Earnings Labs

Iron Mountain Incorporated (IRM)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 31, 2013

$112.47

-0.25%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Iron Mountain Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I'll now introduce your host for today's conference, Melissa Marsden. You may begin.

Melissa Marsden

Analyst

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to our third quarter 2013 earnings conference call. I'm Melissa Marsden, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. And this morning, we'll hear from Bill Meaney, our CEO, who will discuss highlights for the quarter and strategic initiatives, followed by Brian McKeon, our CFO, who will cover financial results and guidance. Rod Day, acting CFO, and Stephen Golden, VP, IR, are also with us today. After prepared remarks, we'll open up the phones for Q&A. Per our custom, we have a user-controlled slide presentation at the Investor Relations page of our website at www.ironmountain.com. Referring now to Slide 2 of that presentation, today's earnings call and slide presentation will contain a number of forward-looking statements, most notably our outlook for 2013 and 2014 financial performance. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to today's press release, the Safe Harbor language on this slide and our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, for a discussion of the major risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in our forward-looking statements. In addition, we use several non-GAAP measures when presenting our financial results and the reconciliations of those non-GAAP measures as required by Reg G can be found at the Investor Relations page of our website, as well as in today's press release. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Bill Meaney.

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Thanks, Melissa, and thank you to everyone for joining us this morning. Before we begin, I wish to congratulate the Red Sox. Sorry for those of you that aren't fans, better luck next year. It was a great season and a great win. I couldn't ask for more after being out of the country for 27 years and coming back home to see the Sox win the World Series. So let's just hope that the other Boston teams do as well this year. Now back to business. During the third quarter, we continued to work on advancing our strategy by sustaining the durability of our business through attractive core acquisitions and supporting the long-term growth through expansion into fast-growing emerging markets and selective investment in emerging businesses. Our financial results were in line with our expectations, with a total revenue of $756 million, adjusted OIBDA of $240 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.31 per share. We did incur some costs related to the implementation of our strategy, although our underlying performance remains solid and consistent with the recent trends. I'll cover these charges at a high level, and then Brian will have more on how they impact our outlook, as well as the impact from recent acquisitions on our guidance for the remainder of 2013. The changes we -- the charges we took in the third quarter and expect to take in the fourth quarter relate to some realignment within our organizational structure, with a view towards speed and simplicity. These changes will help fuel our growth strategy by consolidating activities, both within and across units, thereby eliminating duplication, increasing spans and reducing layers throughout the organization. Additionally, these changes will reduce operating costs to mitigate anticipated core service revenue declines and cost inflation, and will provide the…

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

Thanks, Bill. Given that we've got a lot to cover today, including our preliminary outlook for 2014, we moved a few of our regular year-to-date slides to the appendix for your reference. Let's turn now to Slide 3, which highlights the key messages from today's review. We delivered solid results in Q3, reflecting strong operating performance supported by consistent storage rental growth, International profit gains, as well as benefits from recent acquisitions. Storage rental grew 4% on a constant dollar basis in the quarter, supported by consistent 2% gains in North America and 10% growth in International, including benefits from recent acquisitions in Latin America and North America. Adjusted OIBDA performance was in line with expectations in Q3, driven by continued International margin gains and sustained cost controls. As we deliver solid operating performance, we continue to advance our strategic plan, supported by core acquisitions and investments in our data center offerings and capabilities. These investments are intended to sustain the durability of our core business and provide a platform for future revenue and profit growth. For the full year 2013, the core business is on track to achieve its financial goals. Today, we're updating our 2013 outlook to reflect recently completed acquisitions, including Cornerstone, and the impact of the restructuring charges of about $30 million we expect to record in 2013. Looking ahead to 2014, we expect constant dollar growth of 2% to 4% in revenues and 2% to 5% in adjusted OIBDA, supported by continued strong operating performance and the benefits of our 2013 acquisitions. Although we continue to pursue REIT conversion effective January 1, 2014, our preliminary 2014 outlook assumes C-Corp reporting. Let's move on to Slide 4 to review our financial results in more detail. Slide 4 compares our results for this quarter to the third…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from George Tong of Piper Jaffray.

George K. Tong - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

I want to get a sense for what your outlook is for organic storage volume trends in North America. How much has your sales force verticalization and sales and marketing investments contributed to capping the un-vended storage opportunity?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

George, it's Bill. I think right now we're still seeing continued traction on the verticalization, but again, as I said last time, it's still early days because we stood up a number of the verticals. I think right now, in terms of volume growth, is we're flat, trying to trend upward in some of the markets that we've applied it to. But I think in terms of revenue, we're still seeing the 1%, 1.5% revenue growth, if we look at the North American business.

