Stepan Company (SCL) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Stepan Company First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Ruben Velasquez, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Stepan Company. Mr. Velasquez, please go ahead.

Thanks, Victor. Good morning, and thank you for joining Stepan Company's First Quarter 2026 Financial Review. Before we begin, please note that information in this conference call contains forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions and factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In addition, this conference call will include discussions of adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP measures. We provide reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures in the earnings presentation and press release, which we have made available at www.stepan.com under the Investors section of our website. Whether you are joining us online or over the phone, we encourage you to review the investor slide presentation. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings release is issued, and we hope that you find the information as perspectives contained therein helpful. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Luis Rojo, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Ruben. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2026 results. I plan to share highlights of the quarter's performance and provide an update on our key strategic priorities, while Ruben will provide additional details on our financial results. Before reviewing the quarter, I want to recognize our teams around the world for their continued commitment to safety and operational excellence. Safety remains our top priority and the foundation for everything we do at Stepan. That focus was evident as we delivered the strongest safety performance on record during the first quarter of this year. Congratulations, team. Q1 2026 was an important quarter of execution for Stepan. We advanced our footprint and asset base optimization efforts, delivered net sales growth in a challenging macro environment and continue to generate a strong volume growth across our strategic end markets. Organic net sales were up 4% year-over-year. Organic volume was flat with double-digit growth in Crop Productivity, Oilfield, Industrial Cleaning and in our Tier 2, Tier 3 customer base. This was offset by continued soft demand in European Polymers. Adjusted EBITDA was $50 million, down 14% versus the prior year, reflecting lower Surfactant results due to lower absorption and production timing issues in Asia, competitive pressures in Mexico, the impact of the U.S. cold snap and continued pressures from elevated oleochemical input costs. Polymers delivered an 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA, driven by 5% volume growth in North America and global margin improvement, which was partially offset by continued softness in Europe. Specialty Products delivered volume growth of 30%, reflecting a strong demand and new business with our MCT product line. EBITDA was slightly down due to product mix and lag on raw material prices. We continue to execute Project Catalyst safely on time and on budget. These actions demonstrate our disciplined approach to cost optimization while ensuring we maintain the capabilities needed to serve our customers and deliver balanced growth across our higher value end markets. We remain committed to a balanced approach with capital allocation. During the first quarter, the company paid $8.9 million in dividends to shareholders. Consistent with our long-standing commitment to shareholder returns, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.395 per share. And last year, we increased our dividend for the 58th consecutive year. This track record underscored our confidence in Stepan cash flow durability and long-term outlook. With that, I will turn the call back to Ruben to walk you through the financial details for the quarter.

