Operator
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Tredegar Corporation 2014 Midyear Financial Results Review. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to introduce Neill Bellamy with Tredegar Corporation. Thank you. You may begin.
Tredegar Corporation (TG)
Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 8, 2014
$9.60
+1.05%
Same-Day
+1.60%
1 Week
+0.00%
1 Month
+1.60%
vs S&P
-1.94%
Operator
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Tredegar Corporation 2014 Midyear Financial Results Review. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to introduce Neill Bellamy with Tredegar Corporation. Thank you. You may begin.
Neill Bellamy
Analyst
Thank you, Danielle, and welcome to the Tredegar Midyear 2014 Financial Results Review. Our earnings for the second quarter and first 6 months of 2014 were released after the close of the market yesterday, and you'll find our press release, as well as supplemental materials, including non-GAAP reconciliations, on our website under the Investors Section at www.tredegar.com. As a reminder, some of the statements made here about the future performance of the company constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law. Please note the cautionary language about our forward-looking statements that is contained in our press release. That same language applies to this call. Please note that our comments today regarding financial results exclude all nonoperating or special items, and reconciliations related to any non-GAAP financial measures discussed today may be found in the slides accompanying this presentation and our supplemental materials on our website. With that, I'll turn it over to Nancy Taylor.
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst
Good morning. I'm Nancy Taylor, Tredegar's Chief Executive Officer. With me today is Kevin O'Leary, Tredegar's Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for joining us today. Our efforts to increase our shareholder communications has -- have been very well received, so in response to that feedback, we've added this midyear review of our financial results. Today, we will discuss second quarter results and give you an update on our expectations for our 2014 performance target that we last communicated at the May shareholders meeting. In our previous discussions this year, we've described 2014 as a building year. As part of our strategy, we have undertaken a number of capacity and capability expansion projects for each of our businesses, with many of these expansion projects coming online in 2014 and continuing to ramp up during 2015. These investments lay the foundation for future organic growth. We know that as we pursue growth in new and emerging markets, there will be ups and downs before the growth opportunities fully evolve. As we will discuss further in a few minutes, we are managing through some downs and remain confident that we are building a stronger Tredegar. During today's call, I will hit the year-to-date highlights. Kevin will take you through our second quarter review, and then I will update you on our outlook relative to our 2014 performance targets. Bonnell has been having a great year. For the first 6 months, Bonnell's volume is up 4% and operating profit from ongoing operations is up over 43% in comparison to last year. Along with incremental volume resulting from the ramp-up of the new automotive press, we captured volume growth from our other non-construction end markets, while experiencing limited growth in nonresidential building and construction. In the second quarter, it was low single-digit growth in nonresidential…
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst
Thank you, Nancy. Now turning to results for Tredegar Corporation for the second quarter of 2014. Diluted earnings per share for -- from continuing operations were $0.11 per share. This includes a pretax charge of $10 million associated with a one-time lump sum license payment to 3M. That's settled all pending litigation with 3M for certain elastic Film Products. We're pleased to have this matter behind us. Details of all special items, which include the impact of nonoperating investments, asset impairments and restructuring charges are available on our website, along with additional information on discontinued operations in the prior year. Excluding special items, net income from ongoing operations of $11.1 million was up 14% from prior year. The earnings per share from ongoing operations of $0.34 was $0.04 favorable to 2013. There are a few key items I'd like to highlight for the quarter. The combined operating profit from the ongoing operations of our business segments, Film Products and Bonnell, was $23 million, which was consistent with prior year. I'll cover results for our -- I'll cover results by business segment in a moment. Corporate expenses were $2.1 million lower in the second quarter compared to prior year, driven primarily by lower noncash pension expenses of $1.6 million. As I've mentioned in the past, lower pension expense is a result of an increase in our discount rate at December 2013 and our decision to fully freeze our defined benefit plan. The effective tax rate on income from ongoing operations was 35% compared to 34% in the second quarter of 2013. For the full year, we expect the effective tax rate on income from ongoing operations to remain in the 35% range, consistent with our projection from the May shareholder meeting. The higher rate for the full year of 2014 compared…
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst
Thanks, Kevin. Now that we've given you an update on how that year is proceeding, we'd like to turn to our performance targets for 2014 and beyond. The 2014 volume target for Films was modest due to the expected loss of certain North American baby diaper elastic laminate volume. As we previously outlined, Film's 2014 volume target was linked to the timely ramp-up of the new flexible packaging capacity in Brazil, and to a much lesser extent, incremental volume growth for our surface protection films. We expected a second quarter startup for our new flexible packaging line. The ramp-up of this line is now expected for the fourth quarter of this year, as Kevin pointed out. While we are disappointed in the project delay, I'd like to provide some context. This is an $80 million project. By far, the largest in Tredegar's history, and spanned 2 years. In terms of sheer size, we expanded the building footprint by almost 30% to accommodate a line which is longer than a football field, and this new PET line will almost double the capacity of the Cabo, Brazil facility. The delay in this project has created a sizable volume mix for Film's 2014 target, contributing to a lesser degree, our lower volumes for surface protection. Both of these dynamics will impact third quarter volumes as the inventory collection in surface protection is expected to be spread over the entire year. Third quarter volume will be impacted further as we experience the elimination of all but de minimis volumes for certain North American baby care elastic laminate films. A mouthful. Due to the volume shortfalls, we are lowering Film's 2014 volume target from 2% growth to a year-over-year volume decline of 7% to 10%. Despite missing the short-term opportunity from getting the flexible packaging…
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Drake Johnstone with Davenport. F. Drake Johnstone - Davenport & Company, LLC, Research Division: The question I had for you, I realize you did provide EBITDA targets for both divisions, but in your income statement, are you expecting cost of goods sold, selling, R&D and general expenses to remain similar to the percent of revenue over the next couple quarters? Or do you expect some improvement there?
