Earnings Labs

FMC Corporation (FMC)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 29, 2015

$15.17

-2.57%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+2.38%

1 Week

+4.29%

1 Month

+5.54%

vs S&P

+4.66%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Release Conference Call for FMC Corporation. Phone lines will be placed on listen-only mode throughout the conference. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer period. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Brian Angeli, Vice President-Investor Relations for FMC Corporation. Mr. Angeli, you may begin. Brian P. Angeli - Vice President, Strategic Planning & Development, Investor Relations: Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to FMC Corporation's third quarter earnings call. With me today is Pierre Brondeau, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman; and Paul Graves, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Pierre will begin the call with a review of FMC's third quarter performance and business segment results and then discuss the outlook for Q4 2015 and comment on earnings drivers as we begin to look forward to 2016. Paul will provide an overview of select financial results. The slides accompanying today's call are available on our website and the prepared remarks from today's discussion will be made available at the conclusion of the call. After the prepared remarks, we will be joined by Mark Douglas, President, FMC Agricultural Solutions; Eric Norris, President, FMC Health and Nutrition; and Tom Schneberger, Vice President and Global Business Director, FMC Lithium, to address your questions. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning specific factors, including but not limited to those factors identified in our release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Information presented represents our best judgment based on today's information. Actual results may vary based on these risks and uncertainties. Today's discussion will focus on adjusted earnings for all income statement and EPS references, and pro…

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Aleksey Yefremov from Nomura Securities. Please go ahead.

Aleksey Yefremov - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst

Yes. Good morning, everyone. Could you discuss the credit terms that you extend to farmers in Brazil currently and how do they – how are they different from what you had earlier this year?

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst

Hi, Aleksey, this is Mark. The credit terms are not fundamentally different this year to any other year. You know very well, all the people that follow the ag space, that a lot of the terms are on crop terms and we currently have the same terms this year that we've had in the past.

Aleksey Yefremov - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you. And as a follow-up, can I ask a question on pricing? How do you see the opportunity in raising local prices in Brazil to offset the remaining 50%, 60% of FX headwinds? Could you do some of that in the fourth quarter or early in 2016? Thank you. Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Price increase in Brazil is very much a factor of weather diary. So what we are saying is, if the real versus dollar is in a stable situation, we will, over time, recover a very large part of what we have lost in currency. Now, our ability to do it will go anywhere from six months to a year-and-a-half, two years, depending upon the market channel and the demand. What we have visibility for right now is the fourth quarter. So we believe in a stable currency environment, what we just said is, we'll recover about 40% of the currency impact in the fourth quarter. That's what we have put into the fourth quarter forecast and we believe it's highly achievable. The question mark for us and the most interesting conversation we will have in February, when we announce our Q4 results and forecast for 2016, is, is the real showing sign of stability where it is today and what is the market demand, because that's when the opportunity comes to increase price without suffering the negative impact of currency. So right now, focused on fourth quarter, we will recover about 40% and then filling up the gap will depend upon the stability we'll see in the real.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from Don Carson with Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

Don Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

Yes. You've expressed some caution about the outlook for next year in crop chemicals globally because of channel inventories. Can you specifically discuss the level of channel inventories in Brazil as well as in the U.S.?

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

Hi. Yeah. Don, it's Mark. I'll start with Brazil first. You've seen a lot in the press recently about channel inventories predominantly around insecticides and herbicides in Brazil. Insecticides due to weather and low pest pressure, so we see elevated channel there. In North America, it really depends on the types of products. Certainly, insecticides, we see higher channel inventories both for foliar and soil insecticides. We've had basically three years of very low pest pressure and so you could imagine, the channel inventories builds up there. For us, we had a very good year in North America with our pre herbicides, the Authority brands and we see normal to slightly higher channel inventories there. And then on fungicides, fungicides are pretty normal in North America.

Don Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

And as a follow-up, does the expansion of Intacta acreage this fall in Brazil have any impact on your soy insecticide business down there?

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

Intacta has been in the market now – this is, I think, its third year. Obviously, the acreage is growing. It does impact the number of sprays for certain types of pests, and yes, we along with others are impacted there. But we have other products that take out the secondary pests. For instance, our TALISMAN insecticide is very good on stink bugs, which is a growing pest in soy area in Brazil. So we expect to see increase in usage of those types of products. So there are always pluses and minuses when you see these new traits introduced.

