Operator
Operator
Please standby. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining the Silgan Holdings Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference to Kim Ulmer, Vice President and Controller. Please go ahead, ma'am. Kimberly I. Ulmer - Vice President & Controller: Thank you. Joining me from the company today, I have Tony Allott, President and CEO; Bob Lewis, EVP and CFO; and Adam Greenlee, EVP and COO. Before we begin the call today, we would like to make it clear that certain statements made today on this conference call may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made based upon management's expectations and beliefs concerning future events impacting the company, and therefore, involve a number of uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to those described in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2014 and other filings with the SEC. Therefore, the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn it over to Tony. Anthony J. Allott - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Kim. Welcome, everyone, to our third quarter 2015 earnings conference call. Our agenda for this morning will focus on the financial performance for the third quarter and to review our outlook for 2015. After the prepared remarks, Bob, Adam and I will be pleased to answer any questions. As you saw in the press release, adjusted earnings per diluted share were below our expectations at $1.26 for the third quarter versus $1.33 in the same period a year ago. While we fully expected 2015 to be a challenging and transitional year for each of our businesses, there is no question the performance in the plastic container business has been disappointing and well below our expectations. As with plastics business, I believe it's important to take a minute and review our longer-term situation and why we embarked on this significant rationalization effort, and elaborate on the recent challenges. The plastic bottle business has undergone significant change in recent years, with increased customer focus on near-site production, high support requirement and continuous cost reductions. In order to meet these needs and to capitalize on our belief that no supplier fully meets the needs, we believe it's vital to address the legacy costs and geographic proximity of our business. One of the strengths of our plastic business is its wide variety of manufacturing platforms and technologies available to meet our customers' unique needs. Unfortunately, this strength presents a challenge during restructuring activities, as we operate a significant number of specific equipment platforms with production capacities dedicated to, and paired closely with, customer-specific volumes. This tight production capacity model mandates that when we – when any manufacturing line is moved, sufficient inventory must be built, the line must be moved within a small window of time while training new employees in a new location to operate the equipment upon installation. Therefore, if any issues arise, they can become large problems very quickly. Our job is to deal with these challenges as they are identified, and under any circumstances to protect our customers by maintaining service and supply throughout this transition. This plan was aggressive and problems have arisen. Accordingly, we are incurring significantly higher incremental costs associated with mitigating the impact of these issues on our customers. During the quarter, we incurred direct incremental costs associated with the plastic footprint optimization and the efforts to minimize the impact of these activities on our customers. These incremental costs will continue as we go forward for the next several quarters and where possible and helpful, we may elect to slow down some of these activities. In strengthening our response to these challenges, we've also made several management changes to the plastics' team, including naming Jay Martin as the President of Silgan Plastics. Jay was previously the President of Silgan Plastic Closure Solutions and most recently led the successful Portola integration and related footprint optimization program within the closures business in the U.S. Our metal container business delivered 8% volume growth, as a result of new volumes associated with the Van Can acquisition, continued growth in pet food in the U.S., and solid volumes in the European business. However, despite a great start, the U.S. fruit and vegetable pack was below expectations, as the pack ended abruptly in September. As we've seen earlier in the year, our metal container team did a good job meeting this increased demand and the previously discussed shift in geographic customer requirements from our existing infrastructure. This effort continues to drive higher manufacturing costs and out-of-order freight and logistics costs. While our footprint optimization is progressing on schedule, the new plant is scheduled to start off in the early part of 2016, and we'll then go through customer qualifications. Therefore, some of these incremental costs will persist until the second half of 2016. Later in the year, we anticipate easing our capacity limitations and then beginning to reduce other inefficiently located capacity in the system. Our closure business continues to perform well having successfully completed its footprint optimization program in the quarter. Based on our year-to-date performance and our outlook for remainder of the year, we are revising our full-year estimate of adjusted earnings per share in a range of $2.88 to $2.98. This estimate assumes similar fourth quarter incremental cost levels in the plastic container and metal food can business as we incurred in the third quarter. With that, I'll now turn it over to Bob to review the financial results in more detail and provide additional explanation around our earnings estimates for 2015. Robert B. Lewis - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Thank you, Tony. Good morning, everyone. Tony provided an overview of the challenges we faced during the quarter, so I'll focus my comments on the financial results for the quarter, as well as our outlook for the balance