Earnings Labs

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 28, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the Thermo Fisher Scientific 2016 Second Quarter Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would like to introduce our moderator for the call, Mr. Kenneth Apicerno, Vice President, Investor Relations. Mr. Apicerno, you may begin.

Kenneth Apicerno

Analyst

Good morning. And thank you for joining us. On the call with me today is Marc Casper, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stephen Williamson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please note, this call is being webcast live and will be archived on the Investors section of our website, thermofisher.com, under the heading Webcasts & Presentations until August 26, 2016. A copy of the press release of our second quarter 2016 earnings and future expectations is available on the Investors section of the website under the heading Financial Results. So, before we begin, let me briefly cover our Safe Harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make about the Company’s future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the Company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 02, 2016, under the caption Risk Factors, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and also available in the Investors section of our website under the heading SEC Filings. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change. Therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today. Also during this call, we’ll be referring to certain financial measures not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the press release of our second quarter 2016 earnings and future expectations and also in the Investors section of our website under the heading Financial Information. So with that, I’ll now turn the call over to Marc.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead

Thank you, Ken. Good morning, everyone. We’re pleased you could join us today for our Q2 earnings call. We had another great quarter with strong performance on the top and bottom line. We have a proven growth strategy, our team is executing well, and we continue to strengthen our offerings that help our customers meet their goals. Our result in Q2 contributed to a very good first half of the year. We’re also successfully executing our capital deployment strategy. As you know, a big highlight in the quarter was our agreement to acquire FEI. We’re really excited about the new opportunities this will bring, and I’ll discuss that in more detail later in my remarks. As usual, I’ll start by covering the Q2 financial highlights, give you a little color on our performance by end-markets and provide a recap of the quarter in the context of our growth strategy. Then, I’ll wrap up with our revised guidance. Starting with the financials, revenue in Q2 grew 6% to $4.54 billion. Adjusted operating income was up 9% and our adjusted operating margin increased 50 basis points to 22.8%. Last but most important, we extended our long track record of delivering strong adjusted EPS growth, with a 10% increase to a $2.03 per share. So, with another strong quarter behind us, we’re in a great position at the halfway point of the year. As you know, the global economic environment remains uncertain, but we’re using this as an opportunity to help our customers manage through it, and that will strengthen our competitive position and allow us to continue to gain share. Let me now turn to a high level view of our performance in the context of our key end-markets. If we step back and look at the first half, our strong results…

Stephen Williamson

Analyst · Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

Thanks, Marc; and good morning everyone. I’ll begin with an overview of our second quarter financial performance for the total Company; then, I’ll provide some color on our four segments; and conclude with an updated 2016 guidance. So, starting with the overall financial performance for Q2, as you saw in our press release, we grew adjusted EPS by 10% to $2.03. GAAP EPS was $1.30 up 2% through Q2 last year. On the top line, our reported revenue grew 6%, year-over-year. Q2 reported revenue increased 4% organic growth, 3% growth from acquisitions while currency translation decreased revenues slightly. Please note the components of the Q2 change do not sum due to rounding. Given the FX volatility, I thought it’d be helpful to provide a little more color on the impact of foreign exchange in Q2. The revenue impact was a headwind of $16 million, but due to the mix of currency changes, the impact to adjusted operating income was actually a $4 million positive tailwind, resulting in a slight benefit to margins for the quarter and a $0.01 positive impact on adjusted earnings per share. At the very end of the quarter, rates changed significantly, and we’re expecting foreign exchange headwinds on both revenue and adjusted operating income for the remainder of the year. I’ll provide more detail on this later, when I go to the assumptions for our updated guidance. Looking at our growth by geography in Q2, both North America and Europe grew in the low single digits; Asia Pacific grew in the low double digits with continued strong momentum in China, good growth in South Korea, Southeast Asia and India. And the rest of the world declined mid-single-digits. Turning to our operational performance, Q2 adjusted operating income increased 9% and adjusted operating margin was 22.8%, up 50…

Kenneth Apicerno

Analyst

Thanks, Stephen. Operator, we’re ready for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Derik de Bruin from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Derik de Bruin