Don Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial. Please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from John McNulty from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. John P. McNulty - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So we saw a pretty solid – or you guys saw a pretty solid jump that you articulated in the cash flow for 2015. I guess, do you have – can you give us some granularity if the Ag markets play out the way that right now you're expecting them to, what can we see in terms of further cash improvements in 2016? Paul W. Graves - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: It's Paul. Let me try and tackle that one. Most of the opportunities I'm sure you're aware are comes through our Brazil receivables balance and as we looked into next year and obviously we're not forecasting a rapid recovery in demand in Brazil, we would expect to see the trend that we've seen in the first three quarters of this year of releasing cash out of working capital continue. We've I think been pretty consistent when we've said that to unwind the positions that we have as the market slows down will take at least a full season, which takes you into sort of second quarter and third quarter of next year before we'll start to see the benefits. As I said, we've generated from working capital across the business something in the region of about $75 million of cash out of our working capital. I would expect that we could do much better than that, if the market continues as it is, because we will start to see an acceleration of the release in the Brazilian receivables balances. John P. McNulty - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then,…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Frank Mitsch with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Good morning, gentlemen. Hey, Paul, I really appreciated the discussion on working capital savings and noticed that inventory is down $100 million sequentially to a level of $900 million. A couple of questions. Where can you get that to? And then also on the discussion on the cost reductions, the increase to $140 million to $160 million. What is the expense associated and the pace of those expenses necessary to achieve those cost reduction targets? Paul W. Graves - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Let me pass over to Mark first to talk about inventory, because most of the opportunities in inventory are going to be in the Ag business.

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah. As you could see, we have reduced inventories. And what we are doing is we're taking advantage of the Cheminova acquisition to look at the combined businesses and understand the flow of materials. We are essentially reducing the channel inventories within our own supply chain. So we're not putting customer supply at risk and we're tending to shift products away from formulating ahead of the season to formulating at the latest possible time. So we're carrying less formulated inventory, but we're carrying active ingredient inventory, which allows us to reduce the total amount but still have flexibility at the customer level. So it's been successful so far. We have more programs in place. I can't actually, Frank, give you a number for the reduction, but you will see it go down as we head into 2016 and probably through the first half of the year. Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: All right, Frank, let me take your question on the cost to realize the synergy. The cost to realize the total $140 million to $160 million of synergy, which of course, includes all of the costs for the integration of Cheminova consulting costs. So it's not the cost which is only associated to the incremental part. The total costs for the $140 million to $160 million will be in the range of $120 million to $130 million. We have, of that cost, about $65 million were spent so far in the process. And most of the rest of the spending will take place in 2016 and a very large part in the first half of 2016.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

All right. Terrific. And coming back, Mark, on the Ag side, Pierre mentioned that there was a holdup in Argentina to receive some approvals. And I was wondering if you guys could give a little more color on that and what the order of magnitude opportunity that could present for you if and when you do get those approvals?

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah. We have – Frank, we have ongoing business in Argentina and essentially what we do is, we currently import fully formulated materials into the country. The Argentine government has changed some of the rules where it's a little more difficult to get fully formulated products in. So we are looking at a strategy in Argentina where we will import the active ingredients and then formulate in Argentina itself. That should allow us more flexibility in terms of taking advantage of the market down there. For us, that market is pre herbicides for soy, a big market for us. We use our Authority brands based upon sulfentrazone. Currently, today, we are in the $80 million to $100 million of revenue range. We see that growing despite a difficult market. So it's significant for us. Getting the import licenses has been frankly a bit of a pain over the last year or so, but eventually, that will free up because the growers down there do need the technology to get the highest yields for especially the raw crops of soybeans.

Frank J. Mitsch - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Good morning. So two questions. One, as you look at the corporate cost reduction, what happens once you resume, you get back on a growth trajectory in 2017, 2018? Do you see that being a flat run rate or should it start growing in line with sales? Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: So the change we are making really is a very sustainable change. So – of course, there is always inflationary cost, but those are not cost reduction, which are temporary holding back on hiring people. Those are fundamental change in our processes, the way we operate, benefiting from the synergies of Cheminova, so those are permanent change which are to remain. The spending has to remain at the same level when we go back on a top line growth.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then just putting together all the factors you called out, it seems as if – just to be clear on the message – that there is a tailwind of about $150 million to $175 million for your EBITDA in 2016, but then you have your FX and the contraction in the crop section chemicals to offset, is there anything else in terms of possible tailwinds that you sort of see as a possible swing factor? Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: The big tailwind – as you say, we released all of the numbers we see which we control and we feel very comfortable to deliver. Then, there is the question of growth synergies with Syngenta, we are very careful with – sorry, is it Syngenta – with Cheminova. We have a difficulty to really quantify that. We know it's happening, we know it's in line with our expectation. But the problem is when you are in a down market, to requantify growth synergies is always difficult. So there is growth synergies which we have not factored here. There is growth for a specific product where we have very strong market demand. And the last one which could be significant is price increase depending upon FX, but that's a difficult one to forecast, because if FX stays where it is today and there is a decent fourth quarter this year, which mean, even in the slightly down market, we will have opportunities to increase price in Brazil to recover the gap we have today. But if we continue to have a volatile real next year, we're going to be back in the situation which will be challenging. So, hopefully, by the time we get to the February call, we will know if we have full month or not of real stability and then we should be able to make a little bit better of a prediction around price. So it's a specific growth on the technical product, specific growth synergies with Cheminova and price would be a tailwind you could have in addition to what you see here.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

