Earnings Labs

Centrus Energy Corp. (LEU)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 14, 2014

$192.70

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Centrus Energy Corp. Quarterly Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn conference over to your host Steven Wingfield. Thank you. You may now begin.

Steven Wingfield

Analyst

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for our first conference call of Centrus Energy Corp. Today’s call will cover the third quarter of 2014 that ended September 30 and our emergence from Chapter 11. With me today are John Castellano, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer; John Barpoulis, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Phil Sewell, Senior Vice President; Bob Van Namen, Senior Vice President; and Tracy Mey, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Before turning the call over to John Castellano, I’d like to welcome all of our callers as well as those listening to our webcast. This conference call follows our earnings news release issued earlier today. That news release is available on many financial websites and our corporate website, centrusenergy.com. All of our news releases and SEC filings including our 10-K, 10-Qs and 8-Ks are available on our website. We expect to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q later today. A replay of this call also will be available later this morning on the Centrus website. I’d like to remind everyone that certain of the information that we discuss on this call today may be considered forward-looking information that involves risk and uncertainty, including assumptions about the future performance of Centrus. Our actual results may differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in our forward-looking statements is contained in our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Finally, the forward-looking information provided today is time sensitive and is accurate only as of today November 14, 2014. This call is the property of Centrus. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the expressed written consent of Centrus is strictly prohibited. Thank you for your participation. And now, I’d like to turn the call over to John Castellano.

John Castellano

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Thanks, Steve. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Much has changed since our last call with the financial community. As you know, we commenced proceedings under Chapter 11 in March of this year and emergence September 30. Earlier today, we reported results for the third quarter that included significant adjustments to balance sheet items that also affected our income statement. John Barpoulis will cover our financial results in a few minutes; and Tracy Mey, our Chief Accounting Officer, will also provide a short primer on fresh start accounting. Later today, we expect to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the SEC, and that document has significant additional detail on the accounting adjustments. I joined the Centrus management team last October as the Chief Restructuring Officer. The position I’ve held with other energy and infrastructure related companies that were engaged with AlixPartners. My firm has an extensive practice involving energy companies and I have been involved with a range of large, complex restructurings since I’ve joined the firm in 1998. Although, Centrus in unique in the United States as a publically traded supplier of nuclear fuel, many of the core issues involving capital structure, supply and demand, and appropriate development spending are not unique and fit within my professional experiences. I deeply appreciate the Board’s confidence in selecting me for this interim leadership role. Given that I spent the past year with this management team, we’ve been able to hit the ground running following emergence from Chapter 11. Today, Centrus is in a much better condition financially than where we were 12 months ago. With that said, we have many things on our plate; I would like to hit the highlights of what is ahead for the Centrus management team over the next several months. First,…

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Thank you, John. Going to the bottom line upfront, Centrus reported net income for the third quarter of $418.9 million compared to a net loss of $44.3 million in the same quarter of 2013. For the nine month period ended September 30, 2014, we reported net income of $340.1 million compared to a net loss of $87.2 million in the same period last year. These results were primarily driven by net reorganization gains. Also affecting results were higher gross profit due to a decline in non-production expenses, higher average SWU prices, lower interest expense and lower sales volume. For the third quarter, reorganization items net were $440 million. We’ve reported an operating loss of $16.4 million that was primarily driven by lower sales volume and $17.5 million of non-production expenses related to preparing the Paducah plant for the return to DOE. As John mentioned earlier, the plant was returned to DOE on October 21. Going back to the top of the income statement, revenue for the third quarter was $120.7 million and $390.5 million for the nine month period of 2014. The volume of SWU sales declined 70% and 61% in the three month and nine month periods of 2014 respectively, which is in line with our guidance that sales volumes would decline in 2014. The average price billed to customers for sales of SWU increased 6% in the third quarter and 2% for the nine month period compared to the same periods in 2013. Cost of sales declined in both the three month and nine month periods of 2014 compared to the same periods in 2013 due to lower SWU sales volume and lower non-production expenses. Non-production expenses declined in 2014 compared to 2013 as transition activities wound down in Paducah, but still accounted for $17.5 million of cost…

