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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 26, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Air Products and Chemicals' Fourth Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded at the request of Air Products. Please note that this presentation and the comments made on behalf of Air Products are subject to copyright by Air Products and all rights are reserved. Beginning today's call is Mr. Simon Moore, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Simon R. Moore - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Air Products' fourth quarter 2017 earnings release teleconference. This is Simon Moore, Vice President of Investor Relations. And I'm pleased to be joined today by Seifi Ghasemi, our Chairman, President & CEO; Scott Crocco, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Corning Painter, Air Products' Executive Vice President, responsible for Industrial Gases. After our comments, we'll be pleased to take your questions. Our earnings release and the slides for this call are available on our website at airproducts.com. Please refer to the forward-looking statement disclosure on page 2 of the slides and in today's earnings release. Now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Seifi. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you, Simon, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for taking time from your very busy schedule to be on our call today. We do appreciate your interest in Air Products. The talented, committed and dedicated team of Air Products, our people, delivered an excellent set of results. For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, our earnings per share was up 18% versus last year, and for all of fiscal year 2017, earnings per share was up 12%. This is the 14th consecutive quarter that we have reported year-on-year EPS growth. This is also the third consecutive…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And we'll take our first question from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Just on the merchant pricing in China, obviously nice acceleration from 4% last quarter to 6% this quarter. Where do you think we are in terms of utilization rates there, feels like there's been a very significant uptick in the past few quarters. Do you think we're in the mid 80%s? I felt like you were being a little bit conservative maybe on the outlook, just talking about how it can lump around. But what are you seeing, and what do you think the bull and bear cases on this line item are going forward? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: First of all, good morning, Vincent. I'm going to ask Corning to answer the specifics, but I'd just like to say that you have to make a distinction between utilization of the overall industrial gas companies in China and our utilization rate. So, Corning is going to address our utilization rate. Corning? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. So our utilization rates are in the low 80%s. I think, you're fishing for what we think the larger market might be. But I think, with the dynamic situation in the steel industry, it's difficult to make a precise estimate of where we think overall industry loading is at. Clearly though, the supply-demand dynamic is better than it has been. Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. And just as a follow-up. In the Americas, year-over-year there was an issue with lower maintenance expense. But then obviously also the volume came back nicely and I would assume that had an incremental positive impact. So, can you just help us bridge last year to this year and what was the gross positive benefit from the maintenance, or would you say the volume was maybe better anyway regardless of the difference in maintenance year-over-year? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. Corning? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. So I would say the volume was a positive for us if we look across the business. Maintenance was a mild positive for us if we look at the fourth quarter. If we look at the full year, relatively flat. Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. Thanks very much. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah, Vincent, I'd just like to add that one of the main drivers for our volume growth grow is our hydrogen business. Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you very much. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Christopher Parkinson with Credit Suisse. Christopher S. Parkinson - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Thank you. You hit a little on this during your prepared remarks, but can you just kind of give us a little more detail on the update on the Lu'An, just the regulatory process, I guess this is the original four to six months. I guess this the reasoning for excluding it from your fiscal year 2018 guidance. And then more importantly probably as well as the Chinese opportunity that may await once you receive the regulatory approval? Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, Chris. Chris, with respect to Lu'An, the approval that we need is that Lu'An is a state-owned company. Whatever they need to do has to be approved by SESAK, which is the overall controller of all of the assets for all of the state-owned companies in China. That process does take time, it is difficult to make an assessment. We quite honestly had a lot of debate about what to do about this thing and we thought that the best thing is to say that, let's not exclude it in our estimate and then when the time comes and we get approval we will obviously add it. But I'd just like to say that Lu'An on a full-year operating basis, if it was operating for the full year, it will contribute to our bottom-line about $0.25, $0.26. So now, during fiscal year 2017 (sic) [fiscal year 2018] whenever it comes up we will inform you. We expect this process to take about five months or six months, it's just like a little bit like anti-trust approval. But we don't know for sure. But as soon as that happens, and we…

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Don Carson with Susquehanna Financial.

Donald David Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial.

Good morning, Seifi. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, Don. How are you doing?

Donald David Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial.