Thank you, Luis. My comments will generally follow the slide presentation. As shared in our first quarter 2026 results release, reported net loss for the quarter was $41.4 million or $1.81 per diluted share versus reported net income of $19.7 million or $0.86 per diluted share in the prior year. The current year reported results include a $65.4 million pretax restructuring charge or $51.2 million after tax related to the previously announced closure of our Hillsborough, New Jersey site and the decommissioning of select assets at our Millsdale, Illinois and Stalybridge, United Kingdom facilities. The cash impact associated with this restructuring charge was less than $1 million during the quarter. Slide 3 summarizes our first quarter 2026 performance. Adjusted net income was $10.3 million or $0.45 per diluted share, down 47% versus adjusted net income of $19.3 million or $0.84 per diluted share in the first quarter of last year. The decrease in adjusted earnings was largely due to lower Surfactant earnings and higher interest expense. Consolidated EBITDA was $49.6 million compared to $57.5 million in the prior year, a 14% decrease. The decline was primarily due to Surfactant earnings driven by lower absorption and production timing differences in Asia, competitive pressures in Mexico, the severe cold snap in the U.S. and higher oleochemical raw material costs still working through our P&L. This was partially offset by strong polymers performance where adjusted EBITDA grew 8% versus the prior year. Cash from operations was $17 million for the quarter, and free cash flow was negative $14 million, driven by higher working capital requirements, which are typical during the first quarter of the year. We remain focused on deleveraging the balance sheet and maintaining our disciplined capital allocation. Slide 4 shows the total company pretax income bridge for Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025. Because this is a pretax view, the figures shown reflect operating performance before the impact of income taxes. First quarter pretax income declined year-over-year, primarily driven by lower Surfactants operating income and lower capitalized interest income. These headwinds were partially offset by improved Polymers performance and favorable effective tax rate. Important to note, the higher interest expense reflects lower capitalized interest income associated with the start-up of our Pasadena, Texas site. Importantly, several of these drivers, including higher depreciation and the declining capitalized interest associated with Pasadena start-up had no cash impact compared to the first quarter of last year. Slide 5 shows the total company adjusted EBITDA bridge for the quarter compared to last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $49.6 million, down $8 million versus the prior year. I will cover each segment in more detail, but overall, Surfactants and Specialty Products were down, partially offset by Polymers growth. Unallocated corporate expenses were higher due to normal inflation. Turning to Surfactants on Slide 8. Net sales were $454 million, up 8% on an organic basis. Selling prices were up 2%, primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs, improved product and customer mix as well as pricing actions. Organic volume was up 2%, driven by double-digit growth within the Crop Productivity, Industrial Cleaning and Oilfield end markets. We also grew double digits in our Tier 2 and Tier 3 customer segments. The Surfactant business achieved volume growth in all global regions, except Asia. Foreign currency translation positively impacted net sales by 5%. Surfactants adjusted EBITDA for the quarter decreased $7 million or 15% versus the prior year, driven by North America and Asia down $5.6 million. The majority of this decrease was due to lower absorption and production timing differences in Asia. This P&L impact has no effect on free cash flow and represents a onetime event that we expect to recover in future quarters. The cold snap in the U.S. and higher input costs complemented North America Asia EBITDA reduction. Latin America performance was negatively impacted by the competitive environment and high raw material prices in Mexico. Europe and Mercosur continue delivering solid performance anchored in our Crop Productivity franchise. Moving on to Slide 7. Polymer net sales were $130 million, an 11% decrease. Selling prices decreased 8%, primarily due to the pass-through of lower raw material costs and competitive pressures. Volume decreased 6% in the quarter. Volume in North America was up 5%, driven by Spray Foam and commodity Phthalic Anhydride growth. This was more than offset by a double-digit decline in Europe, driven by ongoing global macroeconomic uncertainty and a depressed construction market. Foreign currency translation positively impacted sales by 3% during the quarter. Polymer adjusted EBITDA increased 8% versus the prior year, primarily due to North America growing Spray Foam and commodity Phthalic Anhydride and global margin improvement. Specialty Products net sales were $21 million, a 24% increase versus 2025, primarily due to higher volume. Volume was up 30%, reflecting continued growth in our MCT product line. Specialty Products adjusted EBITDA decreased slightly due to product mix and the lag in raw material prices, which we expect to recover in future quarters. Now turning to Slide 8. Free cash flow generation remains a key focus across the organization. Cash from operations was $17 million in the first quarter and free cash flow was negative $14 million, reflecting typical first quarter working capital build. Capital expenditures were $31 million in Q1. Now turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with a net debt of $511 million and a leverage ratio of 2.7x, which is lower than in Q1 2025. With that, I will turn the call back to Luis to discuss our strategic priorities and our progress on Project Catalyst.

