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Accendra Health, Inc. (ACH)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 28, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Owens & Minor Incorporated Third Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Trudi Allcott at Owens & Minor. Ma'am, please go ahead. Truitt Allcott - Director-Investor & Media Relations: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Owens & Minor Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Call. I'm Trudi Allcott, and on behalf of the team, I'd like to read the Safe Harbor statement before we begin. Our comments today will be focused on financial results for the third quarter of 2015, which are included in our press release. In our discussion today, we'll reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information about these measures and reconciliations to GAAP financial measures are included in our press release and in the supplemental third quarter presentation. These items are posted on our website along with an archive of today's call. In the course of our discussions today, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Please see our press release and our SEC filings for a full discussion of these risk factors. Participating on our call this morning are Cody Phipps, our President and CEO; Randy Meier, President-International, and EVP, and Chief Financial Officer; and Grace den Hartog, our General Counsel. Looking ahead, we plan to host our annual Investor Day on Friday, December 4, in New York starting at 8:30 AM. You can find the registration page on our website under the Investor section. We hope to see…

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

Thank you, Cody, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to report the third quarter results were very solid, and our teams continue to make steady progress toward achieving our financial, operational and strategic goals. This morning, I would like to update you on our quarterly and year-to-date results. However, before I begin, I'd like to remind you that we made certain adjustments to our reported results that are detailed in our press release. Third quarter consolidated revenues improved 3.6% to $2.47 billion when compared to $2.39 billion last year. Excluding results from last year's two acquisitions, quarterly revenues increased 1.2%. On a year-to-date basis, consolidated revenues grew 4.8% to $7.29 billion. Excluding the acquisitions, revenues grew 2.6%. On an adjusted basis, quarterly consolidated operating earnings improved $10.4 million to $59.7 million. For the first nine months, consolidated operating earnings improved $20.6 million to $164.2 million. And looking at the segments, domestic revenues for the third quarter were $2.37 billion, a 4.7% increase over last year's third quarter. Excluding the acquisition, quarterly revenues improved 2.6%. Revenue trends echoed what we have been seeing all year and the most significant growth resulting from our large customers. For the first nine months, domestic segment revenues improved 5.6% to $6.97 billion. Excluding last year's acquisition, domestic revenues grew 3.8%. Quarterly domestic operating earnings improved $7.2 million to $58 million. Margins benefited from strong revenue growth and the positive impact of manufacturer product price changes. On a year-to-date basis, domestic segment operating earnings improved $9.1 million to $160.9 million. Turning to the international segment, for the quarter, international revenues declined $20.4 million to $104 million. On a constant currency basis, excluding the 2014 acquisition and the 2014 transition of a customer from a buy-sell to a fee-for-service, the international segment revenues declined approximately 7%…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Robert Jones from Goldman Sachs. Adam C. Noble - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hi. Thanks for the questions. This is Adam Noble in for Bob. I just wanted to go back to the domestic operating margin. Obviously, very strong in the quarter both sequentially and year-over-year. You mentioned that some of the manufacturer price increases -- you shouldn't see the same magnitude of benefit going into 4Q. I'm just wondering if you could parse out what type of benefit that was in 3Q and why you don't think that's as sustainable as maybe typically.

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

Hi, Adam. This is Randy. Probably this question deserves a little bit of color before we get down to some of the more specifics. Over the last year or two, we've been seeing a trend in sort of product price increases. Historically, we've seen this effect typically year-end where we have the impact into the first quarter. And then, throughout the remainder of the year, there's a much lower impact or potential benefit as we went through the year. Beginning about last summer, or about four quarters ago, we began to see a number of manufacturers begin to take some price increases in a very targeted fashion, but outside the normal year-end pace that they usually have. This year, we've seen sort of a benefit come through because of price increases in the first three quarters of the year. And while we continue to think that manufacturers will probably take advantage of these periodic price increases, we're just going to take kind of a conservative approach to this and we just don't think this is going to be sustainable at the levels we've seen the first three quarters of the year. So our comments are more related to just the sustainability of the way we've been seeing these price increases and the potential tailwinds that we've had. So we're just sort of – as we look to the fourth quarter, we think that there's probably going to be less benefit going there. So I think that's all what we're trying to give people some color on. Adam C. Noble - Goldman Sachs & Co.: No, that's really helpful, and I guess to kind of dig into that a little bit more, again, the sequential increase was pretty significant, domestic operating margin. It's – while there was strong revenue growth from the domestic business, you had seen pretty strong revenue growth in the first half. I'm just wondering what might have changed – have you hit maybe a, I guess, a critical juncture with regards to the fixed expense base in the domestic operating business where the incremental revenue growth really should drive that leverage? Or was 3Q more of a – just a really strong quarter that shouldn't necessarily repeat next quarter?

