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Globus Medical, Inc. (GMED)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Tue, Apr 29, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Globus Medical’s First Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all lines will be on mute and a Q&A session will be held after the prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to Ed Joyce, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead.

Edward Joyce

Management

Thank you for being with us today. Joining today’s call from Globus Medical will be David Paul, Chairman and CEO; Dave Demski, President and COO; Richard Baron, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. I will now read our required legal disclaimers. During this call, certain items may be discussed that are not based entirely on historical facts. These items should be considered forward-looking statements and are subject to many risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are difficult to predict and may affect our businesses and operations. As a result, our actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. A discussion of some of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors is set forth in our Form’s 10-Q and 10-K on file with the SEC. These documents are available at www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation and do not intend to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or circumstances arising after the date on which it was made. The financial information discussed in connection with this call reflects estimates based on information available at this time and could differ materially from the amount ultimately reported in our 2014 Form 10-Q. Our revenue, earnings, operating margins, cash flows and similar items are sometimes expressed on a non-GAAP basis and have been adjusted to exclude certain items, including among other things interest income and expense and other non-operating expenses, provisions for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, changes in the fair value of acquisition related contingent consideration in connection with business acquisition, provisions for litigations, and with respect to computation of free cash flow, purchases of property and equipment. The comparable GAAP financial information and a reconciliation of non-GAAP amounts to the comparable GAAP amounts can be found in the tables included in today’s earnings release, which is available on the Globus Medical Investor Relations web page at www.globusmedical.com. I will now turn the call over to Dave Demski, our President and Chief Operating Officer.

David M. Demski

Management

Thank you, Ed, and welcome to everyone on the call. Worldwide sales for the first quarter were $114.2 million, an increase of 8.8% over the first quarter of 2013, and above consensus estimates, U.S. sales grew 5.6%. As we mentioned on our last call, the severe weather we saw in the Northeast and the Southeast this winter caused many scheduled surgery days to be canceled, negatively impacting our sales. We estimate the impact of Q1 revenues to be approximately $2.5 million and continue to believe that we will make up that revenue over the rest of 2014. Revenue from our international operations grew by 43% over the first quarter of 2013, confirming the reacceleration of growth that began last quarter. This growth is primarily being achieved in greater penetration in existing markets although we are selectively opening new markets. While we don’t report profitability by geography, the growth in sales, coupled with our existing control over operating expenses has produced significant improvements in profitability from our international operations. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was 36.8%, a 300 basis point improvement over the 33.8% we achieved in Q1 2013. This comes on the heels of a 90 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA, net of medical device tax that we saw for the full year in 2013. It further demonstrates that our strategy of growth through innovation coupled with diligent expense control produces outstanding financial performance. Even though we already operate at a high level of profitability compared to our peers, we see opportunities to achieve additional operating leverage as our business grows. This leverage further enables us to expand into new areas such as robotics. On that topic we have fully integrated the Excelsius team into Globus and are aggressively pursuing our development goals. As we build up that effort,…

Richard A. Baron

Management

Thank you, Dave. Today, I will review our financial performance for the first quarter of 2014 as compared to the first quarter of 2013. For key elements of the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. Our worldwide sale for the first quarter of 2014, were $114.2 million, which is an 8.8% increase over the first quarter of 2013. Innovative Fusion sales increased this quarter to $66.8 million, worldwide $8.9 million from the prior year’s quarter, while Disruptive Technology sales increased this quarter to $47.4 million, or by 8.6% from the prior year’s quarter. Innovative Fusion sales growth was driven by our significant increase in OUS sales, as well as our continued success and adoption of our new pedicle screw line CREO. Sales in the United States for the first quarter of 2014 grew by $101.7 million, or by 5.6%, while international sales grew to $12.5 million or 43% from the prior year’s quarter. Overall growth in sales was attributed to the expansion of both domestic and international territories, as well as greater penetration in existing territories. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2014 was $88.9 million or 77.8% of sales for the current year’s quarter as compared to $81.5 million, or 77.6% of sales from the prior year’s first quarter. Research and development expenses this quarter was $7.4 million, or 6.5% of sales as compared to $6.8 million or 6.5% of sales for the same period 2013. The increased expense was due to expenditures of our robotics project as we discussed during our call in February, we anticipate additional expenses and increases in expenses for R&D in the future quarters due to expenditures relating to this projects. Selling, general administrative expenses were $46.7 million, or 40.9% of sales compared to $45.4 million, or 43.2% of sales…

