Jeff Clarke
Analyst · Cross Research. Your line is open
Thanks, Bill. Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining the Q2 investor call for Kodak. Kodak delivered net earnings of $4 million in Q2, and $11 million in the first half of 2017. For the second quarter, we delivered $14 million of operational EBITDA. For the first half of 2017, the company's operational EBITDA totaled $22 million. Our cash decline in Q2 2017 was $8 million primarily to support investment in new technologies, and for working capital to support growth in the second half of the year, offset by a $25 million reduction in the required ABL collateral. The performance to date is within our expectations for the first half of the year. We expect to see a higher proportion of revenues, earnings, and cash flow in the second half of the year. This will be driven by stronger -- I'm sorry, this will be driven by the normal stronger second half seasonality in addition to the following factors. First, revenues from brand licensing was in CFD. Second, the commercialization of certain AM3D programs, third, a reduction in the investment in copper metal mesh touch sensors, and fourth, continued productivity improvement and operational cost reduction. In addition, we'll see continued strength in our growth engine for FLEXCEL NX, SONORA Process Free Plates, PRINERGY software, and PROSPER. In this call, I will talk about strategic and product decisions, the company and divisional results for the second quarter, and our 2017 guidance. Dave will then follow-up with more details on year-to-date divisional results, and a detailed discussion of cash flow, after which we'll welcome your questions. Today, in addition to our earnings review, we're announcing our decision to shut down our investment focused on copper metal mesh touch sensors. As a reminder, we first initiated investments in touch screen technology through the development of offerings based on both silver and copper technologies. After extensive discussions with industry participants, it was clear our silver metal mesh technology would not meet our expectations, and we ceased further investment in 2016. We continue to invest in the lower cost copper metal mesh, began selling sensors for industrial applications, and have orders for industrial design in our pipeline. However, despite this progress, the market opportunity and requisite ROI have not materialized as expected. The copper metal mesh touch sensors product set has not scaled as significantly as we had planned, is not meeting current milestones, and is therefore being shut down. This is an example the disciplined approach we utilize in assessing each of our research and commercialization projects. Meeting specific and measurable milestones is key to this approach. We will continue to invest in 3D printing technologies and materials, where there are large market opportunities, and where we have established partnerships with industry applications' leaders. Given this product cancellation, I'd like to provide some overarching perspective on our portfolio of businesses so you can understand the progress we're making as well as the challenges we're tackling head on. Looking at slide six, we think of the company in four categories, Growth, Strategic Mature, Advanced Technologies, and Planned Declining. Our Growth Engine includes SONORA within PSD, PROSPER within EISD, FLEXCEL NX within FPD, and our Software and Solutions Division. These growth areas are delivering growth, and represent 27% total company revenues in Q2 2017. This is an increase of $4 million or 4% in constant currency basis when compared to Q2 2016. These growth areas are our highest priority, and of our highest existing and future expectations of returns. Our Strategic Mature Businesses are outlined at the bottom of page six, where are continuing to manage cost in each product family and optimize returns. In Q2, these businesses represent approximately 64% of our revenues. This represents a decline of $31 million or 11% on a constant currency basis due primarily to price erosion and lower volumes in PSD. Our investment in Advanced Technologies includes ULTRASTREAM and initiatives within the AM3D division. Year-to-date we've invested $8 million in ULTRASTREAM, and $15 million for the group of products in AM3D. And as discussed earlier, each of these investments have defined milestones which we monitor and assess to determine if funding will continue. We are targeting our investments in Advanced Technologies where Kodak has a technological advantage primarily in material science at a reasonable cost of investment to disrupt the current market, and to provide meaningful upside opportunities for us. One of the examples is our investments in light blocking materials focusing on the $9 billion market for blackout window treatments. Kodak's particle technology addresses $800 million of this market. Our expectation is to capture 15% to 20% of this market over the next five years, which will result in meaningful revenue and operational EBITDA over time. Planned Declining Businesses are product lines where we have made the decision to stop new product development and to manage an orderly decline in the installed product in annuity base. These product families include Consumer Inkjet in CFD, Versamark in EISD, and Digimaster in PSD. In Q2, these businesses represent approximately 9% of our revenues. The decrease in the Planned Declining Businesses is $9 million or 21% due primarily to the expected decline in sales from our Consumer Inkjet business. Now, moving on to our second quarter results; all year-over-year comparisons will be discussed on a constant currency basis unless otherwise noted. Starting on slide seven, Kodak delivered second quarter revenues of $381 million, down from $423 million in the prior