J. Tracy Mey

Analyst

Thank you, John. First, I’d like to point out that the 10-Q that we expect to issue later today has several footnotes and pages of details about fresh start accounting. That said, I’ll take a few minutes here to provide a high level explanation of the adjustments. Upon emergence from bankruptcy and if certain requirements are met, such as a change in control, fresh start accounting is required to be adopted by the company. The effective date of our plan of reorganization and emergence was September 30. In many ways, fresh start accounting is similar to purchase accounting. In fact, you will see in our 10-Q many references to predecessor company and successor company for accounting purposes. For example, we show both the results of operations and cash flows in the period ending September 30 related to the predecessor company and the fresh start balance sheet related to the successor company. The goal of fresh start accounting is to approximate the amount that a willing buyer would pay for the assets, immediately after restructuring and value the successor company accordingly. Most companies going through the Chapter 11 process have a court approved valuation, we did not. We developed the valuation of the company based on a discounted cash flow model using the assistance of a third-party valuation specialist to conduct the valuation. Fresh start accounting also requires all tangible assets such as our inventory to be fair valued and to identify and fair value intangible assets as well such as customer relationships and the sales contracts in our existing backlog. The fair value of our inventory of low enriched uranium was valued using a net realizable value method, which utilizes the expected selling prices to customers, as a basis for valuing finished goods. The inventory has a higher valuation at…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this we will be conducting a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Richard Howard with Prospector Partners. Please proceed with your question. Richard Page Howard – Prospector Partners LLC: Yeah, thank you. My question is, could you give us a little more color on the nuclear fuel market outlook? We have the Japanese restart, we have the Paducah shut down and I think there is a French plant that shut down. Where do you think we are on a supply-demand balance and where do you think we’re headed, over what time period?

Philip Sewell

Analyst · Prospector Partners

This is Phil Sewell. First we should indicate as John Castellano noted that the market is reacted positively to the Japanese government taking action that could result in the restart of two reactors early in 2015. It’s important to note that there is 18 more reactors in the regulatory queue and it’s likely that more reactors will start restart later in 2015. All of this has a positive impact on the market and in particular, since the beginning of the month we’re seeing a 15% increase in the uranium market. So that action alone is having a psychological impact on the entire nuclear industry and we would also expect to see an impact later on with respect to the SWU prices. There is less transparency in SWU pricing than in uranium prices for a number of reasons. One, there is a lot more participants in the uranium industry than in the SWU industry and second, there is a lot longer lead time in order to bring new supply into the market for uranium mines than enrichment capacity. So all of that shows you that the market is responding to, I’ll say changes. Japanese restarts are a step and a positive indication that the market is in the process of recovering. And the important item too is to note that there is about 70 reactors that are under construction in the world and that is also expected to have a significant impact with respect to absorbing the oversupply and excess capacity in the SWU market. It’s important to note, as new reactors come online, those new reactors need three times the amount of enrichment that reloads due for current operating reactors. So that additional demand from the 70 some reactors that are expected to come online between now and 2020 should go a long way toward absorbing oversupply, excess capacity and have positive impact on prices that we’re all seeing and in recovery in general for the nuclear fuel market. Richard Page Howard – Prospector Partners LLC: Can I ask another question?

John Castellano

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Sure.

Philip Sewell

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Sure, Rich. Richard Page Howard – Prospector Partners LLC: Where do you think we are on right sizing the company and what are we looking for in a new CEO?

John Castellano

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Yeah this is John Castellan, let me address the CEO question. As I had indicated, the executive search firm Spencer Stuart has been actively involved in the search for the next President and Chief Executive Officer of Centrus since early October. The Board is seeking an outstanding and visionary leader with the necessary credibility and professional experience required to grow and diversify revenues and increase shareholder value. Ideally, we are seeking someone with relevant experience in the nuclear industry, who has experience dealing with the U.S. government, so that they have proven credibility with key decision makers in the highest levels of government. We are also looking for a leader with proven track record of managing complex businesses and delivering financial results in a competitive market. As I said, we’re looking at both internal and external candidates and I believe that the Centrus Board will have an excellent pool from which to select our next Chief Executive. I’ll turn it over to John Barpoulis as it relates to the sizing of the organization.

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Thanks John. Rich, you may have noted in the earnings release and there is more on it in the 10-Q on the continuing trend of lower SG&A. So I’d say, we have over the past couple of years highlighted the need to be adjusting our corporate size and processes as the company has changed and as our businesses continue to change, we continue to undertake that. So as a result of the transition of Paducah, you will also see a significant reduction in total headcount across all sites and that again very much a result of the change in our business. As we take a look at our processes, we had many processes that were finally honed for operating a Gaseous Diffusion Plant at a corporate level. And, again, now that business is transitioning with the focus on American Centrifuge and our LEU broker business, we are adapting the corporate structure to adapt to those business circumstances as well. Richard Howard – Prospector Partners LLC: Great. One more little question, which you may not want to answer. If I look at cash and working capital a year from now, do we have a feel that the current level is about right, and that it will be maintained in 2015, or is it too early to tell?