Thanks, Ruben. I will provide a brief update on our strategic priorities before turning to the progress we're making on Project Catalyst. Our strategy continues to be anchored in 4 key pillars: First, continue focusing on customer-centric innovation to drive top line growth. Second, our diversification strategy, which is accelerating growth in higher value end markets while extending our reach into the Tier 2, Tier 3 customer segment. Third, we remain committed to operational excellence across our supply chain operations with a continued emphasis on strengthening the reliability and resiliency of our manufacturing network, including ongoing improvements in our flagship Millsdale site. Finally, we're strengthening our financial position through a disciplined focus on free cash flow generation, deleveraging the balance sheet and prudent capital allocation. During the first quarter, we continued to see momentum in our strategic end markets. We delivered double-digit volume growth within our Crop Productivity, Oilfield, Tier 2 and Tier 3 and Industrial Cleaning businesses and delivered volume growth in all Surfactant regions except Asia. Polymers delivered strong volume growth in North America. Specialty Products grew volume by 30%, reinforcing the strategic value of our MCT product line. These results validate that our strategy is working and that our diversified portfolio continues to create value for customers and shareholders even in a challenging macro environment. We also continue to ramp up our Pasadena, Texas facility, which is a critical enabler for strategic growth in specialty alkoxylates. We continue to expect Pasadena to reach approximately 80% utilization on average in 2026 and full utilization in 2027, which will drive supply chain savings and support future volume growth. Let's move now to Slide 10. Turning to Project Catalyst. I'm pleased to share that we have measurable progress. As a reminder, Project Catalyst is a comprehensive plan designed to further optimize our asset base and create a more productive, agile and accountable organization to enable growth. The program is expected to deliver approximately $100 million in pretax savings over the next 2 years, with around 60% of the savings expected in 2026. We are on track to deliver the committed savings this year. Project Catalyst is not a short-term cost reduction program alone. It is a strategic transformation designed to enhance the competitiveness of our cost base while preserving customer service and growth flexibility. During the first quarter, we executed our plans to close our Hillsborough site and decommission selected assets at our Millsdale and Stalybridge facilities. While these decisions are never easy, they are the right actions to consolidate our network into more competitive and productive assets while responding to the structural changes and market demands we continue to see in the global commodity consumer end market. The program continues to be built around 3 core value levers. First, footprint optimization, which include the exit of underutilized or higher cost assets and improved utilization of our most competitive sites, including the ongoing ramp-up of Pasadena. Second, operational efficiency and cost optimization, including procurement savings and productivity improvement across our manufacturing and logistics network. Third, organizational effectiveness, where we are clarifying accountabilities and streamline decision-making and aligning resources more tightly to our growth priorities. Today, we announced that we have entered into an agreement to sell nonproductive assets, especially land at our Millsdale site for $30 million. These transactions align with our focus on strengthening the balance sheet. We expect the transaction to close in the fall of 2026 after all due diligence and regulatory items are clear. We continue to actively evaluate opportunities to further optimize our asset base, organizational structure and operating model. These include identifying additional ways to unlock value and monetize nonproductive assets. Looking ahead, we are executing a balanced strategy focused on top line growth, margin expansion and disciplined cost-out initiatives. While we continue to navigate a dynamic macro environment, and geopolitical environment, including a significant shock in the energy market, global tariffs, raw material volatility and uneven demand across our end markets, we remain confident in our path forward. With the continued execution of Project Catalyst, a strong momentum in our strategic end markets, the ramp-up of Pasadena and a disciplined approach to capital allocation, we believe we are well positioned to deliver adjusted EBITDA growth, generate positive free cash flow and deleverage the balance sheet in 2026. This concludes our prepared remarks. At this time, we would like to turn the call over for questions. Victor, please review the instructions for the questions portions of today's call.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Mike Harrison from Seaport Research Partners.

I wanted to say congratulations to the team on the safety achievements there. That's very important. I wanted to maybe just start with a couple of questions about -- obviously, the Iran war is top of mind for investors right now. And I specifically wanted to understand what are you seeing in terms of raw material impact since the war began? Are you able to push through some higher pricing in response to higher raw material costs? And are there any situations in which you're encountering shortages or other difficulties in procurement?

Great questions, Mike. Look, so of course, our raw materials depend a lot on the oil supply chain, and we are seeing escalation in raw material inflation. The good news is, as you know, we have a good process. We have a lot of pass-through contracts, and we have a disciplined process of increasing prices as well. And what I will say is that in most of the businesses, we have been very successful in passing through the price increases in line with the raw material inflation. So that's working through the system. We see the whole market going up. It's not only us, it's the whole market going up, which give us confidence that pricing will be sticky, more in some places than others, for sure. But in general, we feel pretty good. The other thing is, of course, raw material availability will continue to be a challenge because there are certain supply chains that are heavily impacted by the conflict in Iran, and there are some shortages in raw materials. The reality is that we could be growing faster than what we're growing now, but we don't have all the raw materials that we need. On the other hand, we have good contracts with our suppliers, everybody's hands on deck. And I think we're getting a good fair share of what is needed. So -- but of course, we will continue working with our supplier to ensure that we can grow faster in the current environment.