year quarter or 9%. Operational EBITDA for the quarter was $14 million, consistent with our expectation, but down $8 million compared to the second quarter of 2016 due to the expected reduction in Consumer Inkjet, a one-time Industrial Films & Chemicals order in the prior period in our Consumer and Film Division, and higher aluminum cost and pricing pressures in our Print Systems Division. These decreases were offset by improvements in our Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division. Slide eight illustrates Kodak's quality of earnings. Here, we present the impact of foreign exchange, aluminum pricing, and the expected runoff in the Consumer Inkjet business. When adjusting for these items, second quarter operational EBITDA decreased $1 million or 6% year-over-year. We expect to have a meaningful improvement in the quality of earnings for the full year. Now, I'll talk about the business by division, which is presented on slide nine, for the second quarter of 2017. Starting with the Print Systems Division, second quarter revenues were $236 million, a 7% decline compared to 2017. Our operational EBITDA declined by $6 million compared to the prior year quarter as we had higher aluminum costs, and continue to face industry pricing pressures. Plate price erosion in the second quarter was approximately 4%, which we believe will continue through the remainder of the year, aluminum prices had a negative impact of approximately $3 million in Q2 2017, we expect aluminum will continue to represent a strong headwind in 2017. We include a slide in the appendix presenting historical London Metal Exchange aluminum prices over the past six years, the LME Euro price remains near a two year high and has increased from €14.85 per metric ton to €16.33 per metric ton from September 2016 to June 2017. For the quarter, overall plate volume was down 3% year-over-year which we believe indicates we maintained our market share position. Based on recent competitive wins in the first half of the year, we expect to increase our share and see volume improvements in the second half of 2017, we continue to see solid growth in our environmentally advantage SONORA plate with an 18% year-over-year growth. SONORA now accounts for 18% of our total unit plate sales as well, we expect SONORO growth to accelerate in 2018 beyond the 2017 numbers due to series of investments we're making which will improve the products feature set. Moving onto the enterprising Enterprise Inkjet Systems division, division results present on slide nine include the results for Versamark Systems, the PROSPER business and our continued investments in ULTRASTREAM. For the second quarter 2017, the EISD revenues were $35 million an 18% decline compared to the prior quarter due to the planned decline in Versamark and our plan shift from selling PROSPER presses to focusing on ink printing systems in annuities while transitioning our investment to ULTRASTREAM. Operational EBITDA for the second quarter of 2017 was $1 million, an improvement of $8 million compared to the prior year period, we're pleased that EISD had positive operational EBITDA in the second quarter and is expected to generate positive operational EBITDA for the full year. Moving onto slide 10, we provide an update on our growth of PROSPER recurring revenues for the trailing 12 month periods ending Q2 2016 and Q2 2017 recurring revenues grew by 33% and 29% respectively at actual currency rates, we expect continued strong growth in our recurring revenues throughout 2017. Looking at slide 11, EISD recently hosted an analyst and press event, EISD announced a placement of the first PROSPER 6000S Hybrid printing and packaging which is one of the one of the highest growth applications for print, we also continue to make investments on our next generation ULTRASTREAM technology which remains on schedule but evaluation kits available in late 2017 and prior to availability in 2019. In the past three months, ULTRASTREAM has passed a major milestone in this development, engineering the product content designs have been completed and successfully demonstrated in front of a select group of key analysts and media including IT Strategies, InfoTrends and International Data Corporation to name a few, concurrent with the development of ULTRASTREAM technology, EISD continues to advance engagements and is in active negotiations with interested OEM partners. Moving back to slide nine, for the Flexographic Packaging division, revenues for the quarter was $37 million or 9% year-over-year growth, operational EBITDA was $8 million an increase of $2 million driven primarily by the higher FLEXCEL NX Plate and CTP revenues. For the quarter, FLEXCEL NX revenues increased 16% and FLEXCEL NX plate volume grew 22% compared to the prior year quarter. I'm pleased with the continued strength of the packaging business and the increasing operational EBITDA, FLEXCEL NX continues to outpace the market and deliver strong revenue and volume growth driven by the value proposition which provides substantial efficiencies to the printing operations of our customers. For the software and solutions division revenues for the quarter were $22 million, a 5% increase from Q2 2016. Operational EBITDA of negative $1 million was an improvement of $1 million from the prior year quarter, year-to-date at actual currency rates, we have license growth of 6% and we expect to see an acceleration of growth in licenses in the second half of the year which will drive an improvement in earnings as well. Consistent with our other businesses, growth is not linear with the second half delivering more revenue, we're seeing strong demand for each of our market segments including packaging, digital and cloud services. The consumer and film division includes industrial film and chemicals, motion