Earnings Labs

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM)

Q2 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 15, 2013

$129.43

-5.31%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-1.33%

1 Week

-0.22%

1 Month

-9.29%

vs S&P

-12.11%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Silver Wheaton's 2013 second quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). Thank you. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Thursday, August 15, at 11:00 AM Eastern Time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Patrick Drouin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir.

Patrick Drouin

Management

Thank you, Candice. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for participating in today's call. I am joined today by Randy Smallwood, Silver Wheaton's President and Chief Executive Officer and Gary Brown, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I would like to bring to your attention that some of the commentary in today's call may contain forward-looking statements. There can be no assurances that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Please refer to the section entitled description of the business risk factors in Silver Wheaton's Annual Information Form which is available on SEDAR and in Silver Wheaton's Form 40-F on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Annual Information Form sets out the material risk factor that could cause actual results to differ including the absence of control of our mining operations from which Silver Wheaton purchases silver, risk related to such mining operations and the risk of a decline in silver prices. Lastly it should be noted that all figures referred to on today's call are in the U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Now I would like to turn the call over to Randy Smallwood, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Randy Smallwood

Management

Thank you, Patrick, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for dialing into our second quarter 2013 conference call. Silver Wheaton's second quarter highlights include another solid quarter of gold and silver production, resulting in record production for both the second quarter and the first half of 2013. Given the strong performance of our mines, we remain well on track to achieving this year's forecast production of 33.5 million silver equivalent ounces. In particular, production from our recently acquired Sudbury and Salobo mines was stronger than expected in the second quarter and we anticipate continued growth in the second half of this year, especially as Salobo continues ramp up towards full production. Our amended dividend policy has again smoothed the volatility in our dividend payout resulting in a third quarterly 2013 dividend of $0.10 per share. Going back to our Q2 of 2013 mine performance, we are proud to announce that we have started 2013 with substantial year-over-year gains in silver equivalent production and sales. In the second quarter, production was 8.6 million silver equivalent ounces which is 28% higher than the second quarter of 2012. Silver equivalent sales was 4% higher than a year ago coming in at 7.2 million ounces of Silver equivalent production. While both production and sales were higher in the second quarter, the average realized silver equivalent price was 20% below the second quarter of 2012 resulting in lower revenue, earnings and cash flow. Our average price for silver sold in the second quarter of 2013 was $23.05 per ounce, well below the 2012 silver price average of $30.17 per ounce. Gary Brown, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide more detail on our financial results shortly. With respect to the dividend policy, earlier this year we amended our dividend policy in order to reduce…

Gary Brown

Management

Thank you, Randy and good morning ladies and gentlemen. Prior to reviewing Silver Wheaton's unaudited financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2013, I would like to remind everyone that all monetary figures discussed are denominated in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. The company's precious metal interests generated record attributable silver equivalent production of over 8.6 million ounces in the second quarter of 2013, 28% higher than production from the comparable period of the prior year due primarily to the production generated from the recently acquired 777, Sudbury and Salobo gold interests, with the contributions from these new sources of production being partially offset by lower production at Penasquito. Approximately 74% of this production related to silver, with the remainder relating to gold. Silver equivalent sales volumes amounted to 7.2 million ounces in Q2 2013 representing a 4% increase from Q2 2012 with such increase being attributable to gold deliveries relating to 777, Sudbury and Salobo with such being partially offset by decreased silver deliveries from the Yauliyacu and Penasquito. Payable silver equivalent ounces produced, but not yet delivered by our partners, amounted to five million ounces as of June 30, 2013, an increase of about one million ounces over the quarter, with the most significant increases being attributable to Penasquito, Sudbury and Salobo. Revenue for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $167 million representing a 17% decrease from the comparable period of the prior year with the average realized silver equivalent selling price decreasing by 21% to $23.05. Earnings from operations for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $91 million, representing a 40% decrease relative to the second quarter of 2012 with operating margins decreasing by 21% to 55% in the second quarter of 2013 due to a combination of lower commodity prices and higher…

Randy Smallwood

Management

Thank you, Gary. Candice, we would like to open up the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Your first question comes from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC. Your line is now open.

Cosmos Chiu - CIBC

Analyst

Just got a few questions here, maybe first off, I noticed that Q1 production was restated a little bit. I guess, in Q1 it was 8 million ounces and in yesterday's press release it became 8.3 ounces. Is that just a function of the underlying assumptions for gold and silver and the gold-silver ratio?

Randy Smallwood

Management

No. Cosmos, sometimes when we release our results, we don't have all the production, final production data from our partners and so we make the best estimates we can based upon on the information that we have and we will go back and adjust those numbers to reflect the actual production once all of our partners have released. So, you will see from quarter-to-quarter and we state that in the MD&A to the financials that those types of adjustments will commonly be made.

Cosmos Chiu - CIBC

Analyst

Okay. At least it's a good adjustment it went up, so it's a good thing. Randy, you talked about the new Vale streams and how shipment is going to catch up to production, but could you give us maybe a little bit more color in terms of how shipments, what percentage of production could translate into sales in Q3? I assume it's going to be higher than Q2, but I am just wondering what kind of levels?

Randy Smallwood

Management

Yes. Cosmos, what's happened especially with Sudbury, where a lot of our gold comes from the nickel concentrate which runs through their nickel smelter. This is the first agreement that we have got with a company that actually goes from mine to smelter to refinery. Of course we get sales when Vale sells the gold. So it takes a lot longer than our normal concentrate process. So we are now receiving regular goal deliveries from Sudbury. So Q3, we have filled that pipeline and hopefully now we should get pretty consistent deliveries. Now, there is different recoveries and payable amounts depending on nickel and copper concentrates. That's going to change overtime, but we are now to the point where that pipeline in Q3, we shouldn't see much of an impact in terms of that. We think we have filled up our pipeline now.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Chris Lichtenheldt with Dundee Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Chris Lichtenheldt - Dundee Capital Markets.