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead

On the Analytical Instruments business, did you just talk a little bit about what the industrial headwinds have been to that business? And also just look back on a broader perspective on the overall Thermo business, can you talk little bit about just what the overall industrial is? And this is going to leading to a question on potential fallout from slowing in Europe as a result of the Brexit and just if you are seeing anything there?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead

Sure, Derik. Let’s start with the Analytical Instruments. So, there are two business units within that segment, chroma [ph] mass spec continues to grow high single digits and grew that in the quarter. Our chemical analysis, which is really the industrially related business, is declined in the mid single digit. So, when you kind of look at it versus the various kind of sub peers chroma [ph] mass spec continues to do extraordinarily well in the marketplace and chemical analysis is operating like most of the peers are very heavily industrially oriented. Towards the second part of your question, more of the broader Thermo Fisher industrial and applied exposure, about 20% of our revenue is industrial and applied; roughly half of that is applied and half is industrial. Applied markets continue to be strong. As I mentioned in my remarks, China continues to be very good for us. In the industrial markets, we really haven’t seen any inflection point; it’s really been continued soft conditions which we’ve had over the last few years. And then, in terms of Europe and Brexit, really just given how late the UK announcements came in at quarter, really had no impact in terms of the revenue outlook. It obviously had a lot of movement in volatility, and there might have been a little conservatism in the UK spend itself, but nothing significant in the quarter.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jack Meehan from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Jack Meehan

Analyst · Jack Meehan from Barclays. Please go ahead

I wanted to ask a little bit about China and the underlying drivers there for the mid-teens growth. Could you remind us the rough mix of the end-markets there and just how strong was applied in the quarter?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Jack Meehan from Barclays. Please go ahead

So, in terms of our China business, in China at the end of last quarter really good strength across the end-markets. The pure industrial continues to be soft but applied markets very good, healthcare was very good in the quarter, as well as big focus on the life sciences area, which is the convergence of historically, life science tools into the diagnostic applications with precision medicine. While we don’t manage our business by the end-markets, we manage by our businesses, what you see is in that particular end-market, applied markets because of the importance of environmental protection and food safety, is much larger as a percent of the total mix than the other markets around the world. So, those markets are good. China continues to deliver very strong growth, and bookings once again exceeded revenue in the quarter and it bodes well for the short-term as well.

Jack Meehan

Analyst · Jack Meehan from Barclays. Please go ahead

And then, just one follow-up on biopharma high single-digit in the quarter, I caught some of the feedback on bioproduction. Could you just maybe talk about the consumable service, clinical trial logistics, just how some of the other segments within there, performing will be great? Thank you.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Jack Meehan from Barclays. Please go ahead

Yes. So, in terms of biotech and pharma customers, another strong quarter, because of the benefits of both the good end-market as well as really how well our value proposition resonates. In the quarter, the high single digit growth, it really had the most challenging comparison year-over-year. So, that end-market continues to perform well. Bioproduction was the strongest of the businesses; the consumables channel business had a good quarter there as well as did biosciences. We did get growth in our clinical trials logistics business, a little bit slower growth than the last few quarters, but that was something we anticipated because of very, very strong comparison in Q2. So, the fundamentals there are good and the outlook continues to be strong in the biopharma end-market.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Tycho Peterson

Analyst · Tycho Peterson from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead

Marc, maybe to follow up on that last line of question for life science solutions, can you maybe just talk about how much of the outsized performance there is bioprocess versus nextgen sequencing? And on the latter point, are you starting to drive some revenue synergies between what we’re you doing on the sequencing side and what the addition of Affymetrix would raise?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Tycho Peterson from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead

Sure. So, in terms of the life science solutions business, had a very strong quarter, and it really is driven by good performance across the businesses. So, when you look at it, bioproduction had a very strong quarter, biosciences continues to grow well. Our nextgen sequencing business grew very strongly in the teens, and our genetic analysis business had organic growth that was also quite stable across all of its platforms. So, very strong execution across the quarter; obviously, the fastest growing portions are bioproduction and the nextgen sequencing businesses.

