Teleflex Incorporated (TFX) Q2 2015 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Quarter Two 2015 Teleflex Incorporated Earnings Conference Call. My name is Emma, and I will be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of the conference. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Jake Elguicze, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Teleflex Incorporated second quarter 2015 earnings conference call. The press release and slides to accompany this call are available on our website at www.teleflex.com. As a reminder, this call will be available on our website and a replay will be available by dialing (888) 286-8010, or for international calls, (617) 801-6888, passcode 52181612. Participating on today's call are Benson Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Liam Kelly, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Thomas Powell, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Benson, Liam, and Tom will make some brief prepared remarks and then we'll open up the call to Q&A. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the matters discussed in the conference call will contain forward-looking statements regarding future events as outlined in our slides. We wish to caution you that such statements are, in fact, forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual events or results may differ materially. The factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially include, but are not limited to, factors made in our press release today, as well as our filing with the SEC including our Form 10-K, which can be accessed on our website. The format for this morning's call will be as follows. Benson will begin with a high-level overview of our quarterly results and provide an update on some key strategic initiatives, including our manufacturing footprint consolidation program. We'll then turn the call over to Liam, who will review our product line and geographic revenue results, provide updates with regards to recent GPO and IDN developments, new product introductions and regulatory approvals and highlight two small acquisitions that we completed. Following Liam, will be Tom Powell. Tom will review our second quarter financial results and provide an update regarding our financial guidance for 2015. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that effective April 1, 2015, the company reorganized certain of its businesses to better leverage the company's resources. As a result, the company realigned its operating segments; specifically the company's Anesthesia/Respiratory North America operating segment was divided into two operating segments, Anesthesia North America and Respiratory North America. Additionally, the businesses comprising the company's former specialty operating segment which was included in the all other category were transferred to the Anesthesia North America, Vascular North America, and Respiratory North America operating segments. As a result of the operating segment changes, the company now has the following six reportable operating segments: Vascular North America, Anesthesia North America, Surgical North America, EMEA, Asia, and OEM. In connection with this presentation of segment information, the company will continue to report certain operating segments including, among others, the Respiratory North America operating segment in the all other category. To facilitate comparability of current to prior period revenues, we have made available on our website a supplemental schedule which provides historical, quarterly, and annual segment net revenues that have been recast to reflect our current reporting segments. With that said, I'd like to now turn the call over to Benson.

Thanks, Jake, and good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, Teleflex continued its very solid operating performance building upon the results realized over earlier in the year. Once again, the company generated mid-single-digit constant currency revenue growth and achieved adjusted earnings per share that was slightly higher than our most recent internal projections. This was no small achievement as foreign exchange was a significant year-over-year headwind. As we entered the year, we forecasted that all the second and the third quarters would have extremely unfavorable comparisons to the prior year regarding FX. Therefore, Tom, will spend a little more time than usual walking you through how FX affects our P&L, and more importantly, why we expect substantial improvements in the as-reported numbers in the fourth quarter. By way of example, absent currency, our second quarter 2015 adjusted earnings per share would have shown a 14% increase over the prior year period. This is an indication to the underlying base business leverage that we are achieving. And while Liam and Tom will go into more detail during their prepared remarks, let me provide you with a brief overview of our quarterly results. I also want to bring to your attention one other circumstance that had an impact on our numbers this quarter. At the very end of the quarter we had two recalls. Now, normally we would not call out a recall as an offsetting event, as part of the medical device history and when you have one you take the hit. The only thing that makes these unusual is timing. Normally, when you have a recall, you issue a credit to your customers and then ship in replacement product when it becomes available. But because of the timing of these two recalls, we were unable to ship out replacement product and unable to fulfill other orders in hand for the product. Second quarter 2015 revenue totaled $452.1 million, which represents an increase of 4.7% on a constant currency basis. Having been able to ship replacement product during this quarter, our constant currency revenue growth would have been approximately 5% and that number does not include the benefit of shipping additional products if the products were not on product hold. I draw attention to this, because our revenue trajectory is an important element in our fourth quarter and that trajectory is better than what the 4.7% would lead you to. In the quarter, we saw improved results stemming from