All right. Well, you kind of addressed a little bit my second question, which is related more to the demand impacts of the Iran war across your 3 segments. It sounds like you're saying you could have grown a little bit faster if not for maybe some inability to get key raw materials or get supply. I'm curious, though, I would think that Stepan is relatively better positioned than some of your smaller or more regional competitors in terms of your ability to get inputs and get raw materials. So maybe just talk a little bit about how you're expecting -- obviously, consumer demand or consumer sentiment is a little bit weaker here. But are there situations where you might be able to pick up some market share because competitors simply don't have supply in certain product lines or certain regions?

No, for sure, Mike. You are right that we have the scale to win, especially in Tier 2, Tier 3, which is a key segment that we keep focusing our resources. So what I would say is, yes, we have the opportunity to keep growing in those segments. The consumer is still resilient. The consumer is still spending, and we haven't seen any demand issues from the consumer side, and you have seen other companies reporting Q1 and still volumes and pricing and all of that is still pretty healthy. So we feel good about where we are right now. Of course, things are changing. Things are changing every week and every month. But I will say -- and a lot of people are not providing very long-term guidance because of the volatility and the uncertainty of the current situation. But when you think about things like Q2 where we have way more visibility, we feel pretty good about our plan and about our ability to grow in this environment.

All right. Within the Surfactants business, particularly, you listed out a handful of issues that it sounds like were negative to earnings and to margins in the quarter. And I was hoping that you could provide a little bit more detail in terms of maybe helping to quantify these impacts and helping understand how those impacts are trending into the second quarter and the rest of the year. So you mentioned overhead -- higher overhead and some production timing issues in Asia. Is that something that was temporary in nature? Or is that something that's going to continue to be an issue for the rest of the year?

No. Great question, Mike, and it's temporary, right? I mean we were clear that some of the items that we saw in Q1 are noncash and onetime in nature, right? For example, we had lower absorption, both in Asia and in North America, especially at the beginning of the quarter with the cold snap in the U.S. So we expect some of that to reverse in the future quarters. So if you think about it, we're happy -- not happy, we are -- I mean, we are okay with the 8% EBITDA growth in polymers. We should grow faster, but fine. The key issue in Q1 was the Surfactant business. And when you think about the $7 million reduction in EBITDA in the Surfactant business, you can think that we should be able to easily recover at least half of that in the following quarters with all the timing and production and all of that. So that's why we view this $50 million EBITDA as not representative of what is the true performance of the company.

I guess just to finish up on that question about the Surfactants and the margin pressure. What about the competitive pressure in Mexico and the higher oleochemical costs? Is that something that should improve as the year goes on? Or is that something that could be a lingering headwind?

Good point, Mike. And look, when you think about -- we talk a lot about CNO in the last few quarters because the reality was that the delta between CNO and PKO, we talk a lot about that in the last few quarters, right, was significant, was something unprecedented, right? CNO in the $3,000, while PKO was in the $2,000 per metric ton. The reality is that when you look at the situation now, they are similar, right? And that incentivize and that helps the whole pricing environment. So what I will say is we still have some of the high CNO raw materials in our P&L going through our P&L. But the reality is that with all the pricing that we're executing now is going to be more sticky because of the relationship between CNO and PKO. So that should help the margin improvement in the Surfactant business in Q2 and going forward.

All right. And then last question I had is just on the Polymers business. Just curious for a better understanding of what drove the margin improvement there. I know you're calling out some spray foam volume, and I'm curious if that's something that's contributing to better margin and better mix there. And really just trying to get a sense of whether we should expect continued margin expansion year-over-year in that Polymers business as the year goes on.