Tycho Peterson

Analyst · Tycho Peterson from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead

And then, as a follow-up to go back to Derek’s question earlier on industrial, we have seen I guess more constructive commentary from some of your peers, [indiscernible] had a good quarter, Danaher talked a little bit more positively about a recovery. Can you maybe just talk about when you think you bottom out on the industrial side, and do you expect it to pick up in the back half?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Tycho Peterson from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead

Yes, I would say -- I am not -- while I have an economics degree, I am not an economist, and I’m not going to call the bottom. When I look at the various reports, they were quite mixed, Granger [ph] had very negative outlook, some companies were very positive, specifically about the industrial end-markets. So, I think it’s too early to call a bottom. But, if we see it, obviously that would be clearly a positive upside because we’re not baking in any improvement in the balance of the year. So, if that happens, that clearly would drive us above the organic growth rates that Stephen outlined.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ross Muken from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Ross Muken

Analyst · Ross Muken from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead

So, one of your peers this week sort of dropped idea that possibly this CapEx cycle for pharma will look different than prior and that maybe the sort of period will be elongated or we may actually not see sort of a down part of the cycle. And so, I guess as you step back and you think about, obviously you have a more unique view point into a broad base of biopharma, what’s your sort of view on the sustainability of sort of the current trend and what is the pushes and pulls, whether it’s some the emerging market pharma that are growing well, and the level of visibility or your feeling on that relative to maybe time past?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Ross Muken from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead

So, you’re clearly seeing an expansion of the biopharma industry in terms of the activity, not necessarily where drugs are consumed, but the activity in the South Koreas, the Chinas of the world. So, I think back over various cycles, they become so small relative to the U.S. and western Europe but more meaningful. So, that’s clearly a positive. We’ve seen good growth there. India has been a good growth driver as well. So, it’s encouraging from kind of longevity. When you look at what’s going on, I think the single biggest driver is that the quality of the research and new entities getting approved, right? And because the funding ultimately is Western Europe and the U.S., and as long as drugs are getting through to the market and demand is strong there, they will be funding that’s very robust in R&D. So, it’s less to me cyclical than right now they are in a sweet spot of the science turning into drugs that’s turning into demand for our products. So, we feel good about it. And the fact, even in what I think is very good end-markets, there is an efficiency driver amongst that customer base, whether it’s small biotech or large pharma, and that plays to our sweet spot for sure. We see it in the results across quarter in and quarter out, the very strong performance in the biopharma customer set for us. So, we feel very well-positioned in a good end-market.

Ross Muken

Analyst · Ross Muken from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead

And maybe just, it seems like broadly on the life sciences solution side, you had a good numbers and I’d say generic business did well. What about Affy? Obviously that one, you’ve now seen a little bit in terms of being in the organization, not very long but enough to sort of get your hands around it. How are you feeling about sort of the different components there? And then in general, I think at the Analyst Day, you sort of highlighted the flow business a bit. I mean how are you feeling about that end-market?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Ross Muken from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead

Sure. So, let me give you our first read on Affy, we don’t refer basically one quarter. The integration is going extremely well. We continue to be on track to deliver the EPS accretion for 2016 loss that we outlined, which is about $0.06. Synergies are running ahead of schedule in terms of timing on the cost side, so that’s very good. The eBioscience business is performing well; the flow cytometry market looks attractive. Our Attune flow cytometer has good adoption, the revenue synergies there should come out very strong. So, of all that’s very positive. The microarray business is softer than we had seen before. And really what’s going on in microarray is that before the close of the transaction, the primary competitor micro will raise really dramatically drop [ph] price and then Affymetrix as an independent company chose not to follow suit. So, in Q2 we focused the R&D and marketing teams on addressing that competitive dynamic. And in early July, you may have noticed that we launched the Axiom Precision Medicine Research Array. And that’s a broad base genotyping array that’s very valuable in providing interesting information around health questions. And we’re offering that at very attractive price points. So, generally, I feel good about the integration, the synergies, the accretion, and the flow and eBio business. And we are putting some countermeasures in place for microarrays.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