George K. Tong - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

Got it. And within International storage, can you talk about whether you're maintaining share in the countries where you have a leadership position and what your progress is in taking non-leadership countries to leadership positions?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Well, I think on that, we're actually gaining share in the markets where we have leadership positions and we're, in some countries where we've been at it longer than others, in spots in South America, for instance, we're mimicking margins that we see in North America, in the most mature markets. So that's progressing very well. I think that the -- overall, I think if you look at the countries, Peru, we did an acquisition which puts us into a strong leadership position now in Peru this year. Last year, through our acquisitions in Brazil, we achieved a market position, but we've done now an even more recent acquisition in Brazil, which furthers the distance between ourselves and our next competitor. So I think with the targeted acquisitions we've done is we've continued to build market-leading positions. So if we kind of look at in Latin America right now, in Chile, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, because the acquisition we did in Colombia was already in a leading or pole position in that market, we have clear market-leading positions in all those countries.

George K. Tong - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

That's helpful. And can you talk a bit about the progress you're making and additional color in scaling your wholesale data center business and any other diversifying growth initiatives you have beyond wholesale data centers?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

It's too early for us to comment on it. We have a pipeline in the emerging business, which Harry is now taking over. And there's a number of things that are building up in that pipeline, and we're screening those to figure out which ones will go to the testing phase. And as I said, we'll test, and then based on those tests, we'll either drop or we'll scale. So we're in the process of that. In terms of the wholesale data center space, we are making some real progress. And in fact, we're starting to see more and more synergies between the wholesale data space and our data protection business, because many customers like the continuity in terms of what we can do for them vis-à-vis their tiered archiving strategy, so it's more of a continuous product. So again, early days, but that's why we were encouraged to go ahead to start the construction of the aboveground facility in Northborough, Massachusetts.

George K. Tong - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

And then last question, excluding special charges this quarter, OIBDA was -- margins were flat from the prior year. What are the drivers for continued margin upside? Any specifics you have, especially on the International front?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

I think on the International front, I think Brian highlighted, and he can go into more specifics, is a modest gain. But I think again, I think I said this last time on the call, you need to think about International as a portfolio play. And that's why I highlighted in my remarks that Rod, with his leadership in International, achieved 700 basis points whilst adding a number of emerging markets. Because when we buy these emerging market plays, it takes us a while to get them to the margins that we get as we fold in and rationalize the real estate. And so our view is that if you start seeing a major ramp-up in the overall International margin, it's saying that we're not finding places that are good opportunities to start building market-leading positions in other geographies. So next year, I think Brian highlighted it, it's a fairly modest improvement in terms of our OIBDA margin on International. It's not saying that the business isn't growing in value. It's just saying that we see an acquisition pipeline, which it takes time to actually bring those things up, both to a market-leading position, and to actually consolidate the operations so that we start mimicking the margins. So we have countries in South America that, as I say, are at the same or actually even slightly higher margin than the United States. And we have others that are further back on the development curve that are growing. So it is really a portfolio play.

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

Yes, that's exactly right. I think in North America, we're trying to sustain very high returns, where we have, in 2/3 of our portfolio internationally, where we have leadership and very good returns, we're trying to sustain those as well and drive additional margin improvement overall as we continue to scale out the International portfolio and control our overhead costs in corporate and drive efficiencies that enable us to reinvest selectively against new growth opportunities. So in balance, right now, we're in a zone where our profit is projected to grow at or slightly above our revenue growth rate. And I think over time, as we continue to be successful advancing growth opportunities, I think that will give us greater chance to kind of leverage our cost base and produce some margin gains.

