Earnings Labs

Neptune Insurance Holdings Inc. (NP)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 9, 2016

$26.31

-0.77%

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.
Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Tonie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Neenah Paper Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer period. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, November 9, 2016. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Bill McCarthy, Vice President, Financial Analysis and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. McCarthy.

Bill McCarthy

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Neenah's 2016 third quarter earnings call. With me today are John O'Donnell, our Chief Executive Officer; and Bonnie Lind, our Chief Financial Officer. As usual, John and Bonnie will discuss business activities and financial results in detail, and following these prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. But first, I’d like to start off with a few summary comments and reminders. We released earnings yesterday afternoon, reporting record third quarter revenues and profits. Sales of $233 million were up 1%, while operating income of $27 million increased 10%. GAAP earnings per share of $0.95 increased 22%, and after excluding integration and restructuring costs, adjusted earnings per share was $0.99, up 11% and also a third quarter record. Integration and restructuring costs totaled $1.2 million, or $0.04 per share, and were primarily related to last year's FiberMark acquisition and non-capitalized costs for our U.S. filtration investment. This was down from similar cost of $2.9 million, or $0.11 per share, last year. These costs are adjusted from earnings to aid in understanding results and improved comparability between periods. As a non-GAAP measure, we reconcile these to corresponding GAAP figures in our press release. Finally, our comments today may include forward-looking statements, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from these statements, are noted in our SEC filings and on our website. With that, I'd like to turn things over to John.

John O'Donnell

Analyst

Thank you, Bill. The third quarter was another solid quarter, as we continue to support our customers and maintain our leading market positions. Our managing cost to deliver consistently improving bottom line results. Top line growth rates moderated as we lapped last year's acquisition and we continue to invest in future growth, including U.S. transportation filtration capacity and value-adding premium packaging capabilities. Operating income grew 10% in the quarter with higher sales. Operating efficiencies and lower input and integration costs, excluding integration and restructuring costs, adjusted operating income grew 3% with higher margins in each of our segments. Growth continues to be led by technical products with increased demand from backings and filtration. Higher profits, coupled with improved management of working capital, resulted in operating cash flow of over $40 million, up 16% or $6 million versus last year. We continued to deploy cash in accordance with our priorities, with spending on organic investment to expand filtration, increased cash returns to shareholders and reduce debt. As always, we are mindful of deploying capital in a manner that continues to deliver an attractive double-digit return on invested capital. Our balance sheet is very strong with plenty of available financing capacity and we continue to pursue strategic investments that will strengthen our businesses and provide attractive returns. I'll comment on progress against a few of our major initiatives later. But first, Bonnie will review our quarterly financial results in more detail.

Bonnie Lind

Analyst

Thanks John. As noted earlier, our results were a third quarter record, helped by the acquisition and related synergies, as well as continued growth in technical products and cost management across all of our businesses. As a reminder, in the third quarter of both years, we had scheduled annual maintenance downs at most of the mills. I'll start today with Technical Products, which continues to perform well and deliver good results, with 5% top line and 17% bottom line growth versus last year. Sales were $114 million, split between performance materials and filtration. Growth was led by increased volumes for transportation filtration and for tape and abrasive backings. Backings growth reflects our success in growing share as we manage this business more globally. And transportation filtration growth in the quarter was led by double-digit increases in North America and Asia, but partly offset by weaker demand in Western Europe. Overall we saw strong volume growth in Technical Products. In addition, average selling prices were lower, mostly due to mix, but also due to price decreases for grades with adjusters that are tied to input costs. Currency also had a small negative impact for the quarter. Technical Products’ operating income of $14 million was up 28% from $11 million last year. After adjusting for integration and restructuring costs in both periods, operating income grew 17%. Higher income resulted from volume growth and lower manufacturing costs, the latter due to material prices, acquisition synergies and operational efficiencies. Combined, these more than offset the lower net selling prices and added SG&A from acquired operations. Finally on that, operating margins also continued to improve in this segment and were up versus last year by more than 100 basis points in the third quarter. Turning to Fine Paper and Packaging. This business delivered strong and…