And then, probably, can you give any granularity around taking the Cheminova products and relaunching them in the U.S. progress estimate or when that should become a material call-out?

Mark A. Douglas - President-FMC Agricultural Solutions

Analyst

Yeah, Lawrence. This is Mark. We are obviously in negotiations now for the 2016 season in North America and this will be the first time we've had the portfolio of Cheminova to sell to the major distributors and co-ops. We are focusing on the fungicide portfolio that Cheminova brought to us. They have some excellent products there that we've not had access to. So they will be put into our programs and then there are some other herbicides that Cheminova brought that we will also be putting into the program. So early stages as we are today but as we've always said, we believe that one of the reasons for the acquisition to be strategic in North America was our access to the major co-ops and distribution. We are taking advantage of that and we will be selling those fungicides and herbicides through that channel.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from line of Peter Butler from Glen Hill Investments.

Peter E. Butler - Glen Hill Investment Research

Analyst

Good morning. Good morning. Pierre, if this was the third quarter 2016 conference call, obviously in late next year, what would you guys be hoping for to see in a relatively good case entering 2017? The odds on having a surprisingly good rebound in earnings in 2017? Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: So, Peter, the way we are looking at where we are today – and I have to say that it feels like we are right now at a position of stability going forward for the company. I think we have infrastructure in place, the integration is well advanced, the cost savings are coming as we are expecting. So the first step for us, beside delivering on Q4, is really to position FMC for earning growth regarding of the market demand in 2016. That's why we started to try to give a sense for the earnings driver we control, which we expect to participate in the earnings growth for the company next year. Your question is the right one in terms of the market demand. In the third quarter or when we are talking about the third quarter results, if we see a situation which starts to unlock in Brazil and Latin America, it will be the definitive signal that the turn of the market is going to take place in 2017. If it is the case, then we are in a strong position because, by that time, integration will be finished and our cost structure will be very, very solid, will be lean. Without losing potential for growth, our portfolio technically will be strong and we have new product coming from technology in 2017, 2018, and 2019. So – but that's when you are going to get your first signal. If we see a Q3-Q4 very challenging in Brazil and Latin America, then we'll have to understand where is the channel in other countries because then you've to have to worry that's going to be slow recovery in 2017. We are still thinking right now all the indicators are pointing toward a 2017 recovery, but you are correct that third quarter call next year will be – we should have a better indication.

Peter E. Butler - Glen Hill Investment Research

Analyst

Okay. Thanks for the help, Pierre. Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Maguire from Goldman Sachs. Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hi, there. Thanks for taking my question. Pierre, there's been a lot of increasing chatter about the need for consolidation in the agricultural chemical space. And one of the larger companies in that space, last week, mentioned that every company is talking to each other in this environment. Just wondered if you could comment on that, if you're kind of having any discussions with folks and I guess given your balance sheet probably not in a position to do any acquiring, but do you see yourself as a target and would you entertain anyone in those discussions? Pierre R. Brondeau - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, there is no questions that there is lots of talk which are going on in the industry, which will most likely lead to some sort of consolidation. I think everybody is talking to everybody and everybody is watching what everybody else is doing. So right now it's like playing chess, everybody is making a move and waiting. Lots of discussion are taking place. How this is going to unfold? I don't think many people know it. I don't even know if anybody know, but certainly there is discussion which will lead to some consolidation. Where FMC stands in such a situation? First of all, we believe we are a strong company which can strive no matter what is the results for the company, but we will be doing good for our shareholders. So, what is right for shareholders, what is right for employees and what is right for our customer is what we will do, but we know we have a strong responsibility to all the shareholders. All I can tell…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the FMC Corporation third quarter 2015 earnings release conference call.