Asia, we saw a sequential rebound in sales generated out of China, continued benefits from the recent acquisition of Human Medics, and improved results from our business in Japan. Other right path this quarter included a vascular business, which grew almost 6%, our OEM business, which grew 7.5%, and our surgical business which generated almost 8% constant currency revenue growth. Our surgical business is starting to see increasing sales in our chest drainage product line. As a reminder, chest drainage product sales have been an area that Teleflex had been deemphasizing over the past several years due to the fact that these products have low gross margins. While our main competitor is currently operating under a consent decree and in order to meet the patient and provide their need, Teleflex is making every one of these we can. As we move through the remainder of 2015, we continue to expect to generate additional revenues of chest drainage products. While this is good from a revenue growth and earnings per share perspective, this will pressure our gross margin line particularly, in the fourth quarter. Turning to adjusted earnings per share, second quarter 2015 adjusted EPS was $1.42 that compares to second quarter adjusted EPS of $1.51. As I stated a few minutes ago, second quarter adjusted earnings per share was negatively impacted by foreign exchange by approximately 20%. If not for FX, adjusted earnings per share would have increased approximately 14% over the prior year period. This underlying operational improvement in year-over-year adjusted earnings resulted from higher volumes, favorable product mix coming from areas like Vidacare and Hem-o-lok, and the impact of recently completed acquisitions and distributor conversions. However, during the second quarter adjusted earnings per share was somewhat offset by additional manufacturing cost incurred due to the product recalls I just mentioned. These recalls impacted our gross and operating profits by approximately $3.6 million and gross and operating margins by approximately 70 basis points and 80 basis points respectively. We do not expect these recalls have an impact during the remainder of the year. Moving on, I would like to next provide you with an update on the status of our manufacturing footprint consolidation plan. We continue to believe that this program will be substantially completed by the end of 2017, and expect to generate annual savings of between $28 million and $35 million once the plan is fully implemented. These expected synergies are consistent with our initial expectations, which were laid out in 2014. On our last earnings call, we discussed the impact of foreign exchange as it was having on our year-end gross margin targets. Specifically, we said that when we entered the year we had a reasonable cushion in meeting our end year 55% target. However, given the more aggressive decline in the euro during the first quarter essentially that cushion disappeared. As we sit here now, two principal factors are causing us to revise our expectations regarding year-end gross margins. The first has to do with certain components relating to kits being transferred to Mexico. Earlier in the year, we identified substitutions for components that have been available in United States, but were not available in Mexico. Well, recently we have discovered some components that are much superior. And after significant market testing, we believe that the best alternative is to switch to those superior components. This will require some adjustments to the internal tray, which houses those components, and will push out the timeframe to having them available into next year. We look very closely at doing this in a two stage process. But given the relatively short timeframe involved, came to the conclusion that it was not cost effective and would introduce an added layer of confusion to the customer. The second issue impacting our expectations for fourth quarter gross margin is mix. When we project our revenue growth for the balance of year, we are seeing strong growth in our OEM segment, in our respiratory therapy business, and in our chest drainage business. This is good news. But all three of these product categories carry lower gross margins than our other product lines. As a result of the decision to delay some of the kit repackaging, along with the additional gross margin pressure from FX, and our expected mix of additional OEM respiratory therapy in chest drainage product sales, we now project that we will achieve adjusted gross margin of approximately 54% for the fourth quarter of 2015 versus our original expectation of 55%. I know that many of you have consistently observed that this management team takes hitting our goals very seriously. So it pains me to advise you this. And the year is not over yet, so we will do everything reasonable to mitigate these circumstances and close that gross margin gap. I say reasonable, because this will only temporarily delay our ability to attain the 55% gross margin level. We remain committed to the achievement of the longer-term projects that we recently shared at our Analyst Day and do not see any change in our ability to reach those longer-term objectives. In fact, we have growing confidence around some of the margin improvement opportunities that we did not include in our long range plans. I also say reasonable because the mix in adjusted margin does not translate into a mix in our adjusted operating margin line for 2015. The reason is that these low gross margin products that are affecting our mix also have very low operating expenses associated with them. In fact, despite this slight delay, we continue to expect that 2015 will be a strong year for Teleflex. And we are once again reaffirming our 2015 financial targets, which include generating constant currency revenue growth between 4% and 6%, adjusted gross margin of between 53% and 54%, adjusted operating margin of between 22% and 22.50%, and adjusted earnings per share between $6.10 and $6.35 per share in 2015. In summary, we feel very good about where we are in the year. And now, Liam, will provide you an update on our strategic business unit results.

