Earnings Labs

Ferroglobe PLC (GSM)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 26, 2016

$4.64

+1.42%

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

+2.50%

1 Week

+1.19%

1 Month

+9.77%

vs S&P

+10.07%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ferroglobe Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instruction] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host Mr. Joe Ragan, Chief Financial Officer.

Joe Ragan

Management

Good morning and thank you for joining the Ferroglobe second quarter of calendar year 2016 conference call. I'm going to read a brief statement and then hand the call over to Pedro Larrea. Statements made by management during this conference call that are forward-looking statements are based on current expectations. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements can be found in Ferroglobe's most recent SEC filings and the exhibits to those filings, which are available on our webpage www.ferroglobe.com. In addition, this discussion includes EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted diluted earnings per share, which are non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures may be found in our most recent SEC filings. Now, I will turn the call over to Pedro Larrea, our CEO.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. Before we go into the details of the quarter, which Joe with guide you through, let me provide some context into the current environment and our priorities for the reminder of the year. If we turn to Slide 4, net sales on our proforma basis were $398 million in Q2 2016, down from $423.5 million sequentially, primarily due to a decline of 6.6% in the selling price for silicon metal. This price decline was due to pressure from low price inputs. Challenging price pressures persistent in Q2, but prices have stabilized. During this period, the average selling price for silicon based alloys remained flat and the average selling price for manganese alloys, new to our product mix, increased 2% from the first quarter of 2016. In terms of our sales volumes in tonnes, silicon metal has decreased by 5% quarter-over-quarter but improved market dynamics in the steel industry have allowed silicon alloys to recover by 2% and manganese alloys by strong 11%. If we look at current market environment, we continue to see improvement in some spot sales of silicon metal, which indicates slight relief in pricing pressure and suggests the lack of reliability of index prices. In this product in silicon metal, demand remains strong and aluminum, silicon, some polysilicon industries are showing improvements in their market environment. However, as we said last quarter, we do not expect improved price in silicon metal to begin to recover before late 2016. Meanwhile steel sector is benefiting from a better market situation with stronger demand growth and with steel product prices significantly recovering. This is helping our silicon alloys and manganese alloys business. Demand is improving and market prices for ferrosilicon have improved by 3% to 6% depending…

Joe Ragan

Management

Thank you, Pedro. Next slide, go to Slide 9 please. Sales volume was 230,784 metric tonnes for the second quarter, up 2% from the first quarter. And net sales was 398 million, down from 423.5 million in the first quarter. Average selling price across all products was $0.69 per pound, down 6% from $0.74 per pound, including silicon metal, silicon alloys and manganese alloys. We posted a net loss of 42.2 million or $0.25 per share on a fully diluted basis. Excluding the impairment charges, due diligence and transaction costs, the company posted an adjusted net loss of 2.8 million or $0.01 per share on a fully diluted basis. Reported EBITDA loss of 46.6 million for the second quarter was due to the write-off of the company’s Venezuelan assets at the cost of 58.6 million. Excluding the impairment charge for Venezuela, due diligence and transaction costs, Q2 2016 adjusted EBITDA was 17.2 million. Synergy entailment as well as cost control offset the decline in pricing resulting in a 4.3% adjusted EBITDA margin. Working capital continue to decline and generated free cash flow of 8.6 million for the quarter. Next slide, Slide 10. This slide demonstrates the trends we are seeing in terms of quarterly volume shift on a sequential basis. We continue to see stabilization in silicon alloys and sequential growth in manganese alloys. Silicon alloys maintained a constant selling price per pound at $0.65 and manganese alloys increased 2% over the prior quarter due to strength in the foundry and steel industry. We saw a sequential declines in volumes of silicon metal during the quarter, however we are now seeing some improvements particularly in ferrosilicon and silicon alloys. Next slide, Slide 11. As Pedro already mentioned we are focused on reducing costs, improving our working capital and continuing to generate free cash flow. Let me provide some additional details. The company generated $24.3 million in operating cash flow and free cash flow of $8.6 million in the second quarter. We exceeded our working capital synergies target of $100 million, by reducing working capital by $169.9 million over the last 12 months including $96.5 million year-to-date. This includes $41.2 million in working capital improvements in the second quarter. These working capital improvements were driven by prudent management, including significant improvements in both inventory and accounts receivable balances. Working capital discipline has been a strong focus over the last 12 months and will continue to be an area that we will drive for the remainder of 2016. Our balance sheet remains strong with a slight reduction of net debt from $421 million at the end of the first quarter, compared to $413 million at the end of the Q2. Now, I’ll turn the call back to Pedro for closing remarks.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Thanks Joe, Ferroglobe is a newly combined company with a unique strong market position and we are still early in our growth trajectory. We will continue to capitalize on our strong balance sheet and diversified products to drive earnings and deliver value to our shareholders. We believe the current environment is actually a good opportunity for Ferroglobe to further emphasize our focus on generating cash flow and reducing net debt, preparing our Company to fully benefit from the future recovery of our markets. The Board has decided to maintain the quarterly interim dividend of $0.08 per share reflecting our confidence in the underlying strength of the business and the Company’s long-term outlook. With that, let me turn the call back to the operator to take questions. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Ian Zaffino

Analyst

Hi, thank you very much. Question would be here is, if you were to pass out maybe the selling prices of GSM or [indiscernible] versus what you acquired. Is there a way maybe you could give us a sense of what the price differential could be or is between those two different pieces of the business? Thanks and I have a follow up.