David C. Paul

Management

Thank you, Rick and good evening everyone. The first quarter of 2014 was another strong period for Globus Medical. We grew our sales by 8.8% reaching $114.2 million. While maintaining our strong profitability profile, with adjusted EBITDA of 36.8% and free cash flow of $23.1 million. We launched five new products in the quarter and completed the integration of the Excelsius team into Globus. On the sales force front, we continue to work on refining our process of recruitment and on-boarding of new salespeople. Our goal is to establish a systematic process to add new territories every year. We continue to believe that Globus remains the destination of choice for the best sales talent in the industry, and aim to capitalize on this demand. Our performance this quarter was the result of consistent, sustained execution of our strategy of combining robust product innovation and continued sales force expansion with disciplined expense control. I am proud of the performance of our team this quarter and continue to be confident in our ability to produce profitable growth in the remainder of 2014 and beyond. Turning to product development I am going to comment briefly on two products from last year. First, on the CREO platform that we began launching in 2013. The initial rollout of the CREO platform continues with great feedback from our customers. We continue to make improvements to the platform, and are also adding new systems to this platform in 2014 including threaded, cortical and MIS options. We expect the CREO platform to become our largest product by 2016. Second, within biologics, we launched KINEX in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the first of a series of products in our biomaterials development pipeline. KINEX is an osteostimulative synthetic biomaterial that includes all the necessary components for enhancing…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Phil Skolnick from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open. Phil Skolnick – Canaccord Genuity, Inc.: Great, thanks. Good evening. Can you hear me, okay.

David C. Paul

Management

Yes, Phil. Phil Skolnick – Canaccord Genuity, Inc.: Good. So obviously a very strong quarter, International outperformed for you. I guess my question is and you kind of touched on it, David is, there was a lot of investment in the distribution channel in the U.S. last year kind of when would you expect that to start contributing to that U.S. top line growth rate? And then my second question will have to do with the margins?

David C. Paul

Management

I think as we talked in the past, it typically two years to get reps up to speed, sometimes two to three year up to full 100%. But in terms of starting to contribute, that’s happening already though. I mean, we’ve got some of those and we hired last year are already producing at fairly significant rates. Phil Skolnick – Canaccord Genuity, Inc.: Okay. And then just on the leverage standpoint, I mean across-the-board the numbers were better obviously the one-time litigation charge hit. Given that this is the type of leverage we saw in the first quarter, your full-year guidance obviously, if I back in the numbers doesn’t reflect that. Do you plan additional investments through the year? Are you just being conservative? How should we think about that?

David C. Paul

Management

I suspect we’re being a bit realistic. Remember that Excelsius was acquired very late – very closely to the end of 2013. So although the numbers reflect our investment in there, it doesn’t – it will ramp up a bit between now and the end of the year on top of the trials and other such things. We are comfortable with the guidance we gave for the year on EPS. The quarter was strong, but it reflected a bit less spending as opposed to anything else. Phil Skolnick – Canaccord Genuity, Inc.: Great. Congratulations on a good quarter, that’s all I had.

David C. Paul

Management

Thanks, Phil.

David M. Demski

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Miksic with Piper Jaffray. Your line is open. Matt S. Miksic – Piper Jaffray & Co.: Hi, good evening. Can you hear me okay?

David C. Paul

Management

Hi, Matt. Matt S. Miksic – Piper Jaffray & Co.: So, just wanted to follow-up on some of the strength in Innovative Fusion. And specifically, maybe some sense of how long we can see – what looks like some acceleration kind of into the back half of last year on some of the new product launches, maybe give us a sense of, is this something that we see a couple more quarters and that we start hitting comps then we slowdown, or is this something like CREO and the other products you talked about that give you – this give me sort of more sustained growth, any kind of expectations would be very helpful, and then I have got one follow-up?