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst
I think certainly for us to have lower volume and maintain our margins, we're looking at cost containment across the board, but we're still spending the right resource in R&D to support the products going forward. So we're taking a hard look at it, but we're not -- it will probably be a bit lower, but we're very focused on spending the right -- the money where we need to, to ensure our growth in new products. F. Drake Johnstone - Davenport & Company, LLC, Research Division: So are you suggesting that as a percent of revenue may be lower? Or on an absolute level? I mean, if you look at the actual figures for the second -- the June quarter, do you expect the actual spending to remain similar in future quarters?
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst
Not really -- really not ready to go there, Drake. Bottom line, we're looking at the cost and we're going to spend what's necessary to meet our new product introductions going forward. We expect it to be a bit lower. F. Drake Johnstone - Davenport & Company, LLC, Research Division: Okay. And also, I didn't quite catch on the Bonnell products and automotive press. Could you refresh what was said there in terms of -- was there an automotive customer that got delayed there? What's going on there?
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst
Yes, we have specific customer commitments there, and one of the programs has been delayed by the customer. And so as I said, instead of that volume starting to ramp up in the third quarter, that now has been pushed into the fourth quarter.
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Justin Bergner with Gabelli.
Justin Bergner - G. Research, Inc.
Analyst · Gabelli.
My first question relates to the aspect of your Film Products business that relates to increased competition in sort of, I guess, what you described as lower end surface protection. Would you be able to just qualitatively and quantitatively describe the impact of that in a bit more detail?
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst · Gabelli.
Well, I think we're not going to quantitatively go there. I think you can imagine that. But we have some lower tier products that we had some competitive pricing pressure. It's not a significant thing, it's minor, but it would be inappropriate not to mention it. But we have -- it's happened in some lower tier products. We're okay with it. We don't want to lose any business, but we -- I wouldn't characterize it as meaningful as it relates to the message we're trying to put out today.
Justin Bergner - G. Research, Inc.
Analyst · Gabelli.
Okay, understood.
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst · Gabelli.
I think the important thing is that, again, when you look at it, there's actually been a favorable mix there. And so, again, with the higher value PEARL product, we've been really happy with that rollout. So you...
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst · Gabelli.
On balance?
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst · Gabelli.
Yes. Yes, so it's always a -- it's always a balancing act. And as we've said before, we always take every loss of business hard and always looking to see how we either can reverse it or offset it.
Justin Bergner - G. Research, Inc.
Analyst · Gabelli.
Okay. My second question relates to the 16% EBITDA margin in Film Products, which has been maintained. I guess, if you could just help us understand a bit more how that -- how you maintain that margin against sort of lower volume and inefficiencies in Brazil, that would be helpful.
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst · Gabelli.
Well, a couple of things. As I mentioned, we are looking at our overhead and we're watching that closely, and we're containing costs. We also, with the settlement of 3M, we won't have litigation costs in that because we've made that settlement. So there are a couple of things in GS&A that are important. There's also, as Nancy mentioned, favorable mix in a couple of areas. So with favorable mix, some real cost containment and the things that we can control and that affect our long-term plan, we're doing that.
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst · Gabelli.
And we've had good operational efficiencies in other locations beyond our Cabo, Brazil facility. So that also has been a very positive contributor to offset the volume.
Justin Bergner - G. Research, Inc.
Analyst · Gabelli.
Good. That's great. And then you said that -- I just want to make sure I heard you correctly. You said earlier in the call that there was a 15.9% EBITDA margin in the first half in Film Products?
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst · Gabelli.
Actually, for the second quarter.
Justin Bergner - G. Research, Inc.
Analyst · Gabelli.
Second quarter. Okay. And then just finally, I wanted to ask about the 2016 performance targets. I just want to verify that there's been no component of those targets that's being changed relative to the outlook earlier in the year.
Nancy M. Taylor
Analyst · Gabelli.
No, we're holding. We feel good about those targets still.
Kevin A. O'Leary
Analyst · Gabelli.
Biggest thing we're seeing is some timing with 2014. It doesn't affect our view of '16.
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions]
Neill Bellamy
Analyst
All right. Well, thank you so much for listening in today, and we appreciate the questions. Thank you.