of 2015. On a consolidated basis, net sales for the third quarter of 2015 were $1.2 billion, a decrease of $24.9 million, as decreases in the plastic container and closure businesses, due partly to the impact of unfavorable foreign currency, were partially offset by increased sales in the metal container business. The aggregate impact of foreign currency across all of our businesses unfavorably impacted revenue by $40.6 million in the quarter. Net income for the third quarter was $70.3 million or $1.16 per diluted share, compared to third quarter of 2014 net income of $83.3 million or $0.31 per share. The results for 2015 included rationalization charges of $9.1 million for a total increase to earnings per share of $0.10, while results for 2014 included rationalization charges of $2.5 million and net income in Venezuela of $800,000 for a net increase to earnings per share of $0.02. As a result, we delivered adjusted income per diluted share of $1.26 in 2015 versus $1.33 in 2014. Interest and other debt expense decreased $2.2 million or $17.1 million for the quarter, primarily as a result of lower weighted average borrowing rates and an unfavorable – and a favorable impact from foreign currency translation. As we continue to make progress on the new plant startups, net capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2015 totaled $53.1 million, compared with $33.5 million in the prior-year quarter. Year-to-date net capital expenditures totaled $151.2 million versus $93.1 million in the prior year. Additionally, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share in September with a total cash cost of $9.8 million. Year-to-date share repurchases totaled $170.1 million. I'll now provide some specifics regarding financial performance of our three business franchises. The metal container business recorded net sales of $845.4 million for the third quarter of 2015, an increase of $17.7 million or 2.1% versus the prior-year quarter. This increase is primarily a result of 8% higher unit volumes, partially offset by unfavorable foreign currency of $17.9 million. Volumes were higher year-over-year as a result of incremental U.S. volumes associated with the Van Can acquisition and continued growth in pet food, and Europe was also stronger on a year-over-year basis. Income from operations in the metal container business was $106 million for the third quarter 2015 versus $112.2 million in the same period a year ago. The decrease in operating income was primarily due to higher manufacturing costs due largely to logistical challenges from changes in customer demand patterns, which was further exacerbated as a result of higher volumes and a less favorable mix of products sold, including volumes associated with the less efficient Van Can operations. These were partially offset by higher volumes. Net sales in the closure business decreased $25.3 million to $215.7 million for the quarter, primarily due to the unfavorable impact of foreign currency of $17 million, the pass-through of lower resin costs and the cessation of operations in Venezuela at the end of 2014, partially offset by a 1% improvement in unit volumes. Income from operations in the closure business for the third quarter of 2015 was $27.1 million, down $600,000 versus the prior-year quarter. This reduction was primarily a result of unfavorable foreign currency translation, partially offset by better operating performance as a result of the benefits of the Portola integration and plant optimization programs, the favorable impact from the lagged pass-through of decreases in resin costs in the current year quarter versus the unfavorable impact from resin in the prior-year quarter and higher unit volumes. Net sales in the plastic container business were $142.4 million for the third quarter of 2015, down $17.3 million versus the prior-year quarter. This decrease was largely due to the pass-through of lower raw material costs, the impact of unfavorable foreign currency translation of $5.8 million, a 1% decline in volumes and the unfavorable impact from recent longer-term customer contract renewals. The loss from operations was $7.3 million for the third quarter of 2015 versus income from operations in the prior-year quarter of $13.1 million. This decrease was primarily related to higher rationalization charges, significant costs and manufacturing inefficiencies associated with the footprint optimization program, the unfavorable impact from recent longer-term customer contract renewals, a customer reimbursement for historical project costs in the prior-year period, lower volumes and the impact of unfavorable foreign currency translation, partially offset by the favorable impact of the lagged pass-through of decreases in resin costs. The rationalization charges for the shutdown of two facilities in the Midwest totaled $8.9 million for the quarter. Turning now to our outlook for 2015, based on our year-to-date performance and the outlook for the remainder of the year, we are reducing our estimate of adjusted net income per diluted share in the range of $2.88 to $2.98, down from a range of $3.10 to $3.30 per share. This estimate excludes the impact from certain adjustments outlined in Table B of our press release. We're also providing a fourth quarter 2015 estimate of adjusted earnings in the range of $0.38 to $0.48 per diluted share, excluding rationalization charges. This estimate compares to adjusted net income per diluted share of $0.58 in the prior-year quarter. The decline on a year-over-year basis is largely due to the continuation of incremental costs similar to those in the third quarter associated with our footprint optimization programs in both the plastic and metal container businesses, lower pound volumes in plastics and the impact from an abrupt end to the fruit and vegetable pack. Despite the reduction in forecasted earnings, we continue to forecast free cash flow generation to be approximately $100 million, largely a result of the slight shift of capital spending from 2015 to 2016. That concludes our prepared comments. So, we'll turn it over for a Q&A. And I'll turn it back to Augusta who can provide directions for the Q&A session.