My first question is on the academic government end-market. Does your guidance still embed an expectation that U.S. academic government demand picks up with the release of funding in the second half of this calendar year? And in Japan, recognizing others in the group have indicated that academic research demand was pretty weak in Q2, I’m just wondering if this is something you’re seeing as well.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Yes. So, Doug, from an academic and government perspective, as I mentioned, we grew in the low single digits. Q1, we saw a bit of an uptick in the NIH release of funds; Q2 was consistent with that improvement. And we expect the balance of the year kind of being consistent with that. In terms of Japan, we grew low single digits, in line with our expectations in the quarter. Academic was a little bit soft, biopharma was quite good. So, Japan for us continues to be not particularly noteworthy; it’s not a very big end-market and generally performing in line with expectations.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Okay. And just one quick cleanup question. In terms of share repurchases, you did put an additional authorization in place over the last two months or so, doesn’t seem like there is any change in share count assumptions embedded into guidance. So, should we think that you’ve an incremental share reauthorization or larger share authorization to purchase more shares in place now but that’s something that’s probably not going to be acted on until you get into next year and closer to the closing of the FEI M&A closure?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Yes, I think that’s good observation and good assumptions. Effectively -- generally, we like to have an open authorization in place. And we used up the authorization when we did our share buybacks earlier in the year. The 1.5 billion just reflects kind of consistent with our long-term capital deployments strategy; I wanted to have a little bit larger authorization. But, given how active we’ve been in capital deployment in the first half of the year, we don’t have any immediate plans to use it. It’s more just the housekeeping to have that in place to be opportunistic and consistent with our long-term capital deployment strategy.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Okay, that’s great. Thank you.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Groberg from UBS. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Groberg

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Marc, at the very macro level or the high level, the quarter seems solid [ph] with a lot of moving products, it seems very much in line, not a lot of changes to your guidance. Can you maybe help us think through, as you went through the quarter, anything that was particularly noteworthy to you that maybe -- again, when it all rolled up to the top, it doesn’t seem particular -- nothing really stands out but is there anything that you think that was particularly noteworthy or positive that we should be aware of?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Yes, I wish it was a video conference, so I have a big smile on my face. This was actually an excellent quarter, Jon. When I think about it, many of you have heard me saying is generally, I don’t like to have investors have to really think about Thermo Fisher in terms of any of the nuances because it’s our job to manage through the various puts and takes in the economy. We executed very well. Effectively we were able to raise our organic growth outlook for the full year, based on the half. We don’t typically raise organic growth guidance during the course of the year; we typically are more focused on the EPS, so we did both, which is I think is great. When you look at the geographic strength, we went out of the way to highlight the strength in four different end markets in Asia Pacific that really is doing very well, which bodes well for the second half, given the fact that there is clearly some volatility in Europe that -- an uncertainty in Europe that we don’t know, nobody knows exactly how that will play out. But given how the U.S. is doing and given how Asia Pacific is doing, we’re very well-positioned to have an outstanding year. Capital deployment has gone well; margins were good. So, I like the fact that there is really not a tremendous amount of nuances. It’s a very clean ahead of expectations quarter and our ability to offset the FX headwinds that are there and raise guidance. And then, finally, as Stephen said in this remarks, we are a bit conservative on the outlook on foreign exchange in our guidance. And if foreign exchange stays exactly as they close on the spot rates, we actually have a little bit of upside to the guidance there. But given the volatility, we don’t think it was prudent to put that in. So, really, a very good time at the halfway point of the year.

Jonathan Groberg

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

Okay, that’s helpful. And as a quick follow-up to that Marc, if you think about the second half, as you mentioned you have the UK decision; you have the politics going on in the U.S.; you have the China precision medicine initiative, which seems to be really kicking up. I guess are you kind of handicapping your second half outlook?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Doug Schenkel from Cowen & Company. Please go ahead

So, the way we’re thinking about it is the outlook in the second half in aggregate is similar to the very original guidance we gave at the start of the year for the second half. So effectively, first half was better than we expected, we put it all in the bank, raised our organic outlook, we’re assuming consistent with our original guidance for the second half of the year. Geographically, probably it will be slightly different, meaning that it’s likely to be Asia Pacific and U.S. a little better than Europe, but we have enough room to achieve our goals even with some up and downs in the various end markets.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Isaac Ro

Analyst · Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

First, a question on one product specific item and then, second on the financials. Marc, you mentioned you don’t want to get too into the [indiscernible] products, but I was curious on your NGS comments, hoping to put that in context with the performing in OSS [ph] in total, just kind of curious how significant that was. And maybe curious to the extent that hat business has been doing maybe better over the last couple of years than you might have expected; is it really a function of still growing the install base or is it really about the consumables pulling through a lot of utilization on the install base you have?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

