. This is pretty much generated by the higher cost of both the pork market, as well as the cattle market. So we're seeing combination. Definitely, weights up in poultry, as well as numbers. People up putting on, for the first time in the long time, putting in -- putting more birds down in the market. We're seeing a growth as well in the swine business. I mean, the industry still fighting PEDs. I think, up-to-date, something like 50% of the herds have been embedded gone through it. And I think the expectation in the industry is, in the course of the year, the rest of the herds, of the swine herds will also see it. So that will be a combination of growth in weights, as well as replacements. And we're seeing the cattle markets; we're seeing growth there as well in numbers, as people are looking to restock after the last couple of years. In the dairy market, dairy market continues to be strong. We don't see a lot of new cows being placed, but we see lots of efforts in increasing the productivity of the herd. So generally growth. And we don't really see on -- it's just dangerous to answer a question you're going ask it, but we don't see a big effect of the Russian ban on the U.S. poultry industry.

Erin Wilson

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Okay. That was a question. But on that note, on dairy in particular, what are you seeing as far as traction with OmniGen in the U.S., but as well as in Europe? And where do you stand with approval in China?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

We -- we're close. We expect within the next 6 months to have our approvals in China. And we continue to see traction -- continuing traction in the United States as we add salespeople. We increased our sales. And we are -- I think Europe is running a little bit behind where we had wanted to be at this moment. But we're -- then we'll be getting growth month on month. And we're still quite optimistic to see good growth in the European markets for all the reasons that we laid out, both in the S1 and the roadshow and in our conversations.

Erin Wilson

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Okay, great. And then just one last one. You have substantial operations in Israel. And can you give us a sense of what sort of exposure there is to the recent turmoil across sort of that region, if you could comment on that, if you're at all exposed?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch

I think -- best answer for that is that we're all very much aware of all the activity went on this past summer. I don't think we missed the beat. I mean in other words, we deliver to our customers on time. We exported our products on time. We produced continually in our factories there. So we didn't -- we saw no effect as far as running operation in Israel.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Irina Koffler from Cantor Fitzgerald.

Irina Rivkind

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

I wanted to explore your initiatives to improve margins. Can you just comment on what else you're continuing to work on? And it looks like CapEx guidance maybe ticked up from what we were expecting earlier. And I just wanted to see if there was any relationship between that increase and improved efficiencies.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Yes. That's spot on, Irina. We do -- we are continuing to spend CapEx to improve our cost of goods position, whether it's by cost savings, projects to just lower the cost of manufacturing for existing quantities, or it's adding marginal capacity at marginal rates. So we can add another 5%, 10%, 15% capacity and add that at a relatively low incremental rate. So that's really a large part of what our capital spending has been in the past and what we'd expected to be going forward into '15. And that will give us some margin leverage.

Irina Rivkind

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay. And then those $4 million milestone on the Vaccines business, what quarter is that expected to come out in?

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

We would expect $2 million of that in our September quarter. And the remainder will be some time later this fiscal year, depending on when the milestone is achieved, et cetera.

Irina Rivkind

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay. And then, I guess, the final question is this. Can you just make a broader comment about M&A in your space and your own interest and appetite for additional products, as well as opportunities to -- for the company itself to be -- consider a potential takeout?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

That's a great question. I mean, we continually looking to add products to the portfolio that fit into where our core strength is. So as we've done in the past, we're not looking at all in the pet space. But in the production animal space across all the species, we are always looking to add products and relationships. In acquisitions, again, if we see something that will bring some interesting products, I think we will do tuck-in acquisitions. Right now, we're not looking at any transformative acquisitions or disposals.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Louise Chen from Guggenheim.

Louise Chen

Analyst · Guggenheim

So my first question is just on the sales growth. I know you said it was mostly volume. I was wondering if there is any way that you could break that out more. How much actually percent was volume and how much was price? I'm just wondering if there's potentially more room for price increases here, because I think some of your competitors site that there's a lot of pricing power in the Animal Health industry, so just wondering what you think of that? And then secondly, another question we get a lot was just on your margins. I know you're just livestock versus some of your competitors, who have a combination of livestock, a companion animal, and how to compare them apples-to-apples. So I was wondering if you give more color there. And then, lastly, just on your antibiotic labeling changes, any update there?

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Guggenheim

Yes. So sales growth, let's see, so for the fourth quarter, overall, let's just focus in on the Animal Health segment or maybe to -- let's just say that Mineral Nutrition and Performance Products, basically, 100% of the sales change is volume related. It's very little pricing in either of those on the fourth -- in the fourth quarter. Animal Health grew $13.4 million in the fourth quarter. And $2.5 million of that was due to pricing. So $11 million of it was due to -- basically due to volume. So whatever percentage that is 1,113, 80-ish percent was volume growth.

Louise Chen

Analyst · Guggenheim

And is there room for more price -- more pricing increases here? Just because I think some of your competitors just say that pricing is very strong in the industry. But I mean I'm just curious what you think.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Guggenheim

Yes. I think we evaluate our pricing routinely on a segment, on a -- I'm going to give you a very generic answer here, on a -- by product, by region. We look for pricing opportunities when we're there. And we certainly keep an eye on what our competition is doing. The second part of your question was sort of companion animal versus pets and how do we compare. We don't really know the companion animal business at all. So it's hard to say. We think our Animal Health margins are competitive with the other companies in the industry, people we compete with. And I don't really have a lot more insight than that. And then the third piece on the antibiotic label...

