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Accendra Health, Inc. (ACH)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 18, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Owens & Minor's Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2014 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is Samantha and I will be the operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session towards the end of the conference call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr. James Bierman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Owens & Minor. Please proceed, sir. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Samantha. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Owens & Minor fourth quarter and full-year 2014 financial results conference call. With me this morning are Randy Meier, our Chief Financial Officer and Grace den Hartog, our General Counsel. This morning, Randy will review our financial results and I will then provide some observations on 2014 and the year to come. But before we begin, Trudi Allcott will read a Safe Harbor statement. Trudi? Truitt Allcott - Director-Media & Investor Relations: Thank you, Jim. Our comments today will be focused on financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2014, which are included in our press release. In our discussion today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information about these measures and reconciliations to GAAP financial measures are included in the press release and in the supplemental slide presentation, both of which are posted on our website. Also, our call today will be archived on our website. In the course of our discussion today, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Please see our press…

Operator

Operator

Our first question is from Lisa Gill with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Gavin S. Weiss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Hi. It's actually Gavin Weiss in for Lisa. First, Jim, obviously, we'll be sorry to see you to go, but glad you'll be around while this process is going on. And I just wanted to touch on Medical Action and ArcRoyal. You've had these both for several months now, and can you talk about the performance relative to your expectations? And maybe, Randy, can you talk about the performance in ArcRoyal in the International segment? We saw profitability improve there, and what was from ArcRoyal versus the core business? James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So let me start, Gavin, and thank you for your kind comments. Let me start with just an overview of how these two entities are transitioning into the Owens & Minor family. I think that the first 90 days of transition, as we all know, are really the critical ones as to the ability to begin momentum around a new relationship. And I think all of us feel very good about the transition efforts in both Ireland and then here in the United States with both of these new entities. Our existing teammates have gone out of their way to help ease that transition. I think the marketplace reaction to our offering -- and it's in the beginning stages, I don't want to overstate this -- but the marketplace reaction has truly been overwhelming. We think the offering that we have is differentiated, we think it's well positioned, and we think that these two assets by leveraging our sales force and our broader capabilities will be able to optimize these assets over time. Now that being said, there's a thousand things to do sequentially and we're working our way through it. But I can clearly say both strategically and operationally we're on schedule and proceeding as we had expected. Randy? Richard A. (Randy) Meier - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah. Hi, Gavin. I'd echo all the things that Jim said. I think we're well on our way with the integration of Medical Action as well as ArcRoyal. With regard to ArcRoyal's contribution in the fourth quarter, it was fairly negligible. It's a fairly small business relative to the broader size of the consolidated entity even as well as the European operation, and we only had about two months of contribution go through the income statement. However, I would point out, aligning the teams over there, the focus on our manufacturing customers and the influence that ArcRoyal has brought with their customer relationships on the medical device and medical technology side has reinvigorated and already energized team over there to continue to grow and expand their business. So I think, as Jim indicated, we're seeing some nice successes early on but we still have a lot of work to do.

Gavin S. Weiss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then maybe another one for you, Randy. I may have missed this in your prepared comments. But obviously the cash flow trends were a little bit different in 2014. How should we think about cash from operations in 2015 without you returning to a more normalized rate? Richard A. (Randy) Meier - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: I couldn't have characterized it better. I think we have every expectation that we will be back on our normalized trend of the last few years. We closed out the year with a significant revenue growth that we saw in the fourth quarter. We had some significant changes in terms of some inventory builds, receivables, with the increased business and certainly continue to take advantage on our payable side of some of the benefits of continuing to pay on time. But that all resulted in some timing issues at yearend. So we ended up with a bit of use of cash. So, I think, this was more of an anomaly and we would expect to be back on track as we go into 2015.

Gavin S. Weiss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Glen Santangelo with Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Glen J. Santangelo - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yes. Thanks and good morning. Just two quick questions if I could. First on the revenue growth. It seemed like in the U.S. 6.3% was a nice number and even 4.5% if you exclude Medical Action. But Jim, in your prepared remarks, you talked about the onboarding of the large IDN in the second half. Could you maybe give us a sense for what revenue growth might have looked like ex that customer? I'm just really trying to get a sense for maybe where organic revenues are at this point? James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Glen, great question. Don't have the specific number right in front of me, but I can give you directionally. Fundamentally what we saw in the latter two quarters of 2014 was an increase in utilization at least in our customer base that created a same-store sales kind, think of it in those terms, the same-store sales kind of a lift. That was probably, I would estimate, 100 basis points to 200 basis points better than we have seen for a good number of quarters. So that's generally, directionally, what we saw. And I think as you reflect on the outlook that Randy and I both had at the Investor Day, in our outlook for 2015 that was a pretty pivotal point in time to decide whether or not that trend was an anomaly of just one or two quarters or was something that we thought had a degree of consistency to it. And we spoke in terms of our outlook for 2015 seeing that continue. I think the fourth quarter results validated that…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sean Dodge with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Sean Dodge - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning, Jim. Congratulations and good luck. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Sean.

Sean Dodge - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open.