Analyst · Dundee Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Just a follow-up quickly on your comment about filling the pipeline. Does that mean now we should probably expect this five million ounce level of produced but not sold probably to be steady around that number now?

Randy Smallwood

Management

Yes, its going to stay. What we always see is, in the fourth quarter, companies tend to squeeze their, that pipeline and try and to squeeze production out. Then traditionally in the first and second quarter, the pipeline expands back out again and gets to a normal working level. But what happens in fourth quarter is, everyone is trying to maximize year-end results. So I would say that it wouldn't surprise me to see it in this range. There is going to be some fluctuations back and forth. We did miss some shipments on Penasquito and that is on pretty normal schedule. So we may make up some of that but I wouldn't predict a significant drop in Q3, but I would say that there's a good chance it will drop in Q4.

Chris Lichtenheldt - Dundee Capital Markets.

Analyst · Dundee Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Okay, that's helpful, thanks. You commented about the deal opportunities and the market there being a lot of opportunities potentially. Has silver price volatility quieted to the point where yourselves and counterparties are more willing to potentially look at things or is it too early still or is that even effect to the volatility?

Randy Smallwood

Management

Nobody likes making decisions in a volatile time just because the potential of someone looking off-base shortly afterwards. So what we always want to see is some stability, and it helps in the decision-making process in terms of, from the perspective of both the buyer and the seller. So there is no doubt that stabilizing a bit or even showing some strength like we have seen over the last week or so helps. The biggest hurdle right now is that, for the spot prices they dropped to such a lower amount that if you looked at the general sentiment for long-term pricing in silver, it's well above the spot price. That was one of the biggest hurdles that we were facing on the corporate development side is that the long-term expectations are still pretty bullish for the price of silver and the price of gold relative to where the spot price was. We just have to be tempered in terms of how much risk each side is willing to take there.

Chris Lichtenheldt - Dundee Capital Markets.

Analyst · Dundee Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Okay, that's great, and then lastly just a housekeeping question. When do you expect the final payment for Hudbay? When are you modeling that?

Randy Smallwood

Management

In discussions with them, it may happen as early as the end of this year, end of 2013. Likely, I would say, definitely by the end of the first quarter of 2014, in that range.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Your next question comes from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is now open.

John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research

Analyst · John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is now open.

Could you describe the maturity schedule for the $1.14 billion in borrowings and how you will allocate the 80% of cash flow that's other than dividends in terms of making property payments as companies get their permits and qualify, paying down the debt and other purposes?

Gary Brown

Management

Yes, John, it's Gary here. So we have got two facilities in place right now. One is a three year non-revolving term loan where the majority of the debt relates to and that's a three year facility that will mature in Q2 of 2016, bullet maturity. There is no amortization structure underlying that and the other facility is a five-year revolving credit facility and there is $145 million drawn under that. That would mature in Q1 of 2018, again, bullet maturity there. Another point to note is that we do have the ability to extend the non-revolving term loan by a year, once-a-year and that requires the unanimous consent of the lenders, so hopefully that addresses your first question. With respect to the allocation of the 80% of cash flow that's retained, we will make those decisions in light of the opportunities we have in front of us but, we are very comfortable with the level of debt that we are currently carrying and have no worries about being able to service that. We are very focused, John, on maintaining a very clean balance sheet and so that's something that has always been a real strong driver within this company.

John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research

Analyst · John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is now open.

If all of your operators got all of their permits and fulfilled other requirements tomorrow, how much is the future payments that would come due?

Randy Smallwood

Management

Sure. There is the Rosemont project with Augusta Resources down in Arizona, which is a $230 million payment. Those are scheduled payments as construction would commence, so there would not be money owing immediately. It would only happen once the project started coming on stream. There is a $125 million. That is still owing to Hudbay as they get to $1 billion in expenditures on Constancia. As I mentioned earlier, that is expected probably maybe as early as at the end of this year, but likely the first quarter of next year. Then if Navidad, the Pan-American silver average sites to move forward with Navidad down in Argentina, I think we have a $32.4 million payment there. So all totaled well within the capacity of our current revolver even if it all came up tomorrow. But, as I said, this is all scheduled out over the next couple of years. Of course, Navidad Pan-American has put that one in mutual for now, so easily manageable within our current cash flows and within our current capacity of the revolver.

John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research

Analyst · John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is now open.

Thank you.

Randy Smallwood

Management

Great. Candice, we would like to one more poll for questions please?

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Dan Rollins with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Dan Rollins - RBC Capital Market

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Gary, I just have a very quick house cleaning question. What should we be assuming for G&A, excluding stock based comp on a go forward basis quarterly?

Gary Brown

Management

Yes. We are still maintaining previous guidance, Dan, and that should be somewhere in the $32 million to $36 million range.

Dan Rollins - RBC Capital Market

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Okay. Perfect. Then just sort of one follow-up. Is there a standby fee on the current $1 billion revolver?

Gary Brown

Management

Yes. There is and it vary by leverage ratio that we have got. I don't have at my fingertips what that is, but it's somewhere.

Dan Rollins - RBC Capital Market

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

It's pretty low like a quarter-point or maybe?

Gary Brown

Management

Yes. It's around there.

Gary Brown

Management

Thank you, everyone, and thanks operator. With that, call this conference call to a close and we will talk to you again soon. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

That concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for your participation. Please disconnect your lines at this time.