John Castellano

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Richard, I think the best way to answer that is we continue to be focused on cash. We noted both cash balance at the end of the third quarter and that we expect at the end of the year to have a cash balance in excess of $150 million. We also state confidently and clearly that we expect to have adequate liquidity for at least the next 12 months and will provide additional insight on that front as we get further into 2015. Richard Howard – Prospector Partners LLC: Great. Thank you very much and I’m glad you got this started.

John Castellano

Analyst · Prospector Partners

Thanks, Rich.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Clutterbuck of Clutterbuck Capital Management. Please proceed with your question. Robert T. Clutterbuck – Clutterbuck Capital Management, LLC: Thanks for taking my call guys. As usual, Rich asked two of my three questions. So talk about my third one, the Russian supply agreement. Have we seen any interruption? And is there anything – it’s obviously activity picking up in the Ukraine, are there any signals that we are going to have any problems?

Philip Sewell

Analyst · Bob Clutterbuck of Clutterbuck Capital Management

This is Phil Sewell, again. First, I should indicate that the sanctions that were imposed earlier this year in the summer on Russia have not affected deliveries under that transitional supply agreement with TENEX, who is the marketing agent for Russia. We also understand that sanctions on nuclear fuel are currently not under consideration. And even though, we can’t speak for the U.S. government, there is an awareness that nuclear fuel supply by Russia is an important source of fuel for a clean electricity generation both in United Stated and other countries. At this time, we have sufficient inventory to meet customer needs even in the event of a temporary disruption. And what if there is an extended delay or termination of Russian deliveries? We believe there is a significant amount of excess inventory oversupply of nuclear fuel in the market due to the effects of the Fukushima incident, so that we could access that in order to fulfill our sales commitments. In the meantime, we’ve been at discussions with other potential supply sources that could be used to mitigate the impact of a potential disruption of supply. So that’s where we are and that’s the best picture that we can give you at this time. Robert T. Clutterbuck – Clutterbuck Capital Management, LLC: All right. So we are thinking maybe no interruption, but if we do, potentially we have other sources, I guess, is what I’m getting from that. So following up, if I can have one follow-up question on Rich’s question earlier about rightsizing the organization, obviously, it’s extraordinarily important and I’d encourage much sooner than later, I don’t have the advantage of looking through the Q yet, but obviously we’ve incurred an awful lot of professional fees going through the bankruptcy, also part of the rightsizing the organization, I hope would be rightsizing outside professionals particularly at this point going forward, could you comment on that?

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Bob Clutterbuck of Clutterbuck Capital Management

Sure, Bob. It’s John Barpoulis. And first, I’d just like to thank you again for your support during the restructuring process. As you know, our business is very complex, involves unique issues related to classified technology, licensing of nuclear facilities, national security and more. The pre-arranged bankruptcy, which garnered significant large majority of creditors support and the smooth administration of the bankruptcy case that help preserve the company’s NYSE listing, required significant specialized professional services. The fees included not only paying for the advisors to the company, but also paying the expenses of advisors to the creditors under the various plan support agreements. So the significant professional fees and bankruptcy is while not uncommon, it’s also a very important reason why we worked so hard to complete the Chapter 11 process and emerge within the seven-month period. But all that said, we expect to see those professional fees diminish significantly going forward. Robert T. Clutterbuck – Clutterbuck Capital Management, LLC: Terrific. That’s it. That’s all I have and keep up this good job guys.

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Bob Clutterbuck of Clutterbuck Capital Management

Okay. Thanks, Bob.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Albert Hicks with Bowery Investment Management. Please proceed with your question. Albert Hicks – Bowery Investment Management, LLC: Good morning, thank you for taking my question. I see the change in benefit liabilities on the balance sheet and I understand that, part of that is due to the change in rate following the bankruptcy. But I was curious to learn, if there were any legacy liabilities transferred along with the shutdown of Paducah and do you plan to provide any additional disclosure related to that?

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Albert Hicks with Bowery Investment Management

Albert, it’s John Barpoulis. The pension and postretirement The pension and postretirement health liabilities that we have currently are, say, related to our LEU business, our legacy business also at our Enrichment Corp subsidiary and at Centrus Energy Corp. there is significant disclosure around those liabilities in our 10-Q as you would expect and the change due to both a change in rates, also the adoption of new mortality tables that we expect to see, going forward, Tracy touched on that as something that came out from the Society of Actuaries. Albert Hicks – Bowery Investment Management, LLC: Great. Thank you for the help and I’ll look for that in the 10-Q. Thank you, thanks.

John Barpoulis

Analyst · Albert Hicks with Bowery Investment Management

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time this does concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.