Can you start by talking a little bit more about the bounds of the successor search? Are you looking both internally and externally, and what kind of candidate are you targeting? Is there certain type of experience or professional background you're specifically looking for? James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, Sean. I think some of that probably isn't appropriate for this kind of forum, but let me talk a little broader if I could for just a minute on this. I think if you put the whole succession issue in context, the company has been working through succession planning for well over three years now and it's been a series of events. It began with Gil Minor handing over chairmanship of the board of directors to Craig. And then, it then moved on to Craig handing over the CEO role to me. And if you look at it within that timeframe and those components, this is a natural next step, and one could say, more than likely the last next step of the process. I think in each of these moves the transition's been handled thoughtfully, carefully and quite prudently. And I think, as we look into this next move, that was the motivation behind initiating and disclosing what we were going forth with. One of the reasons to disclose now is to ensure that the search is broad enough and transparent enough that we don't accidently miss candidates that could be potentially a perfect fit. So, I think by going public the way we have, and we will look at some internal candidates, but Heidrick & Struggles has been engaged and they will conduct the search on a broad scale. I think that assures the investor community as well as the teammates here that it's a very thoughtful and prudent process. And I have great comfort and confidence in the Search Committee of the board of directors as we embark upon this.

Sean Dodge - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open.

Okay. Make sense. Thanks. And Randy, you brought the International segment back to profitability in the fourth quarter, so congratulations on that. Is the focus now going forward more of a cost one or there are still more that need to be taken out? Or is consistent profitability going forward more a function of continue push revenue higher? Richard A. (Randy) Meier - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: I think as we look at our International business, there's a couple of things that come to mind is to remind folks: we still have a bit of a seasonal business over there where you have a somewhat stronger fourth quarter as typical in Europe. We began the year with a little bit softer projections. But I think a lot of what I'd characterize as the real heavy lifting is behind us in Europe. And I think looking at our exit and realignment and significance of the charges in the third quarter and the fourth quarter would be indicative of that. Going forward, I think we've got an opportunity with some of the initiatives to continue to expand the business and add to the top line, but as is customary here at Owens & Minor, we're going to watch the cost side of the sensory (31:23) very intently, and if we need to take incremental steps to ensure profitability going forward, we'll certainly do that. So I'd say we're probably back to a little bit of a more normal operating pattern there, and certainly it goes without saying that we're going to watch the cost side and if we begin to be short, we'll take the necessary actions to keep moving in the right direction. But a lot of focus being made on what we're going to do to continue to expand the platform, work with global customers and continue to pursue the strategic initiatives that Jim and Craig have outlined as they sort of added the International side of our business.

Sean Dodge - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open.

Very good. Thanks again. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Sean.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Steven Valiquette with UBS. Your line is open.

Steven J. Valiquette - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Hi. Thanks. Good morning. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning.

Steven J. Valiquette - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

So also Jim congrats on the upcoming retirement. And again fortunately the tough question that we're still getting from some investors is, why announce so shortly after getting the CEO position and (32:32) a little bit, but maybe just any additional color, I think investors just want to make sure nothing else has changed operationally within the company to prompt this. Then I have just one follow-up afterwards. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. So I was trying to stay away from this one part, but the reality is, I'm 62-years-old and the company needs to have someone with the horizon, a runway that's longer than that. And there's nothing more to this than that is an issue. I think if my runway was longer, this wouldn't even be a factor. I have nothing but true love for the company, for the teammates that work with us at Owens & Minor, and I feel strongly about how we are positioned in the marketplace and positioned for success. And I truly believe that as we are positioned for success that it's a time like now that is the best time to begin to bring a successor on in order to ensure that continuity of strategy and management. So, I truly believe, it's for the good of the company that we do this at this particular point.

Steven J. Valiquette - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Okay. And just a couple of quick financials for Randy. Just the interest expense of $7 million in the quarter, it was a little messy to try to search for the all the one-time charges but is that a little higher than what the quarterly run rate will be for interest expense going forward or is that the actual run rate to use now going forward? Richard A. (Randy) Meier - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah. I think that may be slightly higher than it would be, just given some of the interim borrowings that we did just as we started to see some upside in the top-line growth But I think generally speaking with the recapitalization that we did at the end of the third quarter, you are going to see higher interest rates going or higher interest expense going forward.

Steven J. Valiquette - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Okay. And then, quickly the ArcRoyal acquisition, did you guys disclose just the approximate revenue run rate of those acquired assets, just to kind of help us out a little bit for modeling purposes? Richard A. (Randy) Meier - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: I'd have to go back and look, I know, we didn't disclose a significant amount of financial information. It is a much smaller entity than Medical Action. I think, when we looked at it there was some technical expertise that they brought to the table and a service model that we thought was very leverageable going forward. So, it's a fairly modest business. In general, the run rate that they brought to the table in dollar terms was probably about $65 million a year, on an annualized basis. So that just gives you some color on it so.

Steven J. Valiquette - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Okay, perfect. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Bierman for his closing remarks. James L. Bierman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Samantha. And thank you all for taking time to listen to our earnings call. We appreciate and value your interest in Owens & Minor. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.