Operator
Operator
At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the International Flavors & Fragrances' First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode until the formal question-and-answer portion of the call. I would now like to introduce Michael DeVeau, Vice President, Global Corporate Communications & Investor Relations. You may begin. Michael DeVeau - International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.: Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone. Welcome to IFF's first quarter 2017 conference call. Yesterday evening, we distributed our press release announcing our financial results. A copy of the release can be found on our IR website at ir.iff.com. Please take a note that this call is being recorded live and will be available for replay on our website. Please take a moment to review our forward-looking statements. During the call, we will be making forward-looking statements about the company's performance, particularly with regard to the outlook for our second quarter and full-year 2017. These statements are based on how we see things today and contain elements of uncertainty. For additional information concerning the factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, please refer to our cautionary statement and risk factors contained in our 10-K filed on February 28, 2017 and our press release that we filed yesterday. Today's presentation will include non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude those items that we believe affect comparability. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their respective GAAP measures is set forth in our press release. With me on the call today is our Chairman and CEO, Andreas Fibig; and our Executive Vice President and CFO, Rich O'Leary. We will start with prepared remarks and then take any questions that you may have. With that, I would now like to introduce, Andreas. Andreas Fibig - International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.: Thank you, Michael. I would like to start with an executive overview of our operational performance for the first quarter. Then I want to provide an update on the progress we made in terms of our long-term Vision 2020 strategy. Once finished, I would ask Rich to cover our financial results in greater detail, including specifics on each business unit, as well as our cash flow statement and outlook for the remainder of the year. Then, I will provide some concluding remarks and we will finish by taking any questions that you may have. I'm pleased to report that our first quarter sales growth was strong and in line with our expectations. Currency-neutral sales increased 7%, which was comprised of 10% growth in Flavors and 3% growth in Fragrances. Sales performance was predominantly driven by the contribution of our recent acquisitions of David Michael and Fragrance Resources and a strong performance in our Organic Flavors business, while we achieved growth across all categories and regions. In Fragrances, we were successful in offsetting challenging macroeconomic conditions in Latin America, primarily Brazil, driven by Fragrance Ingredients and Fine Fragrance, in particular in the EAME region. In terms of currency-neutral adjusted operating profit, the contribution from our recent acquisitions was strong and support our overall profitability as we are ahead of our acquisition plans. Organically, our currency-neutral adjusted operating profit came in consistent to the prior year as volume growth and productivity initiatives were offset by unfavorable price to input cost, as well as several unplanned expenses that Rich will go through in more detail later in the presentation. We also benefited from a lower effective tax rate and reduced shares outstanding in the quarter, which supported a 9% improvement in currency-neutral adjusted EPS. We continue to make progress each quarter with respect to our Vision 2020 strategy. I'm happy to report that the two of our key R&D-focused areas continue to be growth drivers in the first quarter. In Fragrances, our encapsulation technology continues to expand beyond the traditional Fabric Care category with strong growth in Personal Wash. In Flavors, sales of our sweetness and savory modulation portfolio continue to post strong growth and proving strong double-digits on a currency-neutral basis, led by savory, dairy and beverage. This is further proof that our innovative solutions are allowing us to meet our customers' demand by healthier and better-for-you products. Looking towards the future, we also commercialized two new flavor molecules to enhance our Flavors palette for (5:04) in order to continue to build winning solutions for our customers. We continue to see accelerated growth in the areas where we are targeting market leadership position, benefiting from our recent strategic acquisitions, as well as from solid growth in our Organic Flavors business, we saw a 14% increase in North America in the first quarter 2017. Our ongoing commitment to provide our customers with in-depth local consumer understanding, superior innovation, outstanding service and the highest quality