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

Well, I think the broader organization, as you know, has been doing a lot to try to manage the cost side of the equation. And I think when you look at some of the benefits that we're finding you see, (18:08) realize some of that came through in the third quarter, and it was a little bit more visible. So I think the combination of a couple of things, this is nice revenue growth, the continuation of strong performance with our larger customers, as we indicated, some product price increases. Again, with some very strong work around the cost side and managing the expense side of the business I think has – sort of came through and we saw the results and our earnings. All we're trying to point out here is there's a few elements in this quarter that we don't think are as sustainable, but certainly the SG&A or the operating expense side is certainly one that we believe is sustainable going forward. One other thing I will point out, again, as we look ahead is I'll remind everybody that we did provide some guidance in the last quarter that we do have a large customer that was exiting. That customer has exited. And so, some of the top-line growth that we've been experiencing (19:16) throughout the year will probably be a little bit missing, as you go into the fourth quarter; again, part of the reason for – as we move forward with the conservative outlook that we're providing you. Adam C. Noble - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Got you. Thanks a lot.

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

You bet.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Evan Stover from Robert W. Baird. Evan A. Stover - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi. I wanted to dig into the comment that your two kitting businesses have modestly underperformed. I mean, at least from my perspective, what I can see on the revenue, the larger of the two deals, Medical Action, actually had a nice revenue quarter here. Is there something I am missing maybe as we dig below revenue and how margin performance in those businesses are going? And as part of the strategic plan, I mean, what are really the key things you need to do to fix those businesses? P. Cody Phipps - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Evan, I'll go first. And then, Randy can jump in, too. First, as we said, we hit our cost synergies for those businesses. So, that was kind of job one, and I give the team a lot of credit for that. We're pleased with that outcome. As we looked at the businesses, we just have higher expectations for where we want to take those businesses and then how they can collaborate together. So, we're not – the way I would say it is they haven't met our revenue and performance expectations yet on that dimension. And one of the things we're doing is, as we've said, forming one cohesive business unit – a global business unit. And the reason we're doing that, as we see opportunities to leverage capabilities on both sides. So the ArcRoyal business over in Ireland has very advanced lean techniques to improve productivity and drive a better operating environment. We're going to transpose those techniques over here. And similarly, we see capabilities on the Medical Action side that we want to borrow. So, we're just – what we're seeing is we can do better there. And we've aligned a leadership team to go after that. Randy, you want to add anything?

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

Sure. Just to echo what Cody said. I think the – we've done a nice job with some of the integration activities. I think that – I would consider this more consolidating the two business units and adding our global sourcing capabilities to it and trying to leverage some of the structures that we have in a combined unit to make a more complementary organization to our global logistics capabilities here in the United States and over in Europe. So, this is really just more taking advantage of opportunities out there that we think a combined unit will allow us to do. Evan A. Stover - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Okay. Thank you. That's helpful and my second question goes back to the previous question on price changes. I mean, I don't get a lot of quantitative disclosure, but I kind of get the feeling that – I know they're becoming more varied, but I get the feeling in some of your comments that I've heard more about positive manufacturer price changes. Is that a incorrect assumption? I mean, if I just think about maybe year-to-date this year versus last year, is the overall pricing environment about the same, better, or worse?

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

I wouldn't say it's any better. I think what we're seeing from manufacturers is much more targeted price increases in very specific product categories. So, I wouldn't say across the board that manufacturers are seeing just wholesale price increases. That's sort of historically what you'd see at the end of the year. What we're seeing is manufacturers look at their portfolios and at different times through the year taking on specific price increases in a specific product category. And we've seen some reasonable benefit of that over the first three quarters of the year. Evan A. Stover - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): All right. Thank you.

Richard A. Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and President-International

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll pause one moment to see if we have any additional questions. And I see no additional questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Cody Phipps for any closing comments. P. Cody Phipps - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, we thank you for your time today, and we'll look forward to updating on our progress at our Investor Day in December. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a good day.