Very good, thank you. Question on the underlying business, you've had a pickup in volume growth. I think you were 6% for the year, but you were 9% for the quarter. If you strip out some of the new projects like India, it would appear that you're seeing some accelerating momentum in your base business in merchant and cylinder gas globally. Is that the case and how do you feel about that momentum as 2018 unfolds? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Well, I think that is the case quite honestly, when you look at what our competitors have announced, you get a sense for that. So overall, we are seeing positive signs for the overall industrial gas industry. And based on what we see right now, we are obviously positive for 2018, but anything can happen. But in general, there is a positive environment for all of us. Corning, you want to add? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Maybe just to clarify for that. In our base number, you know, India is in our equity affiliate. So the biggest driver you're seeing in there is really in the other areas. And if I was going to look in a region like Europe, the base business up 3%. and that's both package gases, which has been on a rebound for us for over a year. But the liquid bulk is a more positive trend for us. So I'd say mildly improving conditions, and that we're seeing that across many of the industries that we serve.

Donald David Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial.

And Corning, how about in North America as opposed to Latin America, are you seeing an improvement in merchant business as well? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Don, to be clear, most of the improvement we saw was really in the HyCO space for us. I'd say we clearly had positive LOX/LIN volume growth for the quarter, but it was modest. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: The growth in the U.S. is very modest.

Donald David Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial.

Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Jeffrey Zekauskas with JPMorgan.

Jeffrey J. Zekauskas - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Hi good morning. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, Jeff.

Jeffrey J. Zekauskas - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Hi. There were $48 million in restructuring charges. Are those cash charges, or non-cash or what's the split? And in the funds flow statement there was $165 million annual benefit from other adjustments. Is that something that we'll repeat next year or it won't? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: I think, the best person to answer this, is Scott. Scott? Michael Scott Crocco - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Sure. Hi, Jeff. This is Scott. So, in terms of the costs for the restructuring, yeah, there'll be cash costs that we'll see. We saw a little bit in this quarter, but most of it that will be seen early part of next year. So yes, there will be a cash cost that's in there. And the other thing in terms of the cash flow statement and a comment on the other tax election. So as I've mentioned, we took a restructuring over South America business that allowed us to recognize a loss that partially offset the gain for Evonik. So, we also saw a benefit, that could be $111 million of benefit to the cash flow statement, about a third of that came for forward in the fourth quarter and the other two-thirds will be in the second quarter, is when we expect to see that.

Jeffrey J. Zekauskas - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Okay. And then was the contribution from Jazan in the fourth quarter similar to what it was in the third quarter or different? And did you notice that Praxair signed a deal with BASF in the syngas area in Louisiana. And do you think that that shows that the syngas area is now sort of identified by the industrial gas industry generally and will become more competitive over time? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Well, with respect to the Jazan thing, I think there wasn't much of a difference between the third quarter and fourth quarter. And then with respect to the syngas, they did announce that they are doing something with BASF on syngas though quite honestly, a month ago, we did – about a month and a half ago, we are building bigger project for Huntsman in the same area. It's a very large HyCO unit providing CO to their MDI unit. So, I think, the idea of providing – they've been providing basically syngas to most of these companies when they build SMRs. The part that we are getting into is when that syngas is being converted to other materials like liquids or diesel fuel and so on, we are getting involved in that part and I'll leave it for the other company to come and if they are getting into that or not.

Jeffrey J. Zekauskas - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Okay. Good. Thank you so much. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Duffy Fisher with Barclays.

Duffy Fischer - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Yeah. Good morning, fellas. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, Duffy. How are you?

Duffy Fischer - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Good. Just question again on Jazan, to follow-on there a little bit. That has been sequentially somewhat lumpier times since we've undertaken it. Can you give us any guidance as we go through this year, should we expect meaningful lumpiness and can you help us with which quarters might be up or down significantly if that's the case? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: I don't expect any lumpiness because quite honestly that project is going very smoothly. The reason that it was lumpy last year in 2016 was because we were not taking any profit for a while, just making sure that the project is real and is on-stream. But during the course of 2017, it has been very kind of not very lumpy and we don't expect that to be – we expect that to be smooth for the balance of 2018.