Isaac, I appreciate the question. And the reason I would say that I won’t get too much into the details of the products is that we have such a broad range of products and really it’s how we manage the portfolio. But I am happy to get into the NGS discussion. We had a very good quarter. The adoption of S5 and S5 XL sequencers going really well, the feedback is very positive and customers love the ease of installation and the ease of use of the instruments, and it’s fantastic feedback. The other thing that was exciting and may not be as clear, but at the European Association of Cancer Research conference, we were the first company to bring to market, a kit for liquid biopsy for cancer. And that was very well received as well. So, consumable is doing well, our product development is going well, and option of instrumentation is going well in the quarter.

Isaac Ro

Analyst · Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

And then, Steve, a question on tax rate; you guys have still maintained that 14% number; it was a little better than that this quarter. So, I’m wondering, if we should assume an uptick in the back half or is there a possibility that you guys could -- if the geographic mix plays out, if you could feel upside to that tax rate, in terms of better tax rate?

Stephen Williamson

Analyst · Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead

So, we’re still guiding to 14% for the full year. I see that’s where it will end up, given what I can see now in terms of the desecrate items. The lower tax rate in Q2 was really due to the timing of some of the discrete tax planning activities coming in stronger in Q2. I expect that to continue in Q3, so similar tax rate in Q3 versus Q2 and slightly high in Q4, but overall for the year, 14%.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Beuchaw from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Steve Beuchaw

Analyst · Steve Beuchaw from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead

Marc, if I look at the growth rate in China in the quarter, on the one hand, it’s clearly a very good number, but then when I consider the comp and how tough it was, it’s actually the best quarter, growth wise you’ve had in China in I believe at least a few years. So, I wonder, given that context if you could refresh your thoughts the impact of some of the initiative we’re seeing China, as much as they relate, not so much to what we’re seeing here in 2016, but a medium term outlook there, now that you’ve got a little bit more evidence? And then, just one housekeeping question for Stephen. Sorry, if I missed it, but did you refresh any thinking on the free cash flow or working capital outlook for the year?

Stephen Williamson

Analyst · Steve Beuchaw from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead

I’ll start with the second question on free cash flow. So, we didn’t change the guidance; it’s still $2.72 billion. At the half year point, we’re actually doing very well, so $310 million higher than the same half year point last year, and that’s where some phasing of cash taxes and cash interest, more front end-loaded this year. So, working capital is going well, still got six months to go. If we continue the way we are, we will meet or exceed the full year cash flow guidance.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Steve Beuchaw from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead

And Steve, you’re 100% right, the stack comparison, was the best performance in China in a while. So, as you know, we’ve been positive on China for a very long time. And when we came out of the one soft year where we had the mid single digit organic growth couple of years ago, what you’re seeing is a consistent trend of improvement. And when I -- my takeaways from my visit was, precision medicine will be a forward-looking driver but the focus on environmental, food safety as well as healthcare expansion is very positive. When I was there, I had the opportunity to meet with of the Vice Minister of Ministry of Science, and really talked about precision medicine. And that is a huge focus. So, we continue to be very bullish on the long term prospect for China.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is from the line Steve Willoughby from Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Steve Willoughby

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead

I have two questions, first for Stephen. If you could just kind of walk me through a little bit what you -- how you are thinking about FX. And it was my understanding that you are largely naturally hedged in the UK. And then I was thinking you should be getting some benefit from the stronger yen. So, what’s the offset that’s pulling back things a bit as it relates to EPS for FX?

Stephen Williamson

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead

Sure. So, when you look at the currencies we have overall and the year-over-year change at this point, the yen is a positive, and that’s helping the overall picture for full year FX impact. Majority of the revenue headwinds, about 75% of it is coming from that change in the pound. And then the mix of all the other currencies pretty much negative against the dollar at this point. So, the mix of all of that basically gets you to where we are. Now, as I said in my prepared remarks, we have a cushion against the current spot rate. So, if current rate still stand, we’ll have some upside to the guidance that we give. Yen is a positive but it’s really offset by the other pretty every single other currency.