Thank you, Benson, and good morning everyone. For the consolidated company, second quarter 2015 constant currency revenues grew 4.7% and similar to the first quarter the revenue growth was broad-based both in terms of product lines and geographic regions. The major drivers of revenue growth this quarter came from improved sales volumes of approximately 262 basis points of revenue growth. This growth was driven by core product growth of 215 basis points, and Vidacare growth of 47 basis points. Vidacare product sales grew approximately 11% on a constant currency basis as compared with the prior year period. While this was good, it was lower than the growth we generated in the first quarter of 2015. The revenue growth rate of Vidacare product sales in the second quarter was down sequentially due to seasonality of military sales, and the timing of some crash car sales that occurred in the first quarter of this year. We continued to achieve approximately 30% revenue growth in the interventional products globally and nearly 20% growth in the EZ-IO products in Europe. During the quarter we also had our first Italian ambulance conversion. We continue to invest aggressively behind Vidacare and we remain extremely bullish on the product's potential. In fact, we expect Vidacare revenues to grow approximately 20% on a constant currency basis for the remainder of 2015. Turning to core product volumes, the increase this quarter was led by improved Vascular, OEM, and Respiratory sales for a domestic perspective. Our CVC business grew approximately 10% globally in the quarter driven by market share gains and product upgrades in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and volume gains in Asia-Pacific. While from an international standpoint, core product volume growth was great in Asia, thanks to additional orders coming from China, as well as increased sales in Japan. During the quarter, we also experienced strong core product volume increases throughout Europe, as well as in Latin American markets. Another contributor to our revenue growth this quarter was the continued penetration of new products in the market place. During the second quarter, new product introductions contributed approximately 89 basis points of revenue growth. This was led by sales of our European EASK CVC kits, surgical product introduction stemming from our partnership with a robotics provider, sales of our AutoFuser Disposable Pain Pump, and sales of our Rusch Disposable LED Laryngoscope. Additional sales coming from new product introductions in the quarter were somewhat offset by a decline in new products sales within our vascular business. This was due to the product recall issue which Benson mentioned earlier, as it impacted sales of our ArrowADVANTAGE5 preloaded PICC. We expect new product sales within our vascular segment to rebound during the remainder of the year. Excluding this recall, constant currency revenue growth for the company coming from new product sales would have exceeded 100 basis points. Turning to pricing. During the second quarter the average selling price of our core products were flat as compared with the prior year period. Similar to recent quarters we were able to achieve price increases within our North American surgical business. However, this was offset by price pressures primarily coming from European markets. And finally, this takes me to the last component of quarterly revenue growth or the contribution we received from M&A and distributor-to-direct conversions. Revenue growth from these totaled approximately 114 basis points and was primarily due to the impact of distributor conversion. The performance in this area was consistent with that achieved in the first quarter of the year. It is important to understand that as we progress through the remainder of the year, we continue to expect the contribution to revenue growth from M&A and distributor conversions to accelerate. Next, I would like to provide some additional color surrounding our segment and product related constant currency revenue growth drivers. Vascular North America second quarter revenue increased 5.6% to $81.2 million. The increase in vascular revenue was largely due to greater sales of Central Venous Catheters, Vidacare EZ-IO devices, and catheter navigation products. Moving to Anesthesia North America. Second quarter revenue was $45.6 million or flat versus the prior year period. Growth in this segment during the quarter was achieved in our LMA MAD Nasal atomization product offering. However, this was offset by the discontinuation of some third-party distribution agreements which was approximately 1%, lower sales in some of our region Anesthesia products, and lower domestic sales of laryngeal mask. And speaking of MAD Nasal, we recently received regulatory approval to expand our indication for use from a CE MAD perspective to include emergent, urgent, and medically necessary situations and when intravenous or intramuscular access may be difficult or impossible. Turning to our surgical North America business, its revenue increased 7.8% to $40.5 million. The increase in surgical revenue was due to higher sales of chest drainage, ligation clips, access boards, and Mini-Lap products. This was somewhat offset by lower sales of general surgical instruments and suture products. EMEA revenues totaled $129.1 million in the quarter and generated consistent currency revenue growth of 1.7%. This was consistent with the performance this segment realized in the first quarter and we continue to see the European market as being stable, with the increase in revenue this quarter, primarily due to higher sales of vascular products, including Vidacare and PICCs, higher sales of laryngeal masks, and increased dialysis access product sales. Moving to Asia, our second quarter revenue increased 9.4% to $62.1 million. The quarterly increase in Asia revenue was primarily due to stronger sales in China, go-direct efforts in Japan, and additional revenues in Korea due to the acquisition of Human Medics. Now to OEM. Revenues in the second quarter increased 7.5% to $37.9 million. The increase in OEM revenue was primarily due to higher sales of catheter products. And lastly, our all other segment revenue for the quarter was up 6%, totaling $55.7 million. The increase in other revenues was largely due to higher sales within Latin American countries and intra-aortic balloon pumps and catheters. Next I would like to update you on additional group purchasing and IDN agreements that we received in the quarter. In a similar fashion to the first quarter of the year, during Quarter 2, we once again won a total of 10 agreements. Of these agreements, four were brand new, while six were renewals of existing awards. One of the new GPO wins was for our Pleur-evac chest drainage products that Benson referred to earlier. The rest spanned across our product offerings that included items such as CVC and arterial access devices, intra-aortic balloon products, dialysis access and vascular positioning systems, and a brand new award for an AutoFuser disposable pain pumps. We continue to be quite pleased with the progress we are making in these areas. Next, I would like to update you on some recent product regulatory approvals that we received, as well as the findings from some independent studies that were performed in which our