Duffy Fischer - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Okay. And then just on Lu'An, you talked about kind of that $0.25 of profitability the first year, should we think about that as a baseline that would then grow roughly in line with what Air Products does kind of 10%-plus, or is there some natural synergies there that would mean year two and year three should see meaningfully faster growth than what the base company would see? Michael Scott Crocco - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Seifi. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: The agreement that we have on Lu'An is like our other onsite agreements. It is a fixed BFC. So, the profitability of that business is going to be approximately $0.25, $0.26 on an annual basis, and it will be the same in the future except for some adjustments for inflation. So, that's – it's not a business that is going to grow beyond adjustments that we have agreed with other side for inflation. So that is the good thing because it's not going to go down, it's going to be consistent and it's fixed fee that we charge to Lu'An for providing syngas. Thank you.

Duffy Fischer - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Terrific, thank you guys. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Sure.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from P.J. Juvekar from Citi.

P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Yes, good morning. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning P.J.

P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Seifi, your backlog of $1.5 billion was – it's quite strong in Asia, but has only two projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast. So when the industry adds investment on the Gulf Coast, do you expect to see more projects down the road in your backlog? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yes if there are projects done in the Gulf Coast, when they would happen, we expect to get our fair share of the market. Yes. But there are not that many projects being executed in the Gulf Coast.

P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And the long-term question for you, Seifi. You know a lot about lithium and electric cars, given your background from Rockwood. Do you think that electrification of automobiles will be negative for hydrogen assets for the industry? And you could end up with some stranded assets down the road? Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: No, not at all, I actually the way I see that P.J. is that I think that the industry, I'm not an expert, but I tell you my view. I think the industry is going to shift to electric for sure. But then people are going to find out that now they have to generate the electricity. And certain countries like China, they have a lot of coal that they can burn, it's called clean coal gasification, which is great for us, to use the coal and create clean electricity. But there are countries like Japan, how do you generate electricity in Japan? That is why in Japan, and you look at Toyota, they are not working on electric cars, they are working on hydrogen cars, because they don't have coal to generate electricity and they don't want to do nuclear. I see the transition over time by internal combustion engine, electric cars and eventually hydrogen. So we are very bullish on that and we are, as you know, the leader in this field. And this is a long-term thing, it will happen 15, 20 years from now. But right now we are very active in this area and we see actually a very great future for hydrogen cars, which would be a better solution in the long-term than electric cars.

P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

And are you actively investing in hydrogen cars or creating hydrogen assets for hydrogen powered cars? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: We are actually investing, yes, quite a bit in – not in the production of the hydrogen cars, but in production of fueling station and creating fueling stations, so that when you have your hydrogen car, you can go like a gas station and fill your car with hydrogen. We have some of those operational. If you are in Los Angeles, we can show you those where it says Air Products and you can actually drive there and fill up your car with hydrogen. We are working on hundreds of these, we are working on those in the United States, in California. We have a joint venture now, with Shinwa in China to do this. We are working on this thing in Japan. We are working on this thing in Europe. Yes, we are active. I think of all of the industrial gas companies, we are the most active in this area.

P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you very much. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Take our next question from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners.

Kevin W. McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Vertical Research Partners.

Good morning. You know Seifi, over the past year in particular we've seen a lot of environmental-related supply constraints across various industries in China. If I look at your volume numbers in Asia they're up 17% I think you indicated two-thirds of that was new plants, so maybe you know mid-single digits baseline growth. And so my question is are you seeing or not seeing any impact from some of those supply constraints broadly in China? Or put differently, would your volume numbers in Asia be even better were that not the case? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yes, the environmental constraints in China are very beneficial to us, because one of the effects of the environmental constraints is the shutting down of a lot of inefficient steel industry, which is basically elimination of our competitors because those are small steel companies. Each had an air suppression unit and there was a competitor. So from that point of view it's positive. The second thing is that China is moving in a big way towards clean coal technology and that is why you see all of these gasification projects. That is why we are focused on them. So overall, we are benefiting from the constraints that they are putting there. That is why, when we talk about growth in the future. You always see that we talk about energy, about environment and about emerging markets. So, that is a very positive trend for us. And fortunately, we are in a leading position of us coal gasification and we will see a lot of benefits and a lot of big projects in the future.

Kevin W. McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Vertical Research Partners.

Thank you for that. And then, second question on EMEA. A volume of 18% there, what would that number have been, were it not for the new plant in India. How would you characterize the baseline growth regionally in EMEA? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Corning? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: That would have been 3%.