Steve Willoughby

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead

Okay, it makes sense. And then, just secondly, within the LSS business, it’s been a number of quarters now in a row where you guys are showing strong growth there. I was wondering, Marc, if you could comment at all on how much of that is end-market versus revenue synergies you might be experiencing with the Life Tech business?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead

So, revenue synergies are very strong. And if I think about the performance there -- it’s really embedded in the organic growth at this point, given where we are, how long it’s been close to transaction. But we achieved the revenue synergies for the full year -- we had uptick of $60 million of revenue synergies; we achieved that on the first half, meaning that we will far exceed the revenue synergy number. And if you’ll ask about tracking, it’s showing up in the organic growth. So that obviously continues to be a big benefit. As I’ve said other times, probably one point of the aggregate performance of the step up in Life Sciences Solutions is the end market is better than it was at the time we announced the transaction in 2013. And the rest has been just really good execution by the team, and the unique benefits that Thermo Fisher Scientifics reach brought to that business segment.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Arias from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Daniel Arias

Analyst · Dan Arias from Citigroup. Please go ahead

Maybe just two quick ones on the outlook, Marc, tying out the end market commentary on industrials with the softness that you are still seeing there, is flattish still the right way to think about things for the year? And then, Stephen, what at this point are you looking for in terms of the FX impact to gross margins for the year?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Dan Arias from Citigroup. Please go ahead

In terms of industrial and applied, while, we don’t give a precise outlook during the course of the year, flattish to low single digits is a good assumption for the industrial and applied markets for the year. In terms of the FX…

Stephen Williamson

Analyst · Dan Arias from Citigroup. Please go ahead

Basically, I’m not expecting a significant impact on gross margins or operating margins for the full year the way the rates are today.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead.

Paul Knight

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

Hey, Marc, your internet strategy is obviously helping drive organic growth in your pricing ability. Can you talk about the investments you are making there and talk about where you are with your ability to price and even to discount?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

Yes. So, first on pricing, another good quarter, in aggregate, about 60 basis points of price. We’ll look towards the change in currency rates that we saw at the end of the quarter, should create some incremental pricing opportunities. Whether that will flow this year or flow into next year hard to tell but that should be additional pricing opportunity. In terms of e-commerce, it’s been a really positive driver for the Company. As everybody knows, we have integrated down to two web platforms, our fishersci platform and our Thermo Fisher Scientific platform. And when you look at that, we continue to enable more products on the Thermo Fisher platform to be available on e-commerce. We took the old backbone from Life Technologies, we’ve been adding and recorded now -- adding new capabilities and new products that are available for purchase online. And that’s really good from a customer convenience, stickiness and ultimately growth, and growth in profitability.

Paul Knight

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

And Marc without the metrics, any estimate on your part as to how much of an increase in their addressable customers they have with their microarray and their reagent business, is it you can open up the doors to 50% more customers, 25%, what are your thoughts there?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

The way I would think about it, Paul, is for the flow cytometry business and the antibody business, we really have an exquisite reach around the world, and that’s going to be a very big expansion opportunity. In terms of the microarray, they were well-penetrated in the U.S. and Europe, and we will be able to expand the Asia Pacific presence where we have very strong presence in genetic analysis. Asia Pacific probably represents say 20% of the world opportunity, they obviously cover the bigger hospitals and the bigger research customers but it should be a nice expansion within that.

Paul Knight

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

Thank you.

Marc Casper

Analyst · Paul Knight from Janney Montgomery. Please go ahead

Operator, we’re going to take just one more.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your last question comes from the line of Sung Ji Nam from Avondale Partners. Please go ahead.

Sung Ji Nam

Analyst · Avondale Partners. Please go ahead

I just have one question. Marc, maybe if you could talk about the bioproduction business, obviously strength across the industry over the last number of quarters. And I was curious as to is the key driver essentially the number of new molecules entering the market or are there kind of other drivers like single-use technology kind of being the bigger driver or maybe if you could just talk about other drivers as well?

Marc Casper

Analyst · Avondale Partners. Please go ahead

Yes, Sung Ji, thanks for the question. So, bioproduction market continues to be very strong. We have the leadership position in both cell culture and in the single-use technologies, which is two of the four verticals within that market. We’re seeing strong demand from drugs getting on market where volume really picks up. The number of drugs actually in the process development stage also is a big consumption of demand. Vaccine production and the increase in vaccines is a big driver of demand. And then, on top of