Earnings Labs

Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 8, 2012

$8.19

+1.61%

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

+3.40%

1 Week

-0.76%

1 Month

+3.71%

vs S&P

-0.20%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Icahn Enterprises, L.P. Third Quarter 2012 Earnings Call with Felicia Buebel, Assistant General Counsel; Dan Ninivaggi, President; and Sung Hwan Cho, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to hand the call over to Felicia Buebel, who will read the opening statement.

Felicia Buebel

Management

Good morning. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements we make in this presentation, including statements regarding our future performance and plans for our businesses and potential acquisitions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that are discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including economic, competitive, legal and other factors. Accordingly, there is no assurance that our expectations will be realized. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by law. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. And now I would turn the program over to our President, Dan Ninivaggi.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Thanks, Felicia. Good morning, and welcome to the third quarter 2012 Icahn Enterprises earnings conference call. Joining me on today’s call are Sung Hwan Cho, our Chief Financial Officer; and Peter Reck, our Chief Accounting Officer. I'd like to begin by providing some key highlights for the third quarter. Sung will then provide a more in-depth review of our financial results and the performance of our business segments. We'll then be available to address your questions. Icahn Enterprises net income for the third quarter was $85 million or $0.76 per depository unit compared to a net loss of $39 million or $0.44 per unit in the prior year. While our investment funds return was negative 1.2% for the quarter primarily due to defensive short positions, our most recent acquisition of CVR Energy was the key driver to earnings in the period. Our Energy segment reported record quarterly earnings as CVR continues to benefit from historically high crack spreads. In addition, CVR successfully raised $500 million of debt to refinance existing debt and filed an IPO registration statement for its refining business, which will be structured as a variable distribution master limited partnership. As previously discussed, Federal-Mogul continues to make progress on the separation of its business units and began operating its 2 customer-focused business segments in the third quarter. Federal-Mogul's Powertrain segment focuses primarily on engine components for light and commercial vehicles, as well as industrial applications. Key components include pistons, piston rings, liners, valve seats and guides, bearings, spark plugs, ceiling systems and system protection components. The vehicle component solutions or VCS segment of Federal-Mogul manufactures, sells and distributes a broad portfolio of products, primarily in the auto aftermarket, including break pads, chassis parts, wipers and other vehicle components. Federal-Mogul had third quarter sales of $1.6 billion, representing a…

SungHwan Cho

Management

Thanks, Dan. I will begin by briefly reviewing our consolidated results for the third quarter and then highlight the performance of our operating segments and comment on our balance sheet. Net income attributable to Icahn Enterprises for Q3 2012 was $85 million or $0.76 per depository unit compared to a loss of $39 million in the prior year or $0.44 loss per depository unit. We ended the quarter with consolidated cash and cash equivalents of approximately $3.1 billion and our direct investment in the investment funds of $2.3 billion. To date in 2012, we have successfully completed a rights offering and 3 bid offerings, which collectively have raised approximately $1.5 billion in cash. That leaves us sufficient capital to handle near-term maturities and, at the same time, look for attractive investment opportunities. Our Board of Directors approved a quarterly distribution of $0.35 per depository unit payable on November 30, 2012. This $0.35 distribution will consist of $0.10 payable in cash and $0.25 payable in depository units. I will now provide more detail regarding the performance of our individual segments. Our Investment segment had a loss attributable to Icahn Enterprises of $27 million in Q3 2012 compared to a loss of $15 million in the prior year period. The investment funds had a loss of 1.2% for the quarter, bringing us to a 5% gain year-to-date. As of September 30, 2012, our net equity exposure was negative 90.2%, down from negative 28.7% at the end of Q2. Our long equity exposure had a 5.9% return for the quarter, while our short equity exposure had a loss of 6.9%. Our net credit exposure at the end of Q3 was approximately 9.7% and generated a return of 0.8%. As of September 30, 2012, our Investment segment had approximately $5.8 billion of assets under…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Andrew Berg of Post Advisory Group.

Andrew Berg

Analyst

With respect to Automotive on the spark plug business, $80 million of revenues, can you quantify what the EBITDA contribution will be from that?

SungHwan Cho

Management

We don't break it out by segment, but their EBITDA percentage across Powertrain and even aftermarket is about 10%, 11%. So that would be a reasonable approximation.

Andrew Berg

Analyst

Okay. And then just going to AC in the Gaming business. Can you talk a little bit or just help me recall, Dan, what was the impact from hold? I know it was good last year, normalized this year. Can you quantify what the delta was?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

In the quarter?

Andrew Berg

Analyst

Yes.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

In Atlantic City. I'm not sure I have that number, Andy. I think the hold last year, though, at Atlantic City was around 20%. Normal hold is like 13% or 14%. Those numbers could be a bit off, but the hold was kind of unnaturally high last year.

Andrew Berg

Analyst

Yes, I know you guys held well. I was just trying to recall what the impact was. And then lastly, with respect to Gaming, can you talk a little bit about Baton Rouge now? Have you seen -- can you give us any update subsequent to quarter end?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes, a little bit. The impact from Pinnacle was a little bit less than we expected, and Baton Rouge has been strong through the whole year. Obviously, we're realistic about it longer term, but so far, so good. It's been manageable so far.

Andrew Berg

Analyst

Okay. And then at this case, can you talk about the cash use. What was driving a big use of cash this quarter?

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Sung, do you have that?

SungHwan Cho

Management

Well, we had continued investment in our capacity expansions, and there was some cash tied up in working capital uses.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes. What about pensions?

Unknown Executive

Analyst

There's note payments in pension.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Yes, there might have been a little pension as well.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I currently show no more questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference back over for closing remarks.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Management

Okay. Thanks, everybody, especially the employees on the East Coast who've been impacted by the storms, including the people at Tropicana, who, I know, have had a pretty tough time for the past week or so. We look forward to a strong finish of the year, and thanks, and we'll talk to you early next year. Take care.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.