picture, consumer inkjet and our consumer products group which includes licensing of the Kodak brand, for the quarter revenues for CFD were $47 million down 24% from $62 million driven primarily by lower revenue in the industrial film and chemicals largely due to a significant customer order in the prior year as well as an expected decline in consumer inkjet. Operation EBITDA for CFD was a negative $5 million down $15 million for the quarter driven by expected reduction in consumer inkjet in the same customer order comparison previously mentioned. We expect CFD to deliver positive EBITDA contribution for the full year driven by brand licensing and motion picture film growth, three major studios recently signed multi-year contracts to purchase Motion Picture Film from Kodak, during 2017, many major movies including the record breaking Wonder Woman and Dunkirk were recorded on Kodak film, the Kodak Super 8 cameras expected to be available for sale in 2018 and we expect it to be an important contributor to CFD revenue and EBITDA. We expect to see variability in the CFD business results this year due to the timing of our brand licensing business which varies due to the timing and scalability of new licensees, timing with Motion Picture Film Productions and prior one time industrial film orders. The Advanced Materials and 3D Printing Technology division includes Micro 3D Printing, the company's research lab as well as intellectual property licensing not directly related to the other business divisions as we discussed previously I will continue to share more granularity into commercialization and the $7 million investment made in the second quarter of 2017. The first area of investment is our Micro 3D printing technology which focused -- which is focused on copper mesh touch sensors. During Q2, we invested approximately $3 million on this technology. Through the cancellation of the touch sensor program, we expect to save approximately $5 million annually. The second area of investment is in light-blocking materials, we invested processing $2 million to commercialize this technology in the quarter, we are producing particles and expanding capacity in line with our alliance with the major textiles, specialty fabric manufacturer and as we bring Kodak's light-blocking technology to market. The third area of investment is our materials development for 3D Printing, we invested approximately $1 million in the quarter for development projects to commercialize materials for major 3D Printing customers, Karbon, high profile 3D Printing company continued to order under the supply agreement Kodak to produce materials for the printers and we expect additional categories to be added to the remainder of 2017. In Q2, we also signed a JDA and are supplying advanced materials to 3D Systems, one of the industry leaders in 3D Printing. The fourth area of investment is for printed electronics, we invested approximately $1 million in Q2 of 2017. This investment includes the development of printed transparent antenna to be used in a variety of applications and transparent grids for electrostatic dust removal films used for cleaning solar panels. In both cases, we're in dialog with partners to fund the commercialization of this technology. Each of these focused investments is a growth opportunity for Kodak, we are encouraged by the pipeline for these investments, please will begin to recognize revenue along three new areas and believe the each have potential to provide meaningful future revenue and earnings. Continued our final division, Eastman Business Park, revenues for the quarter were $4 million, an increase of $1 million compared to the prior year quarter, we continue to track tenants to EBK with an addition in Q2 of a controlled environmental, I'm sorry a controlled environment agriculture company. In addition to rent, a traditional EBP tenant also consumes utilities resulting in an improved financial profile for the division and overall cost of Kodak. On slide 12, we're presenting our adjusted 2017 guidance to reflect current negotiations on an expected advanced technology transaction. Included in our original outlook was an IP license from Kodak which would have resulted in approximately $15 million of revenue, EBITDA and cash proceeds. As negotiations progressed, we transition from a license of IP to the expected formation of a jointly owned company. This approach is expected to bring in more cash to Kodak and provide larger upside on an accelerated timeline than the original IP license structure, we are adjusting cash flow outlook and EBITDA guidance to reflect the impact of this expected transaction. As you can see on the slide, we continue to forecast revenues of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion and have lowered our operational EBITDA guidance by $15 million to a range of $90 million to $105 million. We have also increased our cash outlook by $10 million to a range of zero to generation of $10 million. Dave will take you through more details on cash in his comments. As shown on slide 13 provides a comparable view of operational performance we've illustrate the impact of foreign exchange. The impact of supplier price increases aluminum and the expected and buying in the consumer and jet business. Our revised guidance reflects an improvement of 20% to 40% in operational EBITDA from 2016. To summarize on slide 14, we continue to see strong execution in the FLEXCEL NX plates, SONORA processed plates and the profitable business. Our second quarter results were impacted by investments in our advanced materials and 3D printing division and ULTRASTREAM. We expect to have year-on-year improvements in our comparable 2017 operational EBITDA and cash flow now. I'll now turn it over to Dave to discussed details on net earnings and cash flow performance.