No. Look, our Polymers business is heavily influenced by the base that we had in Q1 2025, right? When you think about -- and you clearly see it in the bridge, right, how our European business is under pressure because construction demand is very soft with everything that is going on in Europe. And then North America improved, but from a very low base, I will say. So again, it's decent EBITDA margins. It's not the EBITDA margins that we deserve, but we improved in North America versus a very low base in Q1 2025. And as you rightly said, I mean, a lot of growth in a strategic priority for us, which is spray foam. We have talked about that, and we're growing significantly in that space because really the lamination market is more flattish with construction still weak and high interest rate and all of that. So we are not expecting the lamination market to be significantly up this year. None of our customers are projecting that. But we are still improving our business in spray foam, in PA and making sure that we come out of this crisis in Europe a little bit stronger in the second half.

Our next question will come from the line of Dave Storms from Stonegate.

You mentioned in your prepared remarks that you're seeing growth in Tier 2, 3 customers in Surfactants. Just curious as to maybe what's working here? How sustainable is it? And maybe what's the outlook for that going forward?

Look, as we have talked, I mean, we continue to invest in this customer base is a strategic effort for us. We provide not only a product, but we provide a service. We help them formulate their products. We help them solve their challenges on the formulation side. And the reality is that there are a lot of categories where private label are growing share and some of the value brands are winning versus the branded brands. And that's that dynamic specifically for the U.S. now that I'm talking. But we believe in the current high inflation, high gas prices and all of that, the relevance and the growth potential on some of those Tier 2, Tier 3 brands are going to still there, and we are helping them to achieve their targets. So it's a strong business. We're growing double digits. And as I said, it is more than a product. We have other elements that help us win in that space.

Very helpful. Another one for me. And I know we spent a decent amount of time already talking about the Iran war, but just trying to get my arms around maybe any impacts that might have on ag specifically. I know this time of year is when we start thinking about that a little more. Are you seeing any significant second order effects from the Iran war as it pertains to the ag line?

Not really. So as we said in our remarks, I mean, we're growing double digits in Crop Productivity, continues to be one of our key strategic areas. And we don't see any impact. Now of course, the planting season, for example, in the U.S. is mostly done and executed and everything that we had to sell, we sold it for the planting season. So we need to see how things evolve for 2027. But for example, Brazil, which the season starts now is going well. We had great results in Mercosur. So far, we continue to see strong growth and our innovation program, our new product launches with the big ag companies is working and is delivering the growth -- I mean, very strong growth, double digit is very strong in this space.

Understood. And maybe one more for me. Great to see that Project Catalyst is still on track. And I know you gave us a nice breakdown of maybe the cadence for 2026 versus 2027. Are there any nuances that we should be aware of on a quarterly cadence or maybe it's more just a linear step-up as we go through the year? Any thoughts there?

No, great question, Dave, because the reality is that we're going to start to see the majority of the savings of the Catalyst project now in Q2, right? So we made the tough decisions on the footprint side, and we executed all of them basically at the end of March, beginning of April. So you are going to see the majority of the savings ramping up in Q2 versus Q1. So we feel good about Q2 because, again, a lot of the Catalyst savings start now. And as you know, the 60%, we were very clear that the 60% that we're delivering this year, some of that is to cover inflationary pressures and all of that, but the majority of the savings start now.

Our next question will come from the line of David Silver from Freedom Capital Markets.

I did want to follow up on some of Mike's earlier questions. Maybe I would like to focus on the demand side. So apart from the very near-term kind of Persian Gulf-related issues, the consumer generally has been under some pressure. And from your order book, could you maybe just talk about the health or the trend in demand for your traditional book of business? In other words, you've invested a lot in upgrading your product mix, 1,4-dioxane-free, et cetera. Are you seeing the uptake on those products that you anticipated? Or are we seeing, on the other hand, maybe a trading down phenomenon from cost-conscious consumers. So maybe just how you're looking at the demand side for your traditional portfolio of products and particularly for the value-added component of your business mix? Are you seeing the expected demand? Or are things going to be deferred maybe until after geopolitical issues settle down?