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Yes. And one thing on that, just to add to Brian's comment, is the thing you should keep in mind, that we're always doing these things above our hurdle rate. So yes, we want to actually make even higher returns on equity, but these acquisitions that we're doing in these emerging markets typically are plus-20% return on equity and have very attractive, obviously then, returns on invested capital. But as they grow, then of course, the returns grow even more.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum of Stifel. Shlomo H. Rosenbaum - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Bill, I want ask you a little more about Cornerstone. The acquisition, is this, would you say, more of a real estate consolidation play? Or is this more of a play where you have a much better entree into this mid-market, where you guys typically haven't played that much?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Good question, Shlomo. It's both. I think that, first of all, to your first question on the real estate side, the reason why the returns look so attractive, as we say, it's mid-teens in terms of return on equity and 10%-plus return on invested capital, is going to your real estate question. It's almost like a pickup and move because there's such an overlap in terms of their real estate and ours. So it takes a little while because I think some of the leases go out to 5 years, where we won't be able to consolidate the real estate overnight. But we're going to be able to consolidate a lot of it fairly quickly. So it is, to your point, a real estate operations consolidation move, is what's in our acquisition model driving the value, first and foremost. So that's what we based our modeling on and that's what we're banking the returns on. So it's something that we're very comfortable with. I think the potential upside to outperform, that's very difficult to quantify. Is your comment about their presence on the middle market? In some of the organizational changes I alluded to is also helping us get at that. So we are looking to get some D&A from Cornerstone and doing -- being more aggressive in the middle market, where we may not have been as present in the past. And we think there's some interesting opportunities there. Shlomo H. Rosenbaum - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Do you think you're going to need to stand up a separate sales organization? Because I mean, typically the typical account that they went after has really, has a different parameter than the kind of national or even international accounts that you typically go after.

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Shlomo, I'd rather get into that on Investor Day in March because -- I'm not trying to be coy, but the announcement that we've made in terms of the reorganization of the alignment and restructuring that we're taking is going -- part of that is addressing your question. And as you can probably appreciate, we're in the process of communicating that throughout the organization. So I don't want to really get ahead of myself in terms of our announcements internally. But part of our restructuring is to actually address the question that you're asking. Shlomo H. Rosenbaum - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Okay. I'll move on from there. I appreciate that. The core service decline was kind of the lowest we've seen since 1Q '12. Just from what you guys talked about in terms of expectation that service to continue to weigh, do I assume that you guys view this as an anomaly as opposed to a bottoming?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

I think there are similarities in the trend, Shlomo. We are seeing benefit as we're acquiring businesses and integrating them. The related transportation activity and things of that nature, there's a benefit that flows through core service. We are seeing some leveling of the service trends. I don't want to make too much of that at this stage, but I think some of the flattening we're beginning to see, it's still down, and we're still anticipating a level of pressure there. And we also just have some more favorable compares year-on-year. We worked through some of the tougher comparison areas, like our Shredding business in International. So on balance, it's somewhat better and we've got some discrete things that are helping us, but I would reinforce, we still expect to have a level of pressure on just the really, the key impact of technology, which is not on our storage business, but more on how paper records are used in business operations. We do anticipate some level of pressure going forward. Shlomo H. Rosenbaum - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: And then Brian, maybe you could just walk us through the difference between the OIBDA and the free cash flow this year and the OIBDA and the free cash flow of next year. I mean, how much of it is the difference of interest expense? And how much of it are relating to some of the other efforts that you guys have, maybe in data center and some of the other things?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

It's principally capital. So if you took our numbers next year, Shlomo, we try to highlight that there's roughly $50 million of investment in integrating the acquisitions, as well as including some discrete investments we're making in Latin America to capture -- to get more efficient real estate operations. If you adjust it for that $50 million number, I think you basically see very similar trends year-on-year in adjusted OIBDA. We'll have somewhat -- we have low cash taxes this year, driven by the timing of some payments. But next year, that will be more normalized as well.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Steinerman of JPMorgan. Andrew C. Steinerman - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: I'm sorry, I can't resist. I'm going to ask another core service question, if that's okay. So in the quarter, there's language in the press release that says new incoming volume related to transportation. So could you just be specific? You definitely have been very clear that there's a long-term trend to less retrievals, but in the third quarter, was there some recovery in that retrieval piece? And then looking at 2014, do you feel like core service internally could be flattish?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

Andrew, it's add lots [ph] is where we're seeing some benefit. There is some acquisition benefit as well. But the add lots [ph], it's an area of focus in terms of selling force effectiveness, growth in international markets. We're seeing -- we saw better trends on add lots [ph] or new incoming volume in Q3. And I think your outlook overall next year for services is in the ballpark. Kind of, I think overall, our underlying growth on an internal basis, we're looking at 2% to 3% storage and relatively flat service numbers. And obviously, paper and things like that will have some impact on that. But given our current view, that those are reasonable estimates. Andrew C. Steinerman - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Great. And that flattish comment about service for 2014 was an internal comment, right?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

