Michele Scannavini
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everybody. Before I begin my comments regarding our business results, I wanted to take a moment to welcome Patrice on his first quarterly call with Coty. Patrice has now been with Coty for several months and will be reviewing the financials during his prepared remarks. Let's turn now to our quarterly results. On the last call, we outlined several Coty initiatives, which gave us confidence that we would return to revenue growth in the second half. Specifically, we discussed our new structures and investment in emerging markets, increased support behind our power brands and some key launches and product initiatives. Today, I'm pleased to say that we have started reaping the benefits of our efforts. And in Q3, we delivered against all 3 strategic objectives. Our emerging market revenues increased 15% in the quarter. Most of our power brands saw growth, and the launches we outlined for Q3 are performing in line or ahead of expectations. As a result, overall revenues grew 2% like-for-like in the third quarter, with positive results in both Fragrances and Skin & Body Care, and solid growth in EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Looking at the market dynamics in the quarter, beauty consumption in the developed markets remained overall flat in the product segments where we compete. Western Europe witnessed some improvements across several product categories, including color cosmetics, deodorants and shower gels. At the same time, the fragrance market remained flat to slightly positive after adjusting for Easter shift. In the U.S., the market environment remains challenging, particularly in the mass channel. The fragrance market, adjusting for the calendar effect, was flat in prestige and declining in mass. The U.S. mass color market decelerated again in Q3, recording a 2% decline. We saw even stronger decline in the nail category, with 12% consumption decrease compared to a 12% increase in Q3 of last year. This represents a further deceleration versus the mid-single-digit decline in the first half. Lower consumption was driven by lower traffic in store, high inventory in consumers' houses and the contraction of the special effects makeup category. On a positive note, we saw moderate destocking across our mass retail customers in the U.S. as inventory positions are now, by and large, reflecting the underlying category demand trends. At this stage, we have no visibility on when the U.S. mass channel market will improve in color, particularly in nail. However, we have reason to be optimistic about our business in the second part of the calendar year due to a stronger innovation calendar, including Sally Hansen robust launch planned for June. Also, the comparison versus the prior year is going to ease up as in the second half of calendar 2013, the nail category shifted to a mid-single-digit decline. Against this backdrop, our third quarter revenues grew 2% on a like-for-like basis. Our prestige portfolio saw strong growth in the quarter, also aided by the easier comparison to the prior year, where prestige fragrances declined 1%. Our mass portfolio was overall flat in the quarter, rebounding from the pressure we saw in the first part of the year. Let's now look more closely at our performance in each of our segments. In Fragrances, our revenues increased 6% on a like-for-like basis. During the quarter, we saw growth in both our prestige and mass fragrances. On the prestige side, growth was driven by strong performance in our power brands: Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs and Davidoff. Leveraging its strong brand recognition worldwide, Calvin Klein recorded significant revenue growth in emerging markets such as the Middle East, Australia, Eastern Europe, China and Travel Retail. Calvin Klein launches in Q3 are off to a good start. The launch of Endless Euphoria in the U.S. propelled double-digit growth on the total Euphoria franchise, with gains in ranking and market share. Our growth in mass fragrances primarily resulted from the new fragrance initiatives such as Beyoncé Rise, Guess Night and David Beckham Classic and distribution expansion for Katy Perry. Additionally, as we discussed on our last call, we launched an exclusivity with Walmart and the enterprise fragrance brand called LOVE 2 LOVE. We are proud to say LOVE 2 LOVE was the #1 new fragrance brand launched in Q3 at Walmart, exceeding our expectation. Color Cosmetics declined 6% on a like-for-like basis, which is an improvement versus the minus 10% we witnessed in the segment in the first half of the year. We experienced continued headwinds in nail, driven by further declines in the nail category, difficult comps for Sally Hansen up against last year's strong launch of the premium-priced [indiscernible] and pressure on Sally Hansen market share. While we are progressing in our comprehensive plan to upgrade and rejuvenate several elements for Sally Hansen mix, including online, offline and in-store image and communication, we are getting ready to launch in June the next blockbuster initiative for Sally Hansen. As anticipated in our previous call, we are refocusing our effort on developing new products to set the new standard of performance in the nail category. This new Sally Hansen product, called Miracle Gel, will provide consumer with the highest standard of nail lacquer performance, guaranteed by the gel formula with a much easier, faster and consumer-friendly application. In