David C. Paul

Management

Well, this is David. Thank you, Matt. First is, because of CREO is what you are seeing some of the acceleration of growth in Innovative Fusion. As you know, pedicle screws have gone for 40% of the market and being the biggest segment and CREO being the next generation screw has been garnering a lot of new accounts and new customers. You’re probably going to see some normalization over time, bt as we launch more and more systems like threaded MIS and cortical, we expect more growth in CREO through 2016, and then there maybe some normalization after that. But the MIS and the cortical version we would count as disruptive, so you are going to see some balancing of that also. Matt S. Miksic – Piper Jaffray & Co.: Okay, it’s helpful. And then just generally as you talked a bit about the quarter and weather impact which is very helpful. Dave, I think you also mentioned that you saw slightly lower volumes than you saw in Q4. I’d love to understand if what you are seeing is sort of what you characterize putting weather aside as more seasonality or whether there was some seasonally adjusted sequential slowdown, or how you think about that comment and then what you expect going forward?

David C. Paul

Management

Yes, it’s little difficult to tell right now what exactly it is. We are a little bit softer than the fourth quarter. I would attribute into a really strong fourth quarter and I’ve seen some speculation out there that the high deductible policies, ObamaCare those things were about to occur and they have caused a bit of a spike in the fourth quarter. So we are seeing a little bit of softness compared to that and usually a high number, there’s nothing systemic or there’s no large customer losses, no larger distribution losses anything like that going on. Matt S. Miksic – Piper Jaffray & Co.: Okay, that’s helpful. Thanks.

David C. Paul

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Roman with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Matt J. McDonough – Goldman Sachs & Co.:

David C. Paul

Management

Part of it is clearly on leverage. Part of last years lack of growth, if you would, might have been attributed to the randomized excise tax. As each in quarter on a year-over-year basis embedded was about 1.8% of gross margin degradation. So you have, I guess a normalization of it at least for this quarter. Our leverage will appear more in the operating expense line than in gross margins. Because as we expand OUS, those prices are a little bit less robust than they are in the U.S. but the operating leverage is how we will grow the net bottom line. Matt J. McDonough – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Great, that’s helpful. And maybe just as a quick follow-up, taking into account the very strong International quarter that you had, how should we think about modeling that? In the past two years you’ve experienced sequential growth internationally. So given the strong quarter, is that something we can expect?

David C. Paul

Management

I think you’re going to look out us on a 12 month basis. If you go back to Q1 and perhaps even Q2 of last year, part of the conversation was around looking at the operations are stepping or making a step back, looking towards profitability. So the growth although, I think higher than had been historically, if you take a look at a 12 month period that’s probably the way to look out it into the future. Matt J. McDonough – Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew O’Brien with William Blair. Please go ahead. Matthew O’Brien – William Blair: Good afternoon, thanks for taking the question. Rick, I know that you guide typically for full year that number, but given the impact of whether in Q1 and then the Excelsius spend over the remainder of the year. Can you just help us frame a little bit the cadence of revenue growth, our performance sequentially over the next couple of quarters and then on the bottom line as well. Should we look at maybe Q2 thing a little bit more of the return of some of the lost value from Q1 or is it going to be sprinkle pretty evenly throughout the year. And then you know on the same line as far as the spend goes, for Excelsius is that going to be Q2 loaded, Q4 loaded, how should we think about that?

Richard A. Baron

Management

Excelsius will theoretically be pretty even throughout the year although it probably ramps just a little bit throughout the year as you get projects going. As far as the sales go, look to bring back in those sales somewhat evenly if you’re going to wait it at all look to the next two quarters, but don’t expect the full amount to come back in the next in this Q2. It is something calendars are full going back to Dave’s comment about procedures in the such calendars are full they’re going to slot in those lost – delays procedures over the course of the next seven, eight months. Matthew O’Brien – William Blair & Co.: Okay. And then just two more from me if that’s okay. When you look at your U.S. business, it’s still pretty healthy growth kind of high single-digits. Is that a function of going again, you can just be more qualitative year than anything, just going deeper within existing accounts, how much of your U.S. growth is coming from going deeper versus adding new accounts, and should that start to shift a little bit more towards potential growth coming from new accounts as those newer reps get up and going?

David C. Paul

Management

It is primarily through getting new accounts and new reps as opposed to going deeper into accounts. Although that is part of our strategy and you have a kind of a natural mix as we recruit and people get up to speed, that in those instances effectively it’s going deeper. But as a general rule it’s a result of our geographic expansion. Matthew O’Brien – William Blair & Co.: Okay. And then last one from me and this question gets asked all the time, but that cash balance continues to grow here pretty meaningfully. There are some assets out there in areas where you guys are not participating within spine right now. I mean are you averse to levering up the company somewhat to go out and buy some of these unique assets that are out there and use a bigger chunk of your cash balance?