That was internal, that's right. So there's about 2.5% benefit overall from the acquisitions.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Wittmann of Baird. Andrew J. Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Wanted to ask first on kind of the data center strategy, Bill, and maybe Brian as well. Just kind of, can you help us phase in what you think kind of what a reasonable capital outlay for that business is? And then more strategically, can you just talk about how, as kind of a real estate play here, Iron Mountain is going to differentiate in the marketplace versus some, already some pretty good competitors? And then maybe lastly, if you haven't already, can you comment on if this data center that you're currently starting construction on is spec or if it already has some tenants?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

I think, first of all, this is -- the reason why we have an emerging business, this is a step-by-step approach, as we said it is. We invest capital based on where we see that this potential demand is the way to test it out. So right now, our plan is the $40 million that we've discussed, that we've earmarked, which is both expanding our operation in Boyers in the underground facility, as well as building the aboveground facility at our campus in Northborough, Massachusetts. I think that the other part of your question is how do we compete against the other players in this space, is the feedback -- and I was actually with a customer last week, the feedback we're getting is that because of our strong customer relationships on the data protection side and our understanding in terms of what CIOs and data center infrastructure people understand what their business is about, is that they're very comfortable talking to us, especially when they start thinking about their archiving strategy in a more continuous method. So what we're finding is that we actually do have a differentiated brand. And in fact, we've hired a couple of people who used to be in what are competitors to us today. So early days still, but we felt confident, enough based on the lead generation and customers that we're starting to sign up, that this was, is definitely a business that we should pay attention to and continue to test and develop. So I think right now, I think that's where we are. I think in terms of customers signed up, as you probably can appreciate it, is that it's chicken and egg. In other words, to sign somebody into a colo or a wholesale data center contract, and the Northborough…

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

So Andrew, there are a range of topics that we sought clarity from the IRS in terms of REIT conversion. Just going back to what we said in the past, there are, in our lens, a few key issues. Racking is one of them. Goodwill is another topic. There's some specifics related to our business model on how we store items that results to something that we wanted to clarify. The issue of racking was specifically what the IRS had highlighted when they informed us about the formation of the working group and the delay in the process. And so that was the issue that they were centered on, related to whatever it is they're sorting out through the working group. There are other topics that we need to clarify. And consistent with what we've said all along, going back in time, and as we've said, we feel good about our arguments. And it's not certain, the outcomes are uncertain here, but we feel good about our arguments and positioning, and we'll continue to work to be ready to become a REIT, assuming we can get favorable clarification on that over time. Andrew J. Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. So is it fair to say that just because these other issues weren't mentioned in the 8-K that you filed this summer that, that does not necessarily mean that they're fully addressed or signed off on by the IRS?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

Trying to answer that question, though -- we haven't referred to getting clarity on other issues with the IRS.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Kevin McVeigh of Macquarie.

Kevin D. McVeigh - Macquarie Research

Analyst

Bill, in terms of the search, what are you looking for in terms of CFO? And as you think about that, just any characteristics you're looking for. I mean, Brian has obviously done a wonderful job operationally. What are you focused on as you think about the next candidate in that seat?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Look, I think you can have a long list and it can be trying to identify purple squirrels, so to speak. I think that we feel pretty good that we have strong internal candidates. But it's like any of these situations, you need to go outside and look at the benchmarks. And we will look across both the REIT and non-REIT world. It's going to be important whoever is the CFO going forward has a strong operating bend as well as a good financial bend because we do have a fairly -- I wouldn't say complex business, but we have a lot of moving pieces and it's a very global business. So we think we have both strong internal candidates, but we also think it's important to benchmark those people against what the market also has available to us. So we'll see how we progress. But one other thing that I highlighted on the call, about Harry's move with JT coming in his place, Brian's moving out and Rod is coming in, it is a company that we take seriously succession planning and building bench strength. So we feel like we're in good shape. But at the same time, I think for good diligence, we should go out and see what the market has.

Kevin D. McVeigh - Macquarie Research

Analyst

Got it. And then, kind of any sense on timing -- I know, when kind of Brian came in, John had transitioned before Brian came in. Any sense of timing on when we should expect an announcement?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

No. I think we're in the process of appointing a headhunter to assist us with it, and we're going to go through as fast and deliberate as we can, but I don't think that we can be pinned down to a timing at this point.