Kevin W. McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · Vertical Research Partners.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Bob Koort with Goldman Sachs. Robert Koort - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thanks very much. Just a quick one, I'm wondering if there are any rays of hope out there on the LNG side? I think you said it's not going to get worse, but I guess we've seen oils rally 25% or 30% here in the last three or four months. Is that something that might start some increased activity? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, Bob. Bob, I said our LNG base basically is right now, is not making any money. We have restructured the business in such a way that we wouldn't lose anything. So we are at the bottom. Anything that happens will be on the upside. Depending on whom you talk to the industry and I'm sure you are very much – very knowledgeable on this thing, different people take different views. We are prepared to live with – we have said that 2018, we don't expect any improvement, but in 2019, 2020, I think it will come back because no matter how you look at it, the world expect – the world is going to need LNG. So, it's just a matter of riding through the cycle. But fortunately, for us the worst is over. Robert Koort - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: And Seifi, you characterized that China changed behavior towards some of these end markets or production assets helping you. Is there also some scope that, as we've seen in some industries, these will only be temporary adjustments, or do you think there is actually some permanent closure over there that's giving way to some sustainability in these trend? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: We are very optimistic that these are permanent thing, but Corning, you want to make some comments? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. I think that the underlying megatrend in China and their approach to steel and all of that is going to continue. I do think it could be a little bit bouncy between now and then and especially, let's say, in some of the wholesale business areas. Of course, we're moving more towards retail. But I think the underlying mega-trend is going to be sustained for some time. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: It's going to be good for us. Robert Koort - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Got it. Thanks, guys. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Sure.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from David Begleiter from Deutsche Bank.

David I. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning, Seifi. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, David. How are you these days?

David I. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Well, thank you. Seifi, just on your 2018 guidance, I believe that you're looking for a $0.65 EPS increase at the midpoint. Do you have an earnings bridge to get from 2017 to 2018 for the $0.65? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: David, the Air Products used to do that, I told them to stop that, because we don't want to give too much information to our competitors. But basically, what is that $0.65, that $0.65 consists of productivity that we will continue to deliver. It will consist of new plants coming on-stream, which is not a lot if you exclude Lu'An. And then it will come from what we believe will be some modest growth in volumes and some modest growth in pricing. And then you add all of that up and come up with the $0.63. We obviously feel very confident that they can deliver that; otherwise we wouldn't put it in our guidance. But those are the key elements, but we don't break it down anymore as we used to do.

David I. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Very clear, and just on capital deployment Seifi, you know it's a – you know, you can't discuss it all happens. But is it more likely to be second half – first half and second half or vice versa in terms of when the next project or two might be announced for that $1 billion-plus of deployments? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Well, what do you want me to say David?

David I. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

First, I'd like to say first half. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: We're trying. Okay, thanks.

David I. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Steve Byrne with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Steve Byrne - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Hi, good morning. You had this price increase announcement about a month ago when your North American merchant business in the 10% to 20% range. Can you just comment on what's the average term of your North American merchant contracts, and therefore the percentage that might be up for renewal in any given year? And do you see this market tight enough for that to flow through upon contract renewal, or the risk of losing some of these accounts? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Corning will answer that. Corning? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah, so let me speak about the term and then be a little more coy on the pricing just because I think of the competitive situation there. So, the term typically is five years, so you can think of about 20% of it coming up in any given year. Different contracts have different clauses in it, some get rolled before the five-year-period is up and so forth. So I would just say we work pricing hard, and that announcement is part of our overall pricing program, but I'd really not like to go into specifics around that.

Steve Byrne - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

And then one for you Seifi. One of your long-term plans was just a culture change at Air Products. How would you assess where you are at now? Do you see more to go there or has there been a sufficient amount of change in the overall company organization? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Well, on that front, I'm obviously pleased with the improvements that we have made, but I think there is more room to go. As I always tell our people, I'm happy where we are, but I'm never going to be satisfied. Whatever we are we can do even better than that. I think the people have responded very well. I'm very proud of the team. I always say that I'm very, quite honestly, very proud and honored to be part of this team. But there is still room to go. We have 15,000 people in this company and to claim that we have reached every one of them with the new culture would be an exaggeration. So, we do have more work to do, but we have made a lot of progress and I think the best example of that is our safety record because that we need the participation of all of the 15,000 people. And obviously, our financial performance. And it's not easy to improve the EBITDA margin of a company like Air Products, the size of Air Products, by 900 basis points in three years unless you had the full cooperation and support of all of the people. So I thank them for that. But as I said, there's always more room to go.