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Guggenheim

And so, on the antibiotic changes, I mean, we continue the whole industry, as the FDA announced, I think, 3 or 4 months ago, has written and agreed to go forward with the voluntarily changing labels and giving up growth motion claims and changing label that will allow vet prescription and just prevent control and treat claims. And I think, I mean, that's continuing. It's requiring data, it's requiring some fieldwork and we're in the midst of it. And I think that's -- I mean, that's the overall trend and that's where we'll be, I think, when this -- these regulations go into effect, which is, I think, sometime at the end of 2015, or be early 2016.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Douglas Tsao from Barclays.

Douglas Tsao

Analyst · Barclays

In terms of the volume growth that you saw in the medicated feed business. Obviously, you sort of highlighted that most of it came from volume. I'm just curious if we should have dig down into that volume component, how much was just overall growth of herd size or flock size versus the expansion in terms of the number of accounts you're selling into?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Barclays

The thing we have to deal with is we are -- this is a global business. And we are preventing and treating some bacterial diseases. So it's -- all of this really at the end of the day is a combination of disease pressure and what kind of animals; were in the world. And it moves around all the time. I mean, I think what we try to do, and try to do as a goal is we -- overall, at the end of the day, if you ask us, where do we want this business to be? We want to be sort of -- maybe overly used the word agnostic. But agnostic of who's growing the animals, where they're being grown. As long as this constant growth of consumption, we want to be able to provide our products to create healthy animals, which will turn into a wholesome food. So it's a long answer to saying, talk to me to say, whether it's directly in poultry, on this market, that market. It moves around all the time. Our job really is to be there with the right solutions at the right time.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Barclays

And maybe a little more numerically, Doug. We grew -- Animal Health sales grew 13% in the quarter, call that 11% volume growth. Just if you look at it the other way around, the number of animals in the world didn't grow 11% year-over-year. So we're treating more animals for diseases, for other new applications, et cetera, et cetera.

Douglas Tsao

Analyst · Barclays

I mean, I guess it's sort of a follow-up, though, in terms of -- trying to sort of understand the dynamics of that 11%. How much is that, perhaps, sort of opportunistic in terms of sort of conditions in particular regions that might necessitate your products versus the sort of expansion of your sort of core customer base if you will, and sort of that we can count on seeing consistently?

Jack Bendheim

Analyst · Barclays

Well, I mean -- I mean, sorry, I mean, it's a great question. Our efforts are in expanding. That's a money we're investing in our SG&A around the world. And we're looking to go into markets. I mean, the trend of the world, I mean, we come back to the -- to that looking at the highest level. I mean, the population is growing. And in order to continue feeding and meeting the demand from poultry, the only way to do it is what we want to call modern agriculture, which is basically raising lots of animals together. It's -- and the end result of that is it uses less water, it uses less land, it creates less pollution. It creates much less global warming. And it does all that and delivers protein to growing world population at a reasonable price. And if you do that, then you need our products. So I mean, China, this is one example, has 400 million pigs, but they have it -- they historically, the bulk of those pigs are raised in backyard farms of 2, 3, 4, 5 pigs. The trend in China in order for them to get that kind of control over the quality of food and healthy animals is to move those farms that have a minimum of 500 or 5,000. So as they do that, and they can start counting, is where our products fit in. So we're out there. And we see basically this; call it, secular growth across the world. And that's where the growth will come from. And so it's going to be in China and in Latin America and in Africa and in the Far East. It's the bulk of where the growth soon it come from. So yes, I mean, that's -- I mean, that's the future of this business.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from David Risinger from Morgan Stanley.

David Risinger

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

You've gone through a lot of commentary that's extremely helpful. I wanted to ask the couple of specifics financial questions. So maybe you can talk about the tax rate for 2015 a little bit more detail, including the benefit of NOLs next year. And then it would be helpful if you can remind us when you expect the NOLs to be exhausted? And then, with respect to cash flow, obviously, cash flow is set to increase in 2015. I was hoping that you could maybe provide some detail around your forecast for EBITDA and then what you're ultimately expecting in terms of free cash flow for 2015?

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Sure. Let's talk taxes first. So in our adjusted EPS numbers for '15, I've used -- I've given guidance of $10 million to $12 million of cash income taxes. That would represent a 15% to 17% effective rate on pre-tax income. And that's really because we're benefiting from our net operating losses -- net operating loss carryforwards in the United States, where we're not a cash taxpayer in the United States. Given the size of those NOLs, we have somewhere between over 2 and perhaps, 3 years before we become a taxpayer in the U.S. So we've said in the S-1 and other guidance that we have several years yet before we run out those NOLs. So I think that answers your question on taxes. Cash flow, we've given you all the pieces to build an expectation of cash flow next year. We've said interest expense is going to be $14 million. And there are some smaller piece of that is noncash, but most of that's cash. You've got cash taxes. We've given your CapEx forecast. And I would say on working capital, our expectation is working capital will grow in line with the sales growth. So from that, I don't have it in front of me, I'm sorry. But it's pretty easy to construct a cash flow model.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And I'm not showing any further questions in queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Richard Johnson for any further remarks.

Richard Johnson

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald

Well, we thank you for listening in this morning. And we'll be back at you with our September quarter discussion, which will come in the first half of November. We haven't set the exact date yet, but be back in less than 60 days; we'll be talking to you again. So until then, take care, everyone.

Operator

Operator

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