Kevin D. McVeigh - Macquarie Research

Analyst

Got it. And then just shifting gears, looking at kind of the storage internal growth. I mean, it looks like we're seeing a pretty consistent trend in terms of a slower rate of destruction, and obviously, the storage overall benefiting. That seems pretty consistent with past recoveries. As you think about the reacceleration and the internal growth in the core storage business, is this tracking pretty similar to past recoveries? And should we expect more organic sales as kind of -- overall, I know it's always a function of -- there's a macro component to it. But any kind of flavor on that as well?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Kevin, I think that I wouldn't, because I think that -- look, especially given a lot of the -- there's been a lot of legal holds recently as well. And some of it is just driven by legal holds. And as those cases get cleared, you can get some lumpiness in terms of the destruction. So I wouldn't, at this point, read too much into those trends. I think where some of the things that we're highlighting, which I discussed in an earlier question, about how we're making some realignments and adjustments in our go-to-market, that we think that we're going to get a better response and share of, say, the middle market, I think, is where the benefit is going to come from. At this point, I wouldn't start reading too much into trends around destruction. I think where our attention is focusing on much more improving the inbounding rather than thinking that we have a lot of control or see a different trend on the destruction side.

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

I would say I think the trends reinforce the durability of this business, and we're doing quite well in a slower-growth global economy, and I think have opportunities to build on that operationally. And if there's improvement in the macro economy, that can help us as well over time.

Kevin D. McVeigh - Macquarie Research

Analyst

Great, and then just if I could, what percentage of the business now is kind of middle market versus larger enterprise, on the storage side?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

Roughly half of our business is customers, larger customers with multiyear agreements, and roughly half are customers that are relatively smaller, that are on annual agreements, and that's in terms of revenue, not in terms of number of customers. Obviously, they'd be more smaller. But I think that the opportunity here is to not just increase the focus on the relatively small customers, but also to extend our reach a bit here and really fully develop that opportunity. And in terms of the un-vended opportunity, I think there's a lot of indications that there's still substantial potential there. So we have a good established base, but I think it's something that the company can build on.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Scott Schneeberger of Oppenheimer. Scott A. Schneeberger - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division: On the lines of the services, Brian, you answered Andrew earlier on, I believe it was core service as kind of an outlook for next year. And I just want to confirm that was core as opposed to overall service, because I noticed in the press release, complementary services decreased due to delayed timing in some document management services and special projects. And the second part of this question is, are you seeing a buildup now of special project activity and it's just delayed? Or is that a more broad, longer-term statement?

Brian P. McKeon

Analyst

The special project was just a very specific reference to the quarter, just kind of near-term activity, just trying to highlight some of the drivers. And the reference was to core service. Overall service probably is going to be flattish as well, just because we do anticipate some pressure from -- given where paper prices are currently, offsetting some of the gains that we're making on other fronts. But I think overall, a relatively flattish core service outlook before acquisitions and internal growth of 2% to 3% storage. Scott A. Schneeberger - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division: Okay. And then my last question will be with regard to acquisitions, you guys mentioned, somewhere in the prepared remarks, that the kind of the long-term guidance for acquisitions was somewhere, domestic and emerging, $50 million to $150 million, and kind of near the high end of range of that, without even bringing Cornerstone into the mix. So I just want to get an update on how you're thinking about that longer term. Is there going to be a pause? Or is it a bit of a pedal to the metal from here?

William L. Meaney

Analyst

Scott, I think that we have -- if we look at International, we've got a pretty strong pipeline, so I don't see much pausing, because we've got them queued up, to a certain degree. But it's opportunistic. We don't chase deals and we don't chase markets. But we are constantly scanning the horizon, and we see, especially in the International side, some good opportunities. We see some possible good bolt-ins in some of our core markets to keep those strong and healthy, and our cash flow going forward. But it's also opportunistic. We don't control the timing on these things. But we feel pretty good, for instance, with the International pipeline. I think we probably have to kind of close it and wrap it up then, if it's okay. We're a little bit over time. So I want to thank you, operator. And to wrap it up, just to emphasize, we had a good quarter, driven by consistent growth in our storage rental business and we made good progress on all 3 key pillars of our strategy, which is sustaining growth in the mature markets, growing our presence in the emerging markets and evaluating, incubating and scaling new emerging businesses. Our financial position continues to be strong and we feel good about the opportunities to grow the business at attractive returns on capital, based on what we see going forward. We've enhanced our focus on the key drivers of value for the business and are starting to realign the organization for maximum efficiency and to go after those opportunities. As we implement our plan, we will always continue to focus on improving capital allocation, maximizing the total returns and delivering a sustainable value to our shareholders. So I want to thank you all for joining us this morning, and let's hope the Sox keep it up.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.