Richard A. Baron

Management

I don’t think we are averse to it, but there’s nothing on the horizon that we are looking at that would cause us to lever up. We are very active in looking at opportunities to do bolt-ons and improve our business. So we should be some more activity later this year and we could talk about. Matthew O’Brien – William Blair & Co.: Fair enough. Thank you.

Richard A. Baron

Management

Thanks, O’Brien.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line Richard Richard Newitter of Leerink Swann. Your line is open. Ravi Misra – Leerink Partners LLC: Hi, thanks. This is actually Ravi in for Rich. Just a question, I think I dive in a little bit towards the end of your weather comments. What was the impact revenue wise associated with that?

David C. Paul

Management

We are estimating $2.5 million, Ravi. Ravi Misra – Leerink Partners LLC: All right, thanks. And then sort of maybe if you could just have some larger picture question, thoughts on the Zimmer biomed combination and sort of they are still a smaller player even combined in spine, but sort of any commentary on the competitive impact that you see would be helpful?

David C. Paul

Management

Speaking for myself, I don’t see a huge impact to us given your comment that they were – or really biomed is the combination of (indiscernible) in the former biomed and Zimmer, they are not real big, so we don’t run into them very often, so just point, I don’t see a big impact to us one way or the other. Ravi Misra – Leerink Partners LLC: Okay, great, and thanks. Maybe another – putting that question in another way, have you been seeing any early very, very early sales force sort of people reaching out to you?

David C. Paul

Management

Not yet, Ravi.

Richard A. Baron

Management

I think Ravi more than us, this is probably more in line with the total joined companies and that’s where they have more of the overlap. Ravi Misra – Leerink Partners LLC: Great. Okay, thanks.

David C. Paul

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Lichtman with Oppenheimer & Co. Your line is open. Steve M. Lichtman – Oppenheimer & Co.: Thank you. Hi, guys. Just wanted to follow-up on the international strength, but maybe you could give us a little more color on what countries have been the incremental drivers here the last couple of quarters, and where do you see the biggest opportunities internationally for you as you look out in terms of some of the investments you’ve made as you look out over the next, six to 12 months or so internationally?

David C. Paul

Management

Steve it’s pretty broad-based. I mean, as a part of our business, it’s still relatively small. We are kind of late to the game internationally so we have a lot of upside in the number of market. And I wouldn’t want to anyone in particularly so that the biggest opportunities are where the most procedures and dollars are. So the Europe is first. Long-term Japan is there. Then we’d be followed by some of the more developing market. Steve M. Lichtman – Oppenheimer & Co.: Okay. And then on the biologics connections and now signifying those are getting booked under innovative fusion and with KINEX is that staring to be a contributor to that line that we are noticing or is it sill, are they still pretty small at this point?

David C. Paul

Management

Steve, first we look at it as a disruptive technology, Biologics space so it still pretty small, but it is definitely getting some traction. And as we fill out that portfolio, we are pretty excited about where we can take that older space. As I mentioned earlier on this has been a area of historical weakness for us and both 18 months ago we really sat down to put together a strategy for that and that’s the fruition of the strategy is what we are seeing with the launch of this new products. Steve M. Lichtman – Oppenheimer & Co.: Great, thanks Dave. And then lastly Rick, just to make sure we are on the same page. The $0.90 to $0.92 guidance for the year that’s including at the $0.22 number from the first quarter not the $0.24 number is that correct the $0.22?

Richard A. Baron

Management

The $0.22 – number. Steve M. Lichtman – Oppenheimer & Co.: Yes. Okay, great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line Richard Newitter with Leerink Swann. Your line is open. Richard Newitter – Leerink Swann & Co.: Hi, thanks for taking the follow-up. Just another question on the weather was there any – was it effecting any disruptive or innovative fusion effect one segment more than the other?

David C. Paul

Management

No, it would’ve been pro rata. Richard Newitter – Leerink Swann & Co.: Okay, thanks that’s it for me. Thank you for the follow-up.

David C. Paul

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating in Globus Medical call today. You may now disconnect.