contrast to classic gel formulation, Miracle Gel will not need curing with an artificial light and can be removed as easily as normal nail polish. The launch will be supported by an extremely strong communication plan, including digital, TV and print advertising, and retailers are granting strong in-store visibility and support. We are optimistic that this initiative will help Sally Hansen regain momentum in the second half of this calendar year. While we are challenged on the nail category, Rimmel continued its strong performance, with revenue growth in the U.K., France, Eastern Europe, Middle East, South Africa and Australia. The brand continued to gain share in the U.S. and core European markets, speaking to the success of Rimmel innovation and marketing platform. In Skin & Body Care, revenues grew 8% like-for-like. We witnessed broad-based growth in the segment, driven by our 2 power brands, philosophy and adidas, and by Lancaster. We continue to see solid growth momentum in philosophy for the fourth consecutive quarter and increases across all the 3 channels, including retail, QVC and philosophy.com. With growth coming from both new innovation and core franchises, we believe the brand has resumed traction in the core U.S. market. We also see good progress in the international developments. In U.K., our second biggest market after North America, the brand is making encouraging inroads and, even within a very selective distribution, is progressively gaining awareness, share and ranking. adidas also increased in the quarter, supported by strong momentum in the emerging markets such as Brazil, China, Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Africa. The get ready! line celebrating Brazil World Cup was launched in this quarter and, so far is performing well and in line with our expectation. We are also excited to announce that we have signed an agreement with UEFA soccer association to sponsor the upcoming Champions League, the most important soccer cup competition in the world, which will give us the opportunity to develop strong initiatives starting next fall. These [indiscernible] of adidas growth, including the acceleration of emerging market penetration, the initiative related to mega sport events and the extensions in new category, such as male shampoo and male skin care in emerging countries, should keep nourishing the brand growth going forward. Let's turn to our region by region. In EMEA, sales increased 8% like-for-like. We saw strong growth in developed countries, nurtured by signs of market recovery in certain Western European countries, as well as by lower comp as a result of last year [indiscernible]. Emerging markets in the region also experienced solid growth, supported by our new structure in the Middle East and South Africa. In the Americas, our net revenue declined 9% like-for-like. As previously discussed, our U.S. business remained under pressure, primarily as a result of weakness in the mass channel in nail. On the other hand, we reported double-digit growth in Latin America. In Asia-Pacific, our business grew 19% like-for-like in the quarter, driven by momentum in South East Asia and Australia. In China, we grew mid-single digit in the quarter, driven by strong performance of our prestige fragrances, Lancaster skin and sun care and adidas. On the other side, TJoy performance remains far below our expectations. The execution of the brand Revamp Flame, developed by the new management, is not yielding expected results. The TJoy underperformance is currently a drag to the profitability of our China operations and the overall Skin & Body Care segment. We are currently working on scenarios to reorganize our overall mass business in China, with objective of bringing significant benefit to the profitability of Coty China and to the overall Skin & Body Care segment. We expect to be ready to disclose our action plans by the next earning release. As we have continued to [indiscernible], expanding our presence in the emerging markets remains a top strategy for the company. With new joint ventures and subsidiary now in place in key markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Brazil and South Africa, I'm proud to report that our emerging market revenue accelerated to 15% growth in the quarter from 7% growth in the first half. As part of our emerging market strategy, I'm also happy to announce that on May 14, Coty and Avon signed a formal distribution agreement to distribute Coty's celebrity and lifestyle fragrances in Brazil, which is the #1 fragrance market globally. The agreement will allow us to leverage Avon's substantial force of 1.5 million Brazilian sales representatives. At this stage, we expect our brands to start to be included in Avon product catalogs in time for the 2014 Christmas holiday season. As part of our strategy to fuel growth in the business, we remain committed to investing behind our power brands. During the quarter, advertising and promotional spending grew 140 basis points as a percentage of net revenues. We continue to invest into our new emerging markets organization. To fuel those activities, we are applying a strong discipline to our cost structure in the developed markets and keep improving cost of goods, thanks to our Productivity Program. During the quarter, we report a strong 29% adjusted earnings per share growth to $0.22. This growth includes $14 million increase in onetime tax benefits. And our strong focus on cash flow generation has driven $248 million in free cash