Frank Monteiro
Analyst · Barclays
Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Before diving into results, I'd like to point out a few important items.
First, in this quarter, we completed certain changes to our organizational structure that resulted in the reclassification of our 3 reportable business segments, Performance Materials, Graphic Solutions and Agricultural Solutions into 2 reportable business segments that we're now calling Performance Applications and Agricultural Solutions.
We have reorganized and rebranded our operations by consolidating our Performance Materials and Graphic Solutions segments into the Performance Applications segment. This segment now contains the full legacy MacDermid business and better represents how we intended to view the businesses going forward.
Second, as Ben noted, in addition to our actual results, we will be presenting numbers on a pro forma as-adjusted basis, meaning comparisons in analytics for the current and prior years will reflect the combined businesses as if we owned all acquired business units for the full year. We believe that our reported results only partially reflect the ongoing operations of Platform as they include deal-related costs, purchase accounting adjustments and other noncash items associated with our acquisition strategy.
We further believe that our investors will find our pro forma as-adjusted results provide a clearer picture of our underlying businesses and their growth rates. We refer you to our supplemental slides posted on our website to assist you in understanding these adjustments.
We are pleased to report a record quarter for Platform for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. On an actual results basis, Platform's reported revenue was $534.8 million versus $183.7 million in the prior year, an increase of $351.1 million. In segment terms, Performance Applications revenue was $180.3 million versus $183.7 million in 2014, a decline of $3.4 million or 1.9%.
The Agricultural Solutions segment, which was new to Platform in quarter 4 of '14, finished quarter 1 of '15 with revenue of $354.5 million. On a pro forma as-adjusted basis in actual dollars, Platform had quarter 1 2015 revenue of $622.3 million versus $666.7 million for the same period in '14, a decrease of 6.7% or $44.4 million.
The Performance Applications segment declined $3.4 million or 1.9% from $183.7 million in 2014 to $180.3 million in 2015, as previously mentioned, while the Agricultural Solutions segment declined $41.8 million or 8.5% from the $483.8 million in 2014 to $442 million in 2015.
As Dan discussed, the strengthening of the U.S. dollar continued to represent a headwind to our operations in the first quarter of 2015. On a pro forma as-adjusted basis in constant currency, Platform grew revenues by 9.6% or $54.3 million, growing from $567 million in 2014 to $621.3 million in 2015. The Performance Applications segment increased revenues by 5.9% or $10 million, growing from $170.4 million in 2014 to $180.4 million in 2015.
The Agricultural Solutions segment increased revenues 11.2% or $44.3 million, from $396.6 million in 2014 to $440.9 million in 2015. Platform pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA in reported U.S. dollars for 2015 was $134.6 million versus $133.9 million in 2014. On a segment reported basis, Performance Applications pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA was $48.5 million, which is up $1.9 million or 4.1% over the prior period, while the Agricultural Solutions segment reported pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA of $86.1 million, down $1.2 million or 1.4% over the same period.
Adjusting for currency effects, Platform pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA for 2015 was $135 million versus $110.7 million in 2014, which is up 22% or $24.3 million. On a segment reporting basis in constant dollars, Performance Applications pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA was $48.5 million, which is up $5.3 million or 12.3% over the prior year period, while the Agricultural Solutions segment reported pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA of $86.5 million, which is up $19 million or 28.1% over the prior period.
The key drivers of performance in this quarter in our Agricultural Solutions segment were an above-average start to the growing season in Europe and strong sales of our higher margin value-added products. Our Performance Applications segment benefited from strength in our Electronic Solutions business, which related to product launches based on strong overall end market demand and a solid quarter for our Offshore Solutions product offerings.
During quarter 4 of 2014, we raised the equity needed to close the Arysta transaction. And in Q1 of 2015, we finalized the debt offerings that were required. This consisted of a new $2.1 billion in new debt, $1.1 billion worth of U.S. dollar bonds, $350 million of euro-denominated bonds, $500 million through an incremental add to our dollar-denominated term loan, $83 million in euros through an incremental add to our euro tranche loan and finally, $150 million of draw on our revolver to infuse cash into the agricultural business.
As of March 31, 2015, quarter 1 net debt was $3.3 billion. We remain committed to our leverage multiple at or below 4.5x of EBITDA and are confident that it will turn to that level in the next 12 to 18 months.
From a cash flow and free cash flow per share basis, mid-quarter 1 into quarter 2 is the working capital build period for our agricultural business. We had a working capital outflow of $61.1 million in this quarter versus the $4.8 million outflow in 2014. This entire swing in working capital is related to the Agricultural Solutions business that we acquired over the last 6 months, and it's consistent with the guidance that we have been providing. This outflow makes up the bulk of the funds used in operating activities.
Moving to cash flows provided by investing activities. You can clearly see the outflow of funds associated with the purchase of Arysta making up the largest portion. From a CapEx standpoint, we had an outflow of $20.8 million in the quarter for general projects that carried over from the prior year and an additional $8.4 million that related to costs associated with the registration and reregistration of product offerings within our Agricultural Solutions segment.
Foreign currency reduced our cash position $10.6 million in this quarter. Recurring free cash flow per share was a negative $0.01 in the quarter. The quarter's lack of free cash flow was anticipated, as we've been discussing, and as we integrate the businesses, we will focus intensely on improving our working capital. This is something that we are very confident that we can do.
A few words to put a finer point on foreign exchange volatility, which we highlighted on our Q4 earnings call and again at our Investor Day. We continued to see large foreign currency moves in the first quarter that impacted us meaningfully. On our last call, we talked about foreign currency representing a 10% headwind based on end of February rates. Rates continued to move against us in the month of March, and based on spot rates at the end of March, foreign currency would have been a 17% headwind to EBITDA.
In the intervening month, rates have recovered somewhat and returned close to the end of the February levels. We have implemented pricing actions, hedging, barter transactions and other mechanisms to mitigate the effects of currency, especially on our cash flow.
The first quarter is heavily weighted to the month of March, so we earned meaningful revenue at the trough of the recent foreign currency rates. However, due to our combination of strong operating performance in the quarter and the recovery in foreign currency rates since the end of March, we are reaffirming the guidance we gave at our Investor Day. We continue to caveat that this guidance is based on foreign currency as of a point in time, in this case the April 30, 2015 rates.
To review our guidance once more, we continue to believe that 2015 full year pro forma as-adjusted EBITDA will be between $660 million and $680 million, and adjusted earnings per share will be $1.20 to $1.25.
I would now like to turn you over to Wayne Hewett, Platform's President, to discuss our Agricultural Solutions segment and our integration process in more detail. Wayne?