products allowed us to continue to capture the growth of both global and faster growing regional accounts with regionals outpacing global accounts. This continues to strengthen as our recent acquisitions of David Michael and Fragrance Resources are all well strong from a regional customer base. I'm also happy to report that IFF | Lucas Meyer Cosmetics continued its strength in the cosmetic active ingredient segment as it won several beauty industry awards on CosmeticsDesign, including Best Skin Care Active Ingredient for Americas with Miniporyl, Best Hair Care Ingredient for Americas with Defenscalp, and Best Skin Care Active Ingredients Global with Miniporyl. All of which are showcased at CAGNY earlier this year. In addition to the slides, we have made from a market share and innovation perspective, we continue to position ourselves to be our customers' partner-of-choice and to-go supplier. In the first quarter of 2017, we expanded our business access by gaining core list status with a multinational Flavor customer to ensure we continue to increase our participation, ultimately leading to continuous growth. We also received an innovation award from a top Flavors customer, validating that our innovation, collaborative work and inspirational sessions are driving the success in achieving solutions that meet end consumer demands. During the first quarter, we launched our 2016 Sustainability Report entitled Circular by Design. It is an in-depth state testament to all we have accomplished over the past year and provides insight into our aspirations as we move forward with our journey to make IFF a deeply greener company. If you haven't already, I invite you to check out our report and companion video are found online at the iff.com/sustain. Beginning in 2014, IFF-LMR took a step forward and partnered with the Institute of Marketecology, a leading provider for international inspection and certification services for organic, ecological and social standards to certify that our strategic supply chains and operating platforms meet with the For Life criteria. During the first quarter, we were proud to announce that IFF-LMR achieved its 9th For Life Certification, this time for Burgundy Blackcurrant Bud. Our responsible sourcing platforms in naturals demonstrates our commitment to traceability and towards progressively more responsible ingredients. Certification For Life is a guarantee from IFF to our customers and their consumers. We are also targeting opportunities within our industry and near adjacencies to develop new technologies and to expand our geographic and business access. All of this must be done in a way that make strong strategic sense and leverages our expertise in science and technology. Over the past two years, we have successfully acquired five companies, three of which closed in the past seven months. Our acquisition of David Michael in October 2016 helped further reinforce our differentiated service model is the U.S. for Flavors middle-market customers, focused on innovation, agility and enhanced collaboration. In early 2017, we acquired Fragrance Resources, which is a key player in a fast-growing specialty Fine Fragrance category, also increasing our exposure to regional customer base. In the first quarter of 2017, these two acquisitions contributed approximately 5 percentage points of our sales growth and 3 percentage points of operating profit growth already, as we are tracking ahead of our acquisition case, driving sales growth and extracting synergies. Last month, we also announced the purchase of PowderPure to further expand our expertise and offerings for clean label solutions that satisfy consumer demands. Founded in the early 2000s and based in Oregon, PowderPure utilizes its patented Infidri drying technology to create all-natural food ingredients by eliminating water while leaving the taste, nutrition and color matrix intact. Using minimal processing, PowderPure currently focuses on all fruits and vegetable powders, juice powders, as well as other specialty products. PowderPure's technology has also been used to effectively repurpose valuable materials resulting from other food processing systems, turning them into useful and nutritious products and saving them from waste streams. The global trend in natural food formulations and the delivery of taste was options for the cleanest possible label. It's clear and we found the combination of powders, product quality, and the unique benefits of their technology very compelling. This platform further expands our access to fast-growing natural, clean label food ingredients and potentially creates opportunities in adjacent markets of nutraceuticals, specialty extracts, and coloring food stuffs. Overall, we are very excited about this addition to our organization and the future growth prospective it brings. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Rich. Richard A. O’Leary - International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.: Thank you, Andreas. Our first quarter results in sales growth was strong and in line with our expectations. Currency-neutral sales grew 7%, including approximately 5 percentage points related to the contribution of David Michael and Fragrance Resources, and 2 percentage points from our Organic business. Currency-neutral adjusted operating profit grew 3% as the benefit of acquisitions, volume growth, and cost savings initiatives more than offset unfavorable price to input costs, as well as unplanned expenses, including unfavorable manufacturing variances, bad debt, a product recall, and litigation loss. I'll go through these in more specifics on my next slide. Below the line, we had strong leverage as we benefited from a more favorable effective tax rate, which we expect to normalize over the next three quarters to approximately 22.5% on a full-year basis, and a reduction in shares outstanding related to our share repurchase program. These two factors led to a robust currency-neutral adjusted EPS growth in the quarter of 9%. Looking at our Q1 currency-neutral operating profit growth, I want to provide some more clarity on our performance drivers year-over-year. In the second bar, you can see that volume growth added 6 percentage points to profitability. In the third bar, we have highlighted the benefits of our cost and productivity initiatives. Due to the likes of formula optimization, procurement savings, and restructuring program savings, we delivered approximately 4 percentage points of benefit year-over-year. As Andreas stated earlier, the contribution of David Michael and Fragrance Resources added 3 percentage points to operating profit growth, as shown in the fourth bar, as we are growing and realizing synergies. From a headwind's perspective, as seen in the next bar, price to input costs were unfavorable by about 4 percentage points, driven by a reduction in pricing within Fragrance Ingredients, as well as volume-related rebates in core listing agreements in Fragrance compounds. The area where I'd like to elaborate more on is in the next box, which is related to unplanned expenses that negatively impacted our operating performance in the quarter by approximately 4%. About half of that amount relates to manufacturing variances in Fragrance Ingredients. We have a reactor temporarily suspended for approximately two to three weeks in one of our plants, and manufacturing yield variances due to the implementation of new manufacturing processes at another Fragrance Ingredient plant. The other half of the variance is – the headwinds, was driven by bad debt for a single customer based in Latin America, a litigation loss, and lastly, a charge of $1.8 million related to the write-off associated with the product recall. The remaining items, grouped together in other, primarily relates to deferred compensation expense, where we make mark-to-market adjustments based on the performance of the equity market. Net-net, had we not had these unplanned items, currency-neutral adjusting operating profit would've been more in line with our expectations. Looking at the business unit performance for the first quarter, Fragrance currency-neutral sales improved 3%, driven by growth in Fine Fragrances, Fabric Care, and Fragrance Ingredients. From a category perspective, Fine Fragrance improved 10% on a currency-neutral basis, inclusive of additional sales related to the acquisition of Fragrance Resources. Three of the four regions, led by EAME, achieved strong growth, with the exception of Latin America, which continues to experience abnormally high volume erosion due to weak economic conditions. Consumer Fragrances grew 2% on a currency-neutral basis, principally driven by the additional sales related to the acquisition of Fragrance Resources and improvements in Fabric Care. In the first quarter, Fabric Care grew low single-digits on a currency-neutral basis, with three of the four geographies posting strong growth, led by double-digit increase in North America and high single-digit growth in EAME and Greater Asia. Fragrance Ingredients sales were up 2% on a currency-neutral basis, as double-digit growth in EAME and LatAm were offset by softness in North America and Greater Asia. From a profit perspective, Fragrance's currency-neutral segment profit decreased 6%, as volume growth and the benefits from productivity initiatives were more than offset by unfavorable price to input costs, as well as several of the unplanned expenses that I mentioned earlier. In terms of currency-neutral segment profit margin, our profile remained strong, yet was under pressure year-over-year, driven by the above items I mentioned. Plus the Fragrance Resource acquisition, inclusive of a step-up in purchase price accounting and before realizing all the synergies. Flavors' currency-neutral sales increased 10%, driven by broad-based organic growth across all categories, as well as the contribution of sales related to David Michael. From a regional perspective, each region delivered growth led by strong double-digit performance in North America, which improved 27%, reflecting additional sales related to the acquisition of David Michael, as well as strong double-digit growth in dairy and savory in the Organic business. EAME increased 6% on a currency-neutral basis, led by high single-digits