Joe Ragan

Management

Thank you, Ian. There is always been a difference in pricing between the U.S. market and the European market. So, there is always a differential that has to do with mainly the transport cost between Europe and the U.S. so you would always expect in the market prices in the Europe or the U.S. to be somewhere around $200 per tonne difference. And that pretty much applies to the entire market and to our sales as well.

Ian Zaffino

Analyst

Right, but on apples-to-apples what was GSM selling for in the U.S. versus what FerroAtlántica was importing into the U.S. what is kind of the effect of price difference between the two, is what I'm trying to get out if I can?

Joe Ragan

Management

Well, when you look at historical data in terms of the imports of FerroAtlántica in to the U.S. and the selling price of GSM in the U.S. prices have traditionally been very similar. Now this year 2016, because of the different marketing strategies at the end of last year it is true that FerroAtlántica prices has been more in line with the index and Globe's legacy contracts were more fixed price and hence higher.

Ian Zaffino

Analyst

Okay, and then when you talk about the imports coming into the U.S. is this somewhat of a new phenomenon you're seeing and if this is the case when you think about M&A and activity, does it makes sense to get bigger in a space that you don’t necessarily have control over kind of what's happening on the pricing side or other benefits that you could get through consolidation or through expanding your footprint? Thanks.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Well, yes the what has been happening this year in terms of the pricing is relatively unique in some respect. First is just some producers that have been benefitting from macro trends in terms of foreign exchange for instance, that's one. And even like power prices in Brazil. Second is just a transitory situation by which for instance Brazilian producers were not in time for the negotiation season at the end of 2015, and they just came into the market pursuing spot business which is a very slim business and basically just driving undercutting and driving prices down with low price inputs. So that is a very specific dynamic of 2016 that has been going on. In terms of M&A, it's in the DNA of our both companies of FerroAtlantica and Globe and of course Ferroglobe as well and it's driven by three factors. First of all is return, so we are looking for investments that with obvious returns, returns on the investment. Second, of course, we are looking at growth of our business. And fair enough yes we think it does play a role in the consolidation of the industry.

Ian Zaffino

Analyst

Okay, alright, thank you very much.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Thank you, Ian.

Operator

Operator

And next question comes from Paul Forward with Stifel.

Paul Forward

Analyst · Stifel.

Thanks, good morning. I want to ask about the, I guess first about Venezuela. It’s a significant source of alloys for the company, I just wanted to see with that loss of production have you rotated elsewhere like for example Siltech, has that been restarted to cover the loss of Venezuelan output? And I guess secondarily was Venezuela significant contributor to the quarter before you decided to make the write down?

Pedro Larrea

Management

Well, thank you Paul. The Venezuelan volume, it could be a lot of volume, but it was not making money, so I mean in terms of the return on our capital it doesn’t make a difference to a large extent, not producing further in Venezuela. Now, yes it's also true that we have visibility to reallocate to other production facilities. We are not planning to restart Siltech that is idled. That is idled for good. But we do have still spare capacity in our other South African facility and we do have spare capacity this year even in some of our U.S. plants. So, whatever volume we need to catch up with, we do have capacity to do so.

Paul Forward

Analyst · Stifel.

Okay, thanks, and I know that -- I mean you've talked about looking at the overall portfolio of assets just wanted to ask is the firm specifically shopping the hydroelectric assets and is that toward the top of the list of potential sales? Either this year or early next year or -- and when you think about asset sales how do you anticipate using the cash, what would be the primary usage?

Pedro Larrea

Management

Well, we are looking at different alternatives of what we consider to be a non-core asset. And we cannot give any additional specific information and whenever we have news to be given we will of course inform you right away. Whatever proceeds we get from disposals or divestitures will -- of course today be first driven to strengthening our balance sheet even further and of course it will also contribute to value creating growth that I was talking about before.

Paul Forward

Analyst · Stifel.

Okay, just a question for Joe then. You gave us quite a bit of an update on operating synergies and working capital reductions. I want to ask about the tax synergies coming from the merger. I guess specifically now that you kind of have an outlook or 2017 is coming closer, what do you anticipate the tax rate in -- let’s imagine in an improving environment in 2017, either pricing or volumes. What kind of tax rate could we anticipate for going forward for the company, sound constituted.

Joe Ragan

Management

Paul, the treasury regulations are in flux at the moment. So there is some new proposed treasury regulations that would impact our rate. So we have looked at alternatives and we’re looking at likely having that rate being in the mid-20s on a go forward basis.

Paul Forward

Analyst · Stifel.

Okay. I’ll get back in the queue. Thanks very much.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Larrea.

Pedro Larrea

Management

Well, thank you very much all of you for attending today and have a great day. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day. You may disconnect.