John O'Donnell

Analyst

Thanks, Bonnie. I'll start with a few comments on the current business environment and then provide an update on a few key initiatives. Global economic growth remains subdued and input prices are expected to remain fairly consistent, likely drifting up as we head through 2017. As a reminder, the fourth quarters are seasonally slowest period as customers take downtime for holidays and control year-ending inventory levels, as they approach their fiscal year end. In Technical Products, for example, sales are typically 10% lower than the back half of the year versus the first half. Turning to our acquisition of FiberMark. This is now been successfully integrated into our businesses. The last two major activities were adding them to our ERP platform, which we completed in early October, and initiating the planned consolidation and closure of a small converting facility in Reading, Pennsylvania by mid-2017. Both of these initiatives deliver attractive returns. And in the fourth quarter, we expect to book approximately $1.6 million of one-time charges related to these efforts. While the integration is now essentially complete, can expect us to continually look across our company for ways to further improve efficiencies and optimize our footprint. As I've mentioned before, one of the most attractive aspects of the acquisition was its growing premium packaging business. We not only expanded our existing packaging portfolio, but also quite significant new coating capacity, as well as finishing and prototyping expertise. We complemented these capabilities with a new design center based here in Atlanta, where we work directly with customers on ideation and execution of new product opportunities. Recent examples include a new holiday gift card offering and high-end spirits package, just in time for the holidays. Growing premium packaging is a key initiative for Neenah. To-date, we've build a share of around 15%…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. And our first question comes from the line of Dan Jacome from Sidoti & Company.

Dan Jacome

Analyst

Good morning. John O’Donnell: Good morning, Dan.

Dan Jacome

Analyst

Sidoti is here. Just a couple of questions. First, John I appreciate all the color on the Appleton project, and it sounds like well expected maybe near-term speed bumps with the qualification process and production trials. Is everything you say kind of still assumed that you'll be at a 30% kind of capacity utilization rate in year one, or has that changed at all? John O’Donnell: Yes. So I think what we've said in the past, 30% is a right number. That's really where we say the project in some terms is profitable. And our expectation on 30% was really - it certainly moved into 2018, but you're right that 30% is that magic number.

Dan Jacome

Analyst

Okay, so 2018, 30% operating rate. And then on the Fine Paper, I know you mentioned some of the mixed pressures. Can you just give us a little bit more detail on that? It sounds like - if I'm correct that might be the same thing you’ve seen in the last couple of quarters? John O’Donnell: Yes. Now I consider this quarter - and we had one of the highest volumes that we’ve had on this year overall. So it really became a very much a mix. Our most profitable portion of our mix in Fine Paper is our in-the-stock item. So we had significant inventory reductions, if you will, as a couple of key customers and I would consider to be more a quarterly timing not necessarily an annual issue or something that I would look at as being systemic. So I think the revenue demand for the Fine Paper business has been fairly consistent. I was just trying to explain the color for the quarter but not cause any alarm or concern.

Dan Jacome

Analyst

Got you. Okay, great. Appreciate that. And then lastly, liquidity is in great shape. The FiberMark has been fully integrated. Have you guys seen anything change? Just kind of very high level thoughts on the M&A landscape, maybe conversations or what the pipeline looked for you guys, as after - I know in your terms focus to the Appleton, but just kind of thinking longer term, has anything changed on your views there and just on the landscape or so? Thank you. John O’Donnell: Yes. And Dan, I would be disappointed if you didn't ask me that each time. But yes, that you're exactly right. It's an important part of our growth. As we've said in the past, that dedicated resources, we continue to - and we are not driven by timing. We are driven by the right fit for the company. So what hasn't change is M&A is going to be important part of our growth strategy. We are biased towards technical specialty materials businesses, filtration specialty in that regards. And then I’ll communicate as quickly and as robustly as I do when we find something that I want to share. But no, it hasn't changed. It's very important. Okay?

Dan Jacome

Analyst

Yes, thank you. John O’Donnell: Thank you, Dan.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities.

Jon Tanwanteng

Analyst

Good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. I jumped in a little bit late. I was just wondering if you could give us an update on the planned conversion of Wisconsin, and if the slowdown in North American auto sales has impacted on your planned there at all? John O’Donnell: Yes, I think the largest impact that's going to be on our Wisconsin are our U.S. addition of capacity is going to be what the customer qualifications, not any near-term consumption issues. Still see a great deal of support by our customers. 2017 has gone to be that transition year. But what we communicated in our prepared remarks was it's a very good project, one better than a greenfield or an acquisition, but in technical businesses there is customer qualification period. So you should expect to see next year we communicated roughly $4 million impact with $2 million of it non-cash depreciation expense. And the first half of the year - if I were giving color, I would say the cost implications of 75% are going to be the first half of the year and the revenue that we communicated which 10 to 15, 75% of that is going to be in the back half of the year as you would surmise as we work with customers to get qualified.

Jon Tanwanteng

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much. John O’Donnell: So I hope that gives you a color.

Jon Tanwanteng

Analyst

You bet. It does. That’s helpful. Thanks. John O’Donnell: Yes.

Operator

Operator

And there are no further questions.

Bill McCarthy

Analyst

Good. Okay. I'd like to thank everyone again for their time and interest in Neenah. And one note and one final forward-looking statement that John, Bonnie and I will be in Chicago tomorrow presenting at the Baird Global Industrials Conference. That concludes our call today and we look forward to updating you again in February.