in Western Europe, Central, and Southeastern Europe. This performance was primarily driven by strong new wins. Greater Asia posted 3% currency-neutral growth, led by strong double-digit growth in India, Thailand and the Philippines. On a category basis within Greater Asia, performance was led by double-digit growth in beverages. Growth in Latin America continue, improving 7% on a currency-neutral basis, led by double-digit growth in Mexico and the Andean Pact, as well as mid-single-digit growth in the Southern Cone. Flavors currency-neutral segment profit grew approximately 12%, led by volume growth, the benefits from productivity initiatives, and the contribution of David Michael's acquisition. In terms of currency-neutral segment profit margin, we delivered year-over-year improvements, principally driven by our savings related to the productivity initiatives as well as volume growth. Turning to our cash flow, our core working capital levels continued to show improvement, principally driven by the timing of payables. Operating cash flow for the first quarter was $22 million compared to $40 million in the first quarter of last year. While we experienced lower outflows from working capital, we were negatively impacted by the timing of higher pension payments, which will normalize throughout the year, as well as higher incentive compensation payments. From a capital allocation standpoint, we spent approximately $27 million in CapEx and we continue to believe we expend approximately 5% sales in 2017. Regarding cash return to shareholders in Q1, we spent approximately $51 million on dividend payouts and $38 million on share repurchases. For the full-year, we expect to meet or exceed our total payout objective of 50% to 60% of adjusted net income. As we look to the balance of the year, we are optimistic that we can achieve our previously stated total financial guidance on a currency-neutral basis. Please note that this is absent of any additional costs and/or recovery related to the product recall, as it's not estimable at this time. We do not believe that the ultimate settlement of the claim will have a material impact on our financial condition; however, it may have an impact on any one quarter. We are reiterating our previously stated currency-neutral sales growth projection of 7.5% to 8.5%, including approximately 4.5 percentage points' contribution from the acquisitions of David Michael's and Fragrance Resources. Embedded in the acquisition impact is the sales benefit related to recent acquisition of PowderPure, which is expected to have a negligible impact on a full-year basis. From adjusted operating profit and EPS perspective excluding the impact of currency, we expect to achieve 5.5% to 6.5% and 6.5% to 7.5% respectively, inclusive of a 2.5 percentage point contribution from M&A for each. Given our performance in the first quarter and the outlook for the balance of the year, we raised the contribution from acquisitions which provided an offset to the unplanned expenses in our Organic business in the first quarter. For modeling purposes, please note that we expect the momentum in terms of currency-neutral adjusted operating profit to accelerate in the second half of the year as we fully realize the benefits of our previously announced productivity improvement initiatives. While our currency-neutral guidance has not changed, the effects of currency movements on our results have. From a top line perspective, the impact of currency improved by approximately 1 point to 1.5 percentage point headwind, primarily driven by an improvement in the euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate. On a profit and EPS basis, movements in several currencies such as the Brazilian real, Argentinean peso, Indonesia rupiah and Mexican peso versus the dollar has had an adverse effect on our guidance as well as transaction rate differences on the timing of inventories. We are hedged approximately 75% on euro profit exposure at $1.12 for 2017. As a result, on a full-year basis, we expect the impact of foreign exchange on adjusted operating profit to be approximately 2.5 percentage points and approximately 3 percentage points on adjusted EPS. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Andreas. Andreas Fibig - International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.: Thank you, Rich. In summary, we are pleased that we achieved currency-neutral growth across all metrics in the first quarter of 2017. Sales growth was strong and overall currency-neutral adjusted operating profit was supported by a successful integration of recent acquisitions, evidence that we are allocating capital to the highest return initiatives. Simultaneously, we continue to refocus on the execution of Vision 2020 as we believe our emphasis on building great differentiation and delivering profitable growth that will create incremental shareholder value long-term. For the full-year, we are optimistic that our financial growth rates should accelerate as our 2016 performance as we have confirmed our currency-neutral financial guidance. With that, I would now like to open up the call for questions.