Steve Byrne - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from John Roberts with UBS.

John Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS.

Morning. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Good morning, John.

John Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS.

As the Jazan equipment sales ramped down, and with LNG at a low level, does it make sense to roll the global segment at some point into the regional segments and maybe take out some more overhead? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: No, the global thing is just what we report. It's not a different sector that somebody is running with their staff or anything, John. That's just how we report it to you, because I did not want to allocate corporate overhead to the regions. So that, it stands out and you can take a look at it and we can challenge it every day. But it's not an organization that if we kind of roll it into other things we would save any money.

John Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS.

Okay, I withdraw the question then. Any opportunities for Air Products to own 100% of Jazan? I mean, it seems like Saudi Arabia is more in a monetization mode as a country and obviously Air Products is in an investment mode here. Is that a possibility or you don't see that down the road? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Well, the thing is that if the 75% of Jazan that we don't own was owned by the Government of Saudi Arabia. I think we might have an argument on that. But the 75% that we do not own is owned by a private company, ACWA Energy, and they like Jazan as much as we do. So, unless we are willing to go and offer them a very high price, I think they like where they are. And certainly that company is a very strong company, and they are not suffering from cash. So, I think the possibility is very low, John.

John Roberts - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS.

Okay. Thank you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Jim Sheehan with SunTrust.

James Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust.

Good morning. With respect to your cash flow focus and distributable cash flow for the outlook for 2018, where do you expect your maintenance CapEx level to be relative to $377 million in fiscal 2017. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: I think we are in solid ground to say that it would be around $400 million. Scott? Michael Scott Crocco - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah, I agree. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. Michael Scott Crocco - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Roughly flat to this year. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: About $400 million.

James Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust.

Thank you very much. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Thank you, Jim.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Mike Harrison with Seaport Global Securities.

Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst · Seaport Global Securities.

Hi, good morning. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Hey, Mike, how are you these days?

Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst · Seaport Global Securities.

Doing well. Thank you. Corning, can you quantify what was the hydrogen growth in the Americas and maybe give a little bit more color on the impact that the hurricane had. Was it all just lost volume or did you end up getting some unusual spot sales because competitors may have been out or people needed hydrogen in unusual places? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Mike, this is Seifi. I am certain that Corning can quantify exactly what the growth in hydrogen was, but he is not going to do that, because we don't want to give that information away. I'm sure you understand that, Mike, right?

Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst · Seaport Global Securities.

Understood. And then I was wondering if you could comment on the progress that you're making in replacing the merchant revenue that was related to Airgas, just kind of update on what kind of impact you expect from the loss of that business and the timing of when it hits you. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: That was a contract where we were not making a lot of money on it. So I'm not sure there was a huge loss on that. But, Corning, you want to – I don't think we're going to quantify anything for you, but Corning do you want to make any general comment? Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. So, we're working hard to replace that volume and we've had modest volume growth, as I talked about earlier, in terms of LOX, LIN and LAR and so we continue to work that. You'll see a full quarter impact of that next quarter. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: And we have taken that into consideration...

Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst · Seaport Global Securities.

Absolutely. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: ...obviously when we gave you our guidance. Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

Hi, there, two quick ones. Can you characterize bidding activity and in particular whether the Lu'An JV returns are comparable to what you're seeing on new bids or if they're above average? And secondly, with reference to your discussion about hydrogen cars, are you seeing any shift, particularly in Europe, about carbon taxes and therefore renewed interest in your technology around Carbon Capture? Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: With respect to Lu'An, I mean, we have told you that the Lu'An returns are – we don't take any projects less than 10%, so Lu'An is higher than that. With respect to Carbon Capture in Europe, we are seeing some legislation, but I think Corning is very informed on this thing; he can give you an answer. Go ahead. Corning F. Painter - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Yeah. Let me just say, just a few weeks ago I was in Europe talking with a major customer about a Carbon Capture project. I think the conditions are always going to require government support and that's not fully in place, but the opportunities enough there that we're in direct conversations with people about it.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time. Seifollah Ghasemi - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.: Okay. With that, I would like to thank everybody for being on our call today. Thanks for taking time from your very busy schedule to listen to our presentation. We appreciate your interest. And we look forward to discussing our results with you again next quarter. Have a very nice day and all the very best.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.