year-to-date, up 38% versus the prior year. Turning now to the near-term outlook. Market conditions remain challenging in certain product segments and in certain markets, and particularly, in the U.S. mass market. Despite this, we remain focused on continuing our growth momentum through the remainder of calendar year 2014. In light of the uncertainty on market dynamics and a more challenging comparison versus last year growth, we are anticipating fourth quarter revenues overall in line with last year. And from there, we are targeting an acceleration of growth in the first half of fiscal year '15, driven by a strong innovation plan in most of our power brands, an increase of our marketing spending to support growth and innovation and the continuous momentum in our emerging markets. About the digital initiative in Fragrances in the first half of fiscal year 2015, we will count on the launch of new products for Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs and Chloe in the prestige channel and the launch of the new Enrique Iglesias lifestyle fragrance in mass, which should resonate particularly well with Latin consumers. In Color, on top of the new Miracle Gel technology on Sally Hansen, we have a very competitive plan on Rimmel to keep fueling its outstanding growth. In Skin & Body Care, we will launch the new Champions League product initiative on adidas and a new anti-aging franchise on philosophy called Nothing to Hide. In summary, as anticipated, we returned to revenue growth in Q3 as we executed against our 3 strategic objectives. We saw strong momentum in the emerging markets, supported by the infrastructure we have put in place over the last year. We invested behind our power brands by increasing our marketing spend. And this, coupled with a strong innovation pipeline, drove revenue growth in most of our power brands. We continue to believe that this 3-pronged strategy will help us to accelerate our growth in first half of next fiscal year to approach our long-term target of growing revenue in line with or better than the markets and the segment where we compete. In the meantime, we will continue to identify further areas for improvement in our cost structure, and focus on gaining further efficiencies in working capital in order to drive strong free cash flow generation. With that, I will turn the call over to Patrice, who will walk you through the key financial for the quarter.
Patrice de Talhouët: Thank you, Michele, and good morning, everyone. First, let me start by saying I'm very excited to join the Coty team and be here with you to discuss our quarterly results. I would like to remind all of you that my commentary today on our results and outlook includes a discussion of adjusted results, which exclude the impact of nonrecurring items, including private company share-based compensation and restructuring costs. When applicable, I will also discuss our adjusted results at constant currency. This presentation is consistent with how we plan to report results and provide our outlook in future quarters. You can find the bridge from reported to adjusted results, including foreign exchange translation impact, in the reconciliation tables in the earnings release. In the third quarter, our net revenue grew 2% on a like-for-like basis. As you heard earlier from Michele, this was a result of accelerated growth in the emerging markets; leveraging Coty's new joint ventures and subsidiaries; strong momentum in most of our power brands, supported by strong innovation and marketing support; and somewhat easier comparison in the prestige business versus last year. This revenue growth came in the context of a weak market condition in the U.S. and moderately improving market conditions in Europe. It is worth noting that foreign currency had a negligible impact on our top line during the third quarter and year-to-date. Within our power brands, we saw growth in Calvin Klein, Davidoff, Marc Jacobs, Playboy, Rimmel, adidas and philosophy. Calvin Klein, Davidoff, Rimmel and adidas performed particularly well in the emerging market, speaking to the global appeal of our power brands and the benefits of our balanced prestige and mass portfolio. In total, emerging markets grew 15% during the quarter, accelerating from the 7% growth in the first half of the year. In the third quarter, we have recorded a noncash impairment charge of $316.9 million in the Skin & Body Care segment. As Michele discussed, this reflects the challenge we continue to face in China on the TJoy brand, despite efforts to reorganize the brand's management team and introduce new product innovation, resulting in an overall decline of the fair value of that business unit, which triggered the need for an impairment analysis for the quarter. This led us to record a $256.4 million reduction in the segment goodwill, a $54.5 million reduction in trademark and customer relationship; and a $6 million reduction in property, plant and equipment. It is worth noting that following this impairment, there will be no further intangible assets remaining on the balance sheet related to the mass and Skin & Body Care reporting units or the TJoy brand. The impairment action should drive -- improve ongoing profitability for the Skin & Body Care segment, as we benefit from an annual $8.3 million reduction in amortization expenses. Overall, we are actively evaluating a number of different options to optimize our China mass business and mitigate the drag on our Skin & Body Care profitability, and expect