Carl Merton
Analyst · Haywood Securities. Your line is open
Thank you, Irwin and good morning. Please note, all financial references are in Canadian dollars unless I mention otherwise. Before I get into the financial results I would like to remind everyone it is still early in terms of legalization in Canada and as with every industry in its early stages we are continuously learning and improving including refining our methods for cultivation, production, packaging, and distribution. Aphria has a history with multigenerational expertise in commercial agriculture and we believe the challenges we faced in the quarter particularly supply shortages were based on proactive decisions we made and they are temporary in nature. With our expectation that our fourth quarter cannabis sales will be similar to the third quarter as we continue to position our business for the long-term growth and success. With the changes to our growing method now stabilized we are positioned to implement our new cannabis leading industrial scale automation, a necessity to remain at the leading edge across the supply. We believe the steps we have taken will help fuel the growth of our strategic initiatives in Canada and internationally and generate long-term shareholder value. As Irwin mentioned, our annualized production capacity today between the Aphria One including Part IV and V and Broken Coast is 115,000 kg applying our current average selling price in adult-use this level of production results in $1.5 billion in sales annually once we are in full crop rotation. Once fully licensed, Aphria Diamond is expected to increase this annualized capacity to 255,000 kg. Using the same logic this level of production could result in more than $1 billion in Canadian cannabis sales once are in full crop rotation. But that is not enough. In addition, we are continuing to expand our processing capabilities with our new extraction center of excellence which is still under construction. As we gain production scale and invest in automation, we expect to realize greater efficiencies and further support our growth opportunities in Canada and initially. At Aphria we have the greenhouse space, the cultivation expertise, the automation technology, and the raw materials to position us for success. Moving to our financial results, net revenue in Q3 increased 617% over the prior year period to $73.6 million. Compared to Q2 net revenue increased 240% driven by $57.6 million of distribution revenue from CC Pharma and ABP in Argentina. The company sold 2637 kg equivalents of cannabis in Q3 down 23% compared to 3,409 kg equivalents sold in Q2. Adult-use cannabis accounted for 1329 kg equivalents and medical cannabis accounted for 1274 kg equivalents. The decrease in cannabis revenue and kilograms sold compared to Q2 was primarily related to lower inventory levels entering the quarter, supply shortages as we transitioned growing methods, and allocated more space to mother plants in order to prepare for the Aphria One and Aphria Diamond expansion, as well as temporary packaging and distribution challenges. We made the strategic decision to transition our growing method in order to remain competitive. We are focused on maintaining industry-leading constant supply. In order to achieve this, the cost savings associated with scale and industrial automation will be an important component. The average selling price of adult-use cannabis before excise tax decreased to $5.14 per gram in Q3 compared to $6.32 per gram in Q2 due to a shift to smaller package sizes to maximize our SKU assortment and maximize shelf space for our brands. The average selling price of medical cannabis before excise tax increased to $8.03 per gram in Q3 compared to $7.51 in Q2 primarily related to higher oil sales. During the quarter, our cast cost per gram increased from $1.34 last quarter to $1.48. Included in this figure is $0.20 a gram related to the strategic decision to allocate flowering space to mothers the facility the ramp up of our Part IV, Part V and Aphria Diamond expansion. Our all in costs per gram increased from $2.60 a gram to $3.76 a gram. This temporary increase was driven primarily by an increase in packaging costs from $0.97 a gram to $1.98 a gram in the quarter. Our increased packaging cost per gram was a result of the demand from the adult-use market and in order to comply with the packaging requirements under the cannabis act. Since the launch of adult-use cannabis, we have reevaluated all of the total packaging used in our products, the materials used themselves, and the source of the materials leading to multiple levels of cost improvements. We are also working on packaging automation over the next two quarters and expect labor costs to decrease as that comes online. Near term, we expect consistent packaging costs as we work through our existing inventory of materials, but expect to gain efficiencies from this automation and other cost savings initiative in the midterm. Adjusted gross profit increased to $13.4 million in Q3 from $10.1 million in Q2. Adjusted gross margin was 18.2% in Q3 compared to 46.9% in Q2 reflecting an increase in revenues from our distribution business which operates with lower gross margins in our cannabis business typically in the 10% to 15% range. The margin decline was also due to the previously mentioned increased packaging costs as we build scale and automation and wait for Part IV and Part V to begin producing plant. SG&A costs in Q3 increased to $106 million up from $27.5 million in the prior quarter. The increase was primarily due to a $50 million impairment for the LATAM acquisition, an increase in non-cash share based compensation and the inclusion of a full quarter of LATAM and two months of CC Pharma. As disclosed in our earnings release today, the basis for this impairment arises from a reassessment of the discount rate and the financial forecasts for those entities as a result of new financial information received from the financial advisors to the Special Committee reviewed the LATAM transaction. Please note, despite the recording of the impairment of $50 million our investment in the LATAM assets remains $30 million more than the originally agreed purchase price of approximately $195 million purchase price that was both supported and confirmed as consistent with other transactions in the cannabis industry during our Special Committee review of LATAM. Net loss in the third quarter was $108.2 million or $0.43 per share compared to net income of $54.8 million or $0.22 per share in Q2. Excluding the non-cash impairment charges, adjusted net loss was $50.2 million or $0.20 per share in the third quarter. The adjusted EBITDA loss for the period was $14.4 million based on an adjusted EBITDA loss from Canadian cannabis operations of $13.8 million and adjusted EBITDA loss from Aphria International of $0.6 million. In the previous quarter the company reported adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.5 million based on an adjusted EBITDA loss from Canadian cannabis operations of $6.1 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss from Aphria International of $3.4 million. The increase in the adjusted EBITDA loss was primarily attributable to an increase in general administrative costs to support our planned capacity expansions, higher overhead costs related to supply shortages, as well as a temporary increase in packaging and distribution costs for the adult use market. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA loss for Aphria International is primarily attributable to the inclusion of CC Pharma's operating results in the quarter of $3 million of positive adjusted EBITDA. We expect our fourth quarter results to be similar to those experienced in the third quarter. Moving to liquidity, as of February 28, 2019 the company had near cash of $134.7 million available for use. This amount, combined with the proceeds from the liquidation of the GA Opportunities Corp. notes and option agreement announced today is sufficient to fund previously announced CapEx and strategic initiatives. During the quarter the company invested $3.4 million on maintenance CapEx and $25.6 million on grow CapEx related to Aphria One's Part IV, Part V and Aphria Diamond expansions as well as the extraction center of excellence. In summary, we made significant progress on our strategic initiatives in the third quarter and are confident in our ability to create long-term shareholder value. Though we do not provide guidance to the market, on a pro forma basis when applying our average selling price to our production capacity, our corporate objectives are for one, annualized revenue of $500 million by the end of the calendar year and two, annualized revenue of $1 billion by the end of calendar year 2020 which could help strengthen our position as the leading global cannabis company. That concludes our formal remarks. Irwin and I are now available for your questions. Denise, back to you.