products were used. During the second quarter, we received 510(k) market clearance from the FDA for our Arrow Endurance Extended Dwell Peripheral Catheter System. Endurance was one of the products that we highlighted at our recent Investor Day event. This device is a single use peripheral catheter system intended for short-term dwell use to permit delivery of infusion therapy, pressure monitoring, high pressure injection, and the withdrawal of blood. The insertion device consists of an ergonomically designed handle with an integral echogenic needle. The needle has a passably active production mechanism, guide wire, release tab, and single-lumen catheter. The insertion device is designed as a closed system intended to contain blood throughout the catheter insertion process. The concept behind the Arrow Endurance system is that it will be used when a PICC may be too much for patient, but yes a peripheral IV device is not enough to solve their needs. It is our belief that through the innovative insertion design of this product that we can target a portion of peripheral IV market and turn that usage over to Endurance. We are quite excited about this product's opportunity and tend to launch it in the United States later this year. Another area of focus at the recent Investor Day surrounds our leadership position within the area of antimicrobial and anti-thrombogenic coating and helping hospitals minimize the cost associated with hospital acquired infection. Recently our Arrow Central Venous Catheters with ARROWg+ard Blue technology were included in a peer review retrospective study. The study further documented the ability of our Central Venous Catheter with ARROWg+ard Blue technology to prevent catheter related blood stream infections therefore reducing their occurrence and reducing direct cost associated with treating those infections. The antimicrobial catheter outperformed an unprotected CVC in both infection prevention and total cost per patients. Within this study, the ARROWg+ard Blue catheter achieved a zero infection rate per 1000 catheter days. In contrast, the unprotected device was associated with a higher catheter related blood stream infection rate. In addition to superior clinical performance the ARROWg+ard Blue CVC had sharply lower CVC related costs than those associated with an unprotected catheter. This study is further evident that using an unprotected catheter may put both the patient and hospitals bottom-line at unnecessary risk. And before I review two recently completed acquisitions, I would like to provide an update on the status of the LMA Protector and Percuvance product launches. The LMA Protector is the device that we've been working on which we expect would bridge the remaining gap with ET tubes and open up a large number of additional procedures both in the pre-hospital and hospital settings to LMA use. This is important to Teleflex as the margin mix benefit that would get from the migration from ET tubes to LMA use is significant. The protector has a flexible but fixed curb tubes that allows ease with surgeons and anatomical conformity. It's patented dual gastric drainage channel and chamber is designed to improve the laryngeal seal during high volume regurgitation. It also has an integrated suction fore that can be used to rapidly remove any gastric content in the patient or to regurgitate during a procedure. The protector is currently being evaluated in 22 hospitals around the world as part of a small controlled limited market release. Feedback from these controlled releases has been overwhelmingly positive. The protector design is getting high marks for its seal pressure which is a critical component to protecting the airway and facilitating ventilation. In addition, the protector silicon design and flexible curb has been well received in terms of ease of insertion. Users have also reported high praise for the advanced gastric access feature. We are quite enthusiastic about this product and it is our belief that the protector can move Teleflex forward exponentially in our quest to provide physicians with technology that reduces the risk of area-related complications. We expect a full market release in the first quarter of 2016. Now to Percuvance. As a remainder it is our belief that Percuvance has a potential to eliminate scaring and pain and improve a patient's recovery when compared to a traditional multi-port laparoscopic surgery. This device eliminates the need for multiple trocars and allows the surgeon to potentially access the surgical site with better angle. The unique feature of Percuvance allows the surgeon to use similar size operating tip. The same size they have been accustomed to using the traditional 5 millimeter, 10 millimeter straight stick laparoscopic devices without the need for a trocar. The Percuvance surgical system was first used at the Cleveland Clinic in March of this year. I am pleased to tell you that since the initial launch in March, we are currently testing the product in nine hospitals worldwide today, and anticipate that we will have the device in 17 hospitals by the end of the year. Similar to the other main protector, I am happy to report that initial feedback on Percuvance has also been extremely positive. Our key findings from the limited market release are three folds. First, it has the applicability in a broader range of procedures. Second, it has applicability in more complex procedures than first envisioned. And third, the Percuvance system has a fast deduction rate as it does not require a change in surgical practice. Next, I would like to briefly discuss two small acquisitions that were recently completed. The first was the acquisition of N. Stenning & Co. Stenning has been a distributor of Teleflex surgical products in Australia under the Pilling and Weck brand for nearly 35 years. Included in this transaction as a Stenning surgical customer relationships throughout Australia and a team of surgical sales representatives were now employees of Teleflex. This acquisition is yet another example of Teleflex executing upon its strategy of converting select distributors to a direct sales model, enabling the company to leverage our sales performance to support growth and capture additional margin. These all cash acquisition was completed in June and is expected to be modestly accretive in 2015. And lastly, I would like to touch on another acquisition that will benefit our Anesthesia segment. Completed on the first day of the third quarter was the acquisition of exclusive North American distribution rights to the AutoFuser and the AutoFuser with AutoSelector range of disposable pain control pumps from Ace Medical U.S. In connection with this transaction, Teleflex entered into a 10-year exclusive distribution agreement with the manufacturer of these products Ace Medical Corporation. This transaction solidifies Teleflex's position as a leading source of high quality regional Anesthesia products, including catheters and pain pump systems and provides the immediate benefit of a strengthening our Anesthesia business in the United States and supports our margin expansion initiatives. This too was an all cash transaction and it is also expected to be modestly accretive to revenues and earnings in 2015. That completes my prepared remarks. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Tom. Tom?