to share our action plan by the next earnings call. Our adjusted gross margin for the quarter slightly decreased by 10 basis points to 61.6%. Higher discounts and allowance needed to compete in the highly promotional market, particularly in the mass channel, as well as unfavorable foreign exchange, were largely offset by productivity gains in our supply chain. Our reported operating income decreased to an operating loss of $272 million from $30.1 million profit in the prior year, primarily driven by the $316.9 million of impairment charge. Reported net income decreased to a loss of $253.3 million from $20.4 million profit in the prior year, primarily driven by lower operating income as a result of the asset impairment charge, partially offset by a $14.3 million increase in income tax benefit during this quarter. On an adjusted basis, operating income declined 22% to $81.4 million. As a percentage of net revenues, the adjusted operating margin decreased 230 basis points to 8.1% from 10.4% in the previous quarter -- in quarter of 2013. This margin decline is primarily the result of 140 basis point increase in advertising and promotion spending as a percentage of net revenues to support our brands and increasing emerging markets investments, in line with our strategy and commitment to long-term growth. As far as cost-containment measures are concerned, we are proceeding as planned with our Productivity Program. We continue to expect to see annual savings of over $25 million by the end of this fiscal year, reaching $45 million in savings by the end of fiscal 2015 and $60 million by the end of fiscal 2016. To further build on this momentum, we are currently evaluating our operating model to identify additional areas for simplification and standardization. Let us now look at our performance by segment. Fragrances revenue grew 6% like-for-like, including 7% volume growth, partially offset by negative 1% price mix. The negative price mix reflected a higher proportion of mass and masstige fragrance this quarter. Adjusted operating income for Fragrances decreased 2% to $54.3 million, while the adjusted operating margin declined 70 basis points to 10.7%. This decline reflects lower gross margin, in part, reflecting negative foreign exchange, the negative impact of ceased activities in the prior year and some portfolio mix shift, as well as investment in emerging markets. In Color Cosmetics, revenue declined 6% like-for-like, with a 5% volume decline coupled with a negative 1% price mix. Adjusted operating income decreased to $36.7 million, with the operating margin down 310 basis points to 10.6%. While maintaining the gross margin for the segment at the same level despite the sales decline, we meaningfully ramped up marketing support to the segment to regain traction in the coming quarters. For the Skin & Body Care segment, revenues grew 8% like-for-like, including 4% volume growth and 4% positive price mix. The positive price mix reflected a mix shift in the quarter toward prestige brands, philosophy and Lancaster. Adjusted operating loss for the segment increased to $9.6 million from $2.2 million in the prior year, as we have ramped up advertising and promotion spending behind the brand to accelerate the momentum of the segment. Going forward, our operating income in the segment should benefit from the $8.3 million reduction in annual amortization expenses following the recent asset impairment. Our adjusted effective tax rate was negative 40.9% compared to 6.9% in the prior period. This was due to a one-off recognition of tax benefits upon settlement of certain foreign audits totaling $38.1 million compared to a onetime tax benefit of $23.8 million in the prior period related to the extension of 954(6)(c) resulting in a $14.3 million increase in onetime tax benefits. The settlement of the foreign audits should also provide an ongoing incremental benefit to our book tax rate of approximately 100 basis points. As the results of the above, our adjusted net income increased by 27% to $86.7 million. This drove adjusted EPS of $0.22, up from $0.17 in the prior period. Net cash used by operating activities totaled $4.2 million in the quarter, and was a source of cash of $443.1 million in the last 9 months. And after capital expenditure, our free cash flow was $247.9 million in the last 9 months. Let me now offer an update of our SAP rollout, which has contributed to our continued operating efficiencies. We advanced our SAP rollout program with the April 1 launch of SAP in our largest manufacturing plant located in Sanford, North Carolina. The system and process ramp up period is underway and we continue to focus on changed management throughout the facility. With this implementation, we plan to exit fiscal year 2014 with over 70% SAP global coverage in both commercial and manufacturing. The SAP rollout program is expected to continue in fiscal 2015. Finally, we have been actively deploying capital in the public markets as part of the $200 million share repurchase program we announced in our last earnings call. During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 4.5 million shares of our Class A common stock for $67.6 million. And I'm pleased to say that the total amount of cash deployed for repurchases to date has reached $100 million. We believe this speaks to our commitment to driving shareholder value and our view on the value we continue to see in our shares. With that, I will turn the call back to the operator for questions. Thank you.