No, great questions, David. Look, as we said, one, the consumer is still resilient. So the consumer is still spending money. All the data that you see in all our categories, the consumer is still spending the data. Now we have seen some trade down, right? That's why I made the comment that in some of the -- in some categories, we see private label growing a little bit faster than branded products, but that's actually okay for us. I mean, we -- again, we serve a lot of the Tier 2, Tier 3 consumers. We serve a lot of value businesses as well. And we don't see this as a negative for Stepan Company. The reality is that the consumer will continue to make choices. And when you think about that relationship between branded products and private label, there is still a big opportunity for the private label and lower-priced brands to grow. That's the reality in many of our categories. So I feel good about what we see out there because, again, the consumer is making some choices, but it's not something radical. And at the end, it is not hurting Stepan portfolio.

Okay. I did want to hone in on one of your more modest portions of your business, but one with growth. So there was a question about your ag business, but I would like to ask you about Surfactants or whatnot for Oilfield. So if anything, I mean, my sense is that there should be a very strong demand outlook for that portion of your business, let's say, going forward, certainly domestically. Could you just maybe talk about your positioning there and what are the opportunities, let's say, over the medium term to benefit from what I believe is probably going to be a pretty strong level of demand for drilling activity and things where your Oilfield products might be positioned to participate?

Yes, for sure. And that's why, David, we keep calling all of those are our strategic priorities, right? Crop Productivity, Oilfield, Tier 2, Tier 3, right? And then within Tier 2, Tier 3, it's not only the low 1,4, it's also sulfate-free with AOS and with other products that we have. So we have a broad portfolio that can complement the consumer piece. But going back to your question on Oilfield, yes, we feel good. I mean we're growing double digits. As you know, our oilfield business is not that big. So the opportunities for growth are still significant for us. And we are happy with the double-digit growth that we are delivering. And the reality is that the focus, for example, in the U.S., which is our biggest Oilfield business globally, at the end, it's not about more drilling, right? I mean you don't see more drilling, you don't see more fracking going on. But what you can see is the use of more surfactants to make sure that you improve the yield of the current well, right? So that's an ongoing dynamic because you need to make sure that the current wells are more productive. And for that, you need the right chemistry with the right surfactants to improve the productivity of the well. So again, we don't see more drilling or more wells or more fracking in the U.S. in terms of more or new ones, but we see let's get more out of what we have, and that's where we play a role. So we feel good about this business, and we will continue investing and growing in this business. And of course, there is a lot of import dynamic that in the current environment are tougher and that favor the people that have local production in the U.S. like us.

Right. Okay. And then one last one for me, and it would have to do with your capital spending projections for this year. So I am looking in the appendix and the midpoint of your 2026 forecast for CapEx is $100 million. Can you remind me just what the sustaining portion of that might be? And then more to the point, where is Stepan devoting discretionary CapEx this year? In other words, beyond sustaining CapEx, where -- what's in the budget for this year? Where is that incremental CapEx going to be focused?

David, yes, this is Ruben. Let me take that one. So yes, you're right. I mean we -- in the slides, we mentioned our range for CapEx, which is $105 million to $115 million. So we continue to invest in CapEx. It's something that it's a priority for the company. Of course, we are fully committed to make sure that our operations are operating safely. And then, of course, a lot of this CapEx is to make sure that our operations are well managed and that we have all of the resources and the facilities to operate in a safe way. A lot of this goes, of course, into our Surfactants operations and manufacturing. And we continue to invest in CapEx. So you have seen that in the last few years, we have been in the range of above $100 million, and we will continue to prioritize our investments into that. There is some of this CapEx that is towards growth, of course. But I would say a significant portion of it is targeting operating safely and making sure that we have the capabilities needed in our plants and in our supply chain.

And let me add, David, as we have talked in the past, when you think about it, 75%, 80% is just for base reliability and infrastructure. We have growth, we have IT, we have other investments in our total CapEx forecast, and we will continue if we see the returns of those projects. But call it the normal CapEx for the company without any other major growth item is around $100 million or less.

And this concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back over to Luis for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for joining us on today's call. We appreciate your interest and ownership in Stepan Company. Have a great day.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.