Thanks, Liam, and good morning everyone. Given Liam's discussion of the company's revenue growth drivers, I will begin my prepared remarks at the gross profit line. But before I do, I would like to reinforce a point made earlier by Benson, which is that underlying operating performance is solid. So far this year we have made progress against our gross margin efficiency initiatives, including footprint consolidation, host of new manufacturing cost reduction initiatives, and a continued conversion of select distributors to a direct sales model. We have reorganized several business units in order to drive SG&A efficiency and we have reduced the average borrowing cost through the redemption of higher cost notes. However, for the time being our operational progress is being matched somewhat by the impact of currency. For the second quarter, we estimate that the impact of foreign currency which reduced adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.30. If we were to exclude the currency impact, earnings per share growth would have been approximately 14%. As I go through the quarterly results, I will highlight the currency impact so you can get a better understanding of the underlying operational performance. Turning now to results. For the second quarter, adjusted gross profit was $236.3 million versus $245 million in the prior year quarter. Adjusted gross margin was 52.3% which was flat when compared to the prior year period. During the second quarter we realized improved operational efficiencies from both manufacturing and logistics cost improvement programs, and the beginning stages of manufacturing consolidation. Recent distribution conversions in Japan, Korea, and now Australia, plus the acquisitions of Truphatek and Mini-Lap further boosted gross margin. Additionally, we realized favorable product mix, including strong results in the vascular North America segment. However, the underlying operational improvement in adjusted gross margin was offset was the unfavorable impact of product recall-related expenses that reduced gross margin by approximately 70 basis points, and foreign exchange rates that reduced gross margin by approximately 50 basis points. While we have not removed these items when calculating our adjusted gross margin, if you were to normalize our results for these impact, adjusted gross margin would have been approximately 53.5% in the quarter. Second quarter adjusted operating profit and margin were $92.3 million and 20.4% respectively versus $98.3 million and 21% respectively in the prior year quarter. The decline in adjusted operating margin was primarily due to the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates and recall expenses. These impacts more than offset efficiency gains from the recent reorganization of our North American specialty, anesthesia, and respiratory segments, as well as continued benefits from the 2014 restructuring our European country organizations. Similar to gross margin, if you would normalize our results to exclude the impact of currency and the product recall cost, adjusted operating margin this quarter would have been approximately 23%. Turning to second quarter, we also took steps to further optimize the company's capital structure through redemption of our 6% and 7.8% senior subordinated notes due in 2019. The redemption of these notes occurred on June 1, and was funded through borrowing under our revolving credit facility. As a result of the transaction, we anticipate that adjusted net interest expense will decline from the current level to approximately $11 million per quarter in the second half of 2015. The objective of this transaction was to lower our average borrowing cost, while maintaining the balance of fixed versus floating rate debt. Moving next to our adjusted tax rate. For the second quarter 2015, the adjusted tax rate was 19.5%, a reduction of 280 basis points compared to the prior year period. The year-over-year reduction is primarily due to a favorable shift of taxable income to jurisdictions with lower statutory tax rate. On the bottom-line, second quarter adjusted earnings per share was $1.42 or a decrease of 6%. As mentioned, if were to exclude the currency impact, earnings per share growth would have been approximately 14%. Turning now to select balance sheet and cash flow highlights. During the quarter, cash provided by operations was approximately $67 million, which is running a little bit behind year ago levels, largely the results of increased inventories and receivables in Japan as we transition the business to a direct sales model. We're expecting improvement in this area as the year progresses. On a full year basis we project cash flow from operations to both remain on target to exceed $300 million and to achieve growth at a level consistent with adjusted earnings growth. During the quarter, cash on hand increased by approximately $60 million to a quarter-end balance of $325 million and our U.S. cash balance was $27 million. Turning next to an update of our full year 2015 financial guidance. We continue to expect 2015 constant currency revenue growth of between 4% and 6% and as reported revenue growth of flat to down 2% as compared to 2014. As we look to second half revenues, we expect a currency headwind in the third quarter similar to what we experienced in the second quarter, but then a lessening impact in the fourth quarter given an improvement in the prior year comparables. Also during the second half of the year, we expect an acceleration of our constant currency revenue growth rate due to the continued positive impact from recently completed distributor conversions and M&A, gains from new product introductions, increased Vidacare penetration, and higher revenue growth coming from China, coming from an easier fourth quarter comparable. Also during the fourth quarter, we have one additional shipping day. We expect fourth quarter constant currency revenue growth to be particularly strong giving the building momentum, the easier comparable, and the additional shipping day, which alone is expected to contribute more than 100 basis points fourth quarter revenue growth. On a reported basis assuming currencies remain in their current range, we project our as-reported revenue growth to turn positive in the fourth quarter. Continuing down the income statement, we had previously guided 2015 adjusted gross margin to be in the range of between 53% and 54% for the year. We now project 2015 adjusted gross margin to be at the low-end of the range or approximately 53%. Revision is attributable to cost related to second quarter recalls and the recent decision to delay the transfer of some of the material packaging and kit configurations from the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of 2016, plus higher than budgeted sales of OEM and chest drainage products and ongoing currency headwind. The current projection represents an approximate 150 basis point improvement in the adjusted gross margin versus 2014 and includes an unfavorable currency impact that we estimate will reduce full year gross margin by approximately 70 basis points. We expect third quarter adjusted gross margin to improve sequentially from the second quarter with further improvement projecting the fourth quarter to approximately 54%. Moving on to adjusted operating margin and earnings per share. For full year 2015, we continue to expect adjusted operating margin to increase by approximately 200 basis points to 250 basis points to a range of 22% to 22.5%. Based on recently implemented SG&A expense reduction actions, including the reorganization of our North American Specialty, Anesthesia and Respiratory commercial operations, plus restructuring of our European finance and marketing organizations, we expect SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue to decline in the second half of 2015, as compared to the first half of the year. As a result, we expect improved SG&A expense leverage that will offset the gross margin move and thereby allow us to maintain our previously provided range for adjusted operating margin. Similar to gross margin, the gains we expect to generate at the operating margin line will be negatively impacted by foreign exchange and we estimate that the full year 2015 operating margin would've been approximately 100 basis points higher, if were not for foreign exchange headwinds. Moving on to taxes. We continue to expect our full year adjusted tax rate to fall within the range of 20% to 21%. On the bottom-line, we continue to expect adjusted earnings per share to be within the range of $6.10 to $6.35 per share. And that fourth quarter will be considerably stronger than our third quarter. In closing, we continue to be encouraged by the progress made towards our operational goals and objectives. Our revenue growth is tracking to expectations and our volume trends continue to improve. While factors have caused this to moderate somewhat on our gross margin exceptions, we now expect to overachieve in other areas and thereby remain on track to reach both our 2015 operating margins and earnings per share targets. That concludes my prepared remarks. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator?

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Larry Keusch of Raymond James. Please proceed.

I'm wondering, Benson, if we could start with the chest drainage product and the comments that you made. I understand that these are obviously incremental revenues, albeit at a lower margin. But could you help us understand how you're thinking about perhaps the size of the market or the opportunity? And how should we be thinking about as that being incremental to the 2015 outlook?

So just by way of background as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, there is a consent decree -- excuse me that is affecting the largest competitor out there. When the impact of that started to became apparent we began a series of negotiations with GPOs and IBNs and essentially came to some agreements with those customers for essentially a three-year agreement. So we expect to ramp up to our full production capability and are in the process of doing that and expect the whole -- the majority of that business over a three-year period. We are not, however, making additional investments to expand our production beyond that point. We're really driven by this -- by patients and customer concern more so than an economic opportunity. So while we expect all lines of the business for three-year period it still falls into that category of low gross margin products that longer range we don't think our strategic best area of investment.

Okay, that's helpful. And then I guess the second question is just on M&A. And I guess the question is how are you viewing the opportunities out there? It seems to me, given the strength of the business that you probably don't have a major sense of urgency to get a deal done. But just want to take your temperature on what the environment feels like, what do valuations feel like, and is this still a priority for you guys?

So the short answer to your questions is yes. We -- I would just tell you we've never been busier. We are working on a number of smaller deals two of which -- of the kinds that Liam announced and those are typically deals we have much higher degree of certainty and being able to move across the finish line. But there is a lot of activity in that range where we're looking at for acquisitions right now. But timing is always hard to predict, but it remains the high priority for us.

Okay. And just lastly on that, just in terms of size of deals, just how should we -- I understand the smaller ones, but assuming something a bit larger, should we be thinking more like Vidacare, LMA sizes, that $200 million?

So when possible I would say that's the size we prefer. I think all along we've said we were going to go up to something in the range of a purchase price of, let's say, $500 million plus for the right opportunity. So I think the answer to your question is we still prefer those $100 million revenue size acquisition, they are a little bit easier to integrate. But it's a very opportunistic situation and sometimes things become available that are still attractive and fall a little bit on the larger side of that.

Okay. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of David Lewis from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hello. This is actually Jon Demchick in for David.

Hey, Jon.

Good morning, Jon.

Hi, Jon.

Good morning. Wanted to follow up on Larry's question on the chest drainage opportunity. And I think you mentioned that you expect to hold onto that business for the three-year timeframe, which I guess coincidentally, follows quite nicely to the long-term plan that you guys mentioned at the Analyst Day. And then, it sounds like the chest drainage opportunity has the potential to impact gross margins by about 100 basis points into the fourth quarter. So obviously, there's some sort of an offset onto the operating line with less selling costs, but should we expect this to impact the gross margin expectations over the next few years?

So just to be clear, the 100 basis points declined from 55% to 52% -- to the 100 basis point you're referring to really included some of the impact from the delay of the transfer of kits and also some impact from our greater than expected respiratory therapy volumes and OEM business. So not all of that decline is due to the chest drainage business.

And Jon, I'll just give you a bit of color on the chest drainage. It -- the largest GPO win that we executed on implementation just began during the month of July.

Okay. Understood. Is there a way to quantify maybe like the impact that the chest drainage business should have on your gross margins overall?

I would say that's getting too finite given all the things to go into the bucket that end up in our gross margins column. But I would say that whatever it turns out to be the impact that it ends up having on our operating margins is negligible.

Okay. That's very understood. One of the big surprises, at least for us, from the Analyst Day was the confidence towards organic growth acceleration in the out years. And I think a big part of that is the pipeline. As Liam mentioned on the call, both Percuvance and the LMA Protector are going to be big contributors to that. With those products launching at the beginning of the years, I was wondering if you could maybe help us think about the growth contribution you're expecting from these products into driving acceleration into 2016.

So we will launch them, we'll come up the limited market release in quarter 2016 for both products. As we said in the Analyst Day, the size of the market for, in particular, the Percuvance is in the region of $300 million to $400 million. The adoption rate we expect to add that it will accelerate during the quarter one through. So we expect an impact in 2016, but we're expecting more significant impacts on revenue growth for that particular product in '17 and '18 as it starts to get some traction. We will have it in 17 hospitals, as I said, at the end of the year. And for the Protector, we are expecting a similar ramp up, slower ramp up in '16 and then accelerating into '17 and '18. Again, I won't get too granular on the details in this particular product line at this time.

Jon, I would tell you that one of the reasons we have this almost like a test-market release going on is so that we can have a better perspective as we plan for 2016 and what the likely volumes are going to be and spend accordingly to be able to make that happen. I would say our accelerating product line though, particularly in the shorter term 2016 has as much to do with what we see as volume growth in the U.S. market and share gains. We're seeing that essentially across most of our business units and particularly areas in the vascular arena where we're seeing a good growth. In fact, we saw some of the strongest underlying constant currency growth in those segments already through the first two quarters.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Mishan from KeyBanc. Please proceed.

I think you're halfway through the year at this point, but you still maintain the guidance and it's still a pretty wide range. I'm just curious why you weren't able to narrow that a little bit.

Matt, are you referring to -

EPS, that’s right.

The revenue range or the earnings range?

EPS, yes.

Matt, why don't I take that one. So as we thought about it a year, we've got a fairly significant acceleration of revenue, margin expansion and savings and synergies coming to fourth quarter. So we wanted to make sure, we've got no better visibility on that, better understanding what's happening with currencies. But certainly we'll look to narrow that range as we get in the third quarter.

I would just add from my perspective currency continues to be our biggest unknown factor. It bounces around $0.03 or $0.04 within a week. So there is a lot of volatility there. I think if we just look at a constant currency revenue projection, I would say, I'm pretty comfortable that we're going to certainly be in the upper half of our guidance range as in the lower half. We really just need to kind of see what happens with the FX in the fourth quarter to be able to understand how much of that’s going to translate into EPS.

And on the R&D level, for the second quarter in a row that looks like it's about 3% of sales. Are you just seeing less -- why such a low level? Are you seeing less projects to invest in or is it -- I'm just curious?

Yes. So we are continuing to make investments in late-stage technology opportunities that is supplementing that a good bit. So I think our overall investment for the year when you're taking both things into consideration is more than adequate to be able to propel what kind of revenue growth we're projecting.

Okay, and lastly on Percuvance, I think you mentioned that you thought it would be applicable in a broader range of procedures and more complicated procedures. Could you just elaborate on that a little bit? And I know you mentioned the LMA is a full market release in 1Q '16. Are you still comfortable that you'll do a full 1Q '16 launch of Percuvance as well?

Okay. I'll take that. Yes. To your last question, yes. We're very comfortable we're going to get product out there in Q1. Everything is tracking to plan, our internal plan. When we started, we thought we would with doing a lot of procedures in live coli, but in actual fact, we have done as many bariatric and gynecological procedures as we've done live colis during the e-test. And the surgeons are more aggressive in the procedures they would use it in, which is for us quite exciting. Because if it's in a more complex procedure, it's what we would refer to as stick your product in the longer term.

Your next question comes from the line of David Turkaly from JMP Securities. Please go ahead.

I guess just given your performance in the quarter on that pricing side, any update there in terms of your expectations moving forward? Do you still think you can get price as a contributor?

So I think we have indicated over the past couple of quarters that the majority of our pricing is going to come from fewer direct conversions. For example, chest drainage, we might have had an opportunity to raise our prices given the emergency, but we thought that was sending the wrong message to our important GPO customers. The circumstance in Europe just with the addition of what's happening in Greece, what's happening in Russia, et cetera is eliminating some of the other parts of price moves that we're making? So we would continue to suggest that we're in that 100 basis product range over the next couple years, but the majority of it's going to be coming from dealer-direct conversions.

Great. And then on the Arrow Endurance, I guess, do your competitors have a product that's similar to that, or is that a new category that you're creating there?

There are other products within that category that we compete with. But we believe that our insertion process is quite unique and differentiated and will move some of the IB market into that space.

And last one from me, just any details that you'd be willing to share on the Australia distributor, either headcount or revenues, anything like that that you could help us out with would be great? Thanks.

On the Australian dealer to direct, so what we need to do is bleed through their inventory during this quarter and you should see about in the region of 50 basis points to top-line growth in the fourth quarter.

And your next question comes from the line of Matt Taylor from Barclays.

This is actually Ian Mahmud in for Matt. Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Yes. Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay, great. Good morning. So our question is actually following up on Dave's question about the purchase of the Australia distributor. And we were just wondering if at this point you can maybe size the opportunity for Teleflex in terms of the purchase of more distributors and what your thoughts are on that at this point?

What we've continued to say, for a while, I'll just repeat it, is their cadence of distributor-to-direct conversions [indiscernible] couple of years is what we've forecast over the next couple of years. There continues to be opportunities that are more than enough to be able to support that level. It's really more problematic for us to get down to the individual details about any single one of these. But in terms as an overall annual impact, what we've been delivering over the past couple of years is what we expect to deliver over the '16 through '18 timeframe that we outlined at the Analyst Day.

And just as a follow-up, one of the products that we like from a margin perspective is MAD Nasal. Do you have any update on that or anything that you can share from your current thoughts?

So, as I said during my prepared remarks we just got extended indications in Europe so for emergent use of the product. We continue to invest heavily behind this product. We are very pleased with the growth rate within the product that we're experiencing at the moment and we see the growth within the quarter in the high double-digits globally. So, it's one of the products that's within our area of focus and we continue to look to get more indications for use for the product.

Okay, thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Anthony Petrone from Jeffries. Please proceed.

Well thanks, gentlemen. Couple P&L questions, and then a few product questions. Maybe just a reminder, Benson or Tom, on the $28 million to $35 million in cost savings, how that we should expect that to roll through the P&L over time and sort of where the majority of the savings will be realized? I would assume COGS, but is there some that's allocated to the operating lines? And then one just for this year, on the pain pump distribution agreement that you mentioned in the prepared remarks, Benson, that's immediately accretive. Just wondering what should we expect this year in terms of accretion from those deals? And then, I've a couple of follow-ups.

So, in terms of the $28 million to $35 million it's largely savings that's going to show up in the COGS in gross margin line. There really isn't anything below that associated with that program. In terms of the timing, we spoke about a bit of that starting to happen in 2015 largely in the third and then in the fourth quarter. We've now moved manufacturing for some of our dry kits and VasaNova down to Mexico. So we're going to start to realize those savings in the third and fourth quarter of this year. The majority of the savings however will be kind of realized in 2016 and then a couple of million dollars more in 2017. So I think next year is kind of the lion share of the gain.

Relative to the pain pump question, it's a couple of pennies towards the end of the year. We obviously have to believe through our existing inventory. I think the two things that were quite attractive to us about this is, this is a extremely attractive product compared to the market leaders product that's out there, and by negotiating this deal for the distribution rights in the United States it improves our gross margins from one of the lower gross margin products in our bag to one of the higher ones. So few cents this year it will be much more favorable to us next year.

That's helpful. And then just a couple to round it out on products. On Vidacare, maybe just an update on where the Greenfield opportunity there is. Are there still hospitals in the U.S. that you can still penetrate? Or is it more just increasing usage at existing sites? And then maybe just a quick update on Weck disposable trocars with Intuitive Surgical. Intuitive had a pretty good quarter with volumes and placements. I'm just wondering how that plays out over time. Thanks.

Yes, so I'll take the Vidacare question first. So and it was always the case when we bought Vidacare that we realized that the opportunity to expand was in the ambulance service in Europe particularly and we were very pleased to convert our first ambulance service in Italy during the quarter as I said during my prepared remarks. There is still significant penetration opportunities within the United States and particular with the hospital segment. And we had a recent publication of a paper that showed that for emergent vascular access that even compared to CVC, EZ-IO was a better opportunity, a better methodology of getting immediate access for the vasculature. So we continue to see opportunities within the EMS segment, within North America, within the hospital segment, within North America, within the European EMS segment, and also within Asia-Pacific where it's in its infancy within Asia-Pacific and in the future that's a long-term growth prospect for us. So we continue to be very bullish about potential growth with EZ-IO and the Vidacare products and if we look at the half year, we are in the region of 20% growth within the half year base and we anticipate that to continue throughout the remainder of the year as I said in my prepared remarks. Your second question was regarding to the trocars. And this is one of the significant drivers behind our product growth which I said was 84 basis points within my prepared remarks. So this continues to be a focus for us and we're very, very pleased with the partnership that we had with Intuitive. And I think Intuitive likewise are very pleased with the partnership with Teleflex.

Okay, thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jason Wittes from Brean Capital. Please go ahead.

I wanted to ask first just a more clarification on gross margin. The component kit issue, is that a one-quarter delay type issue, or is that something that's going sort of continue into next year?

So -- our this is a relatively recent decision that we just arrived at a week or so. The current estimate is that is about a quarter delay. So we expect to get into manufacturing that product by the end of first quarter, it obviously won't have much impact on our gross margins in the first quarter that will follow that. But that's about the time it's going to take us to do the reconfiguration of the packaging and get through the validation process.

Okay, and sounds like you're not necessarily able to quantitate what the chest drainage opportunity might be it terms of -- it sounds like it's going to be accretive to overall margins, but for gross margins it will be dilutive. And I guess you're not in a position to necessarily quantitate that at this point. Is that the right way to think about it?

So, yes. I think we'll have a much better perspective on that in terms of the surrounding detail by the end of third quarter. We're in the practice of ramping up manufacturing that has an added cost that aren't going to stick around I think once we get to those levels but we'll have a much clearer picture about that certainly by the end of the year, most likely by the end of the third quarter.

And as I said during my earlier comments we're just in the process of converting the largest GPOs following the win. So we’ll have much more clarity on that as we go through the next quarter.

Okay, fair enough. And just did you give an indication of how PICC and CVCs did this quarter?

Yes, I gave an indication of CVC. CVCs grew 10% globally and that was really consistent across all the geographies. PICCs were impacted by the recall, as I mentioned during my prepared remarks, and overall were 8.1% of growth.

Yes, PICCs were -- Jason, PICCs were down about 8% in the quarter and that's really coming from the product recall issue that we referred to earlier. Had it not been for that we would be more in line with where we were in prior quarters.

Okay. And then the last question on ARROW Endurance. How big is the market today for these type of products? Sounds like there's some other products out there and how big do you expect it can grow to?

Well, if you look at the total IV market, and Jason, I'm not suggesting you do this --

Fair enough.

That would be a $300 million $400 million market but the segment of the market that we're targeting is in $40 million to $50 million entire segment that we're posting this product on is it's a in between a peripheral IV and a PICC. And what you see happen is some of the IV segment moved to the Endurance and some of the PICC segments moved to the Endurance.

Okay, thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Richard Newitter from Leerink Partners.

Hi. Good morning, thank you for taking the questions. This is Ravi here --

Richard, we can barely hear you.

Good morning, can you hear me now? This is actually Ravi in for Rich. Is that better?

A little better.

Okay, may be some headset. So I wanted to follow-up on the recall. I was hoping if you could quantify that a little bit, given you said about 30 BPs in the quarter. How do you see that going forward on the top-line and any commentary on when you see that resolving? And then may be one on FX exposure. It sounds like what you're saying is that Europe at least seems to be doing okay. But I was just curious if you could just quantify a little bit about your currency exposure, what are the components of that? Thanks.

So, relative to currency we have made our balance for the year projections assuming a dollar euro at $1.08. One of the impacts of currency in the second quarter had more to do with the euro versus other currencies. And that introduces a layer of complexity that makes projections I would just tougher to do. If we were only concerned about the dollar-to-euro number it would a lot easier to answer your question. But by way of example in the second quarter we had also budged it at about $1.08 and I think the actual average number was a $1.10, but we saw more unfavorability from currency than what we expected because of the euro in relationships to other currencies.

So let me provide a little more details around our exposures and help you better understand. So Benson probably touched on euro which is our biggest exposure. We do about 30% of our business in euros. Our next biggest exposure is really less than 5% of our revenue. So if you look at some of those other areas where we are exposed its Australia dollars, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Canadian dollar, British pound. So we don't have any significant exposures outside of the euro and that's why we tend to focus on it quite a bit. Now, for us in terms of exposure, we have the greatest exposure related to translation. We don't see big transactional and other issues impacting us. We've talked about a full year exposure on the range of about $0.85 or so. Now, you may say boy, second quarter you set was around 30 and the reason for that is twofold. First of all we see the greatest currency exposure with the euro in the second quarter, just given how rates moved last year, beginning the fourth quarter we're going to start to get a more favorable comparable. So that will help us on that front. And then I forgot the other point I was going to make related to the currency here. But in any event as we think about those impacts it's really second quarter is going to be our greatest impact as we get into the third quarter, it will abate a little bit, and then the fourth quarter even more so. So full year the impact that would be $0.05, it's largely driven by the euro and again the second quarter we expect to be the greatest impact.

To answer to your question about the recalls, first of all we've obviously booked the extent of receiving the merchandise back in the second quarter; we will re-shift that to customers, and will be in a position to have the product come off product hold in the third quarter. So we'll see a benefit in terms of some revenue coming from that. The cost of rework essentially we've booked in the second quarter and that should not have, it will obviously get calculated into our overall year-end gross margin number but we should not see any residual effect from that in the third quarter or in the fourth quarter.

Okay, thank you. We have no more questions at this time. [Operator Instructions]. As we have no more questions coming through, I would now like to turn the call over to Jake Elguicze for closing remarks.

Thanks, operator, and thanks to everyone that joined us on the call today. This concludes the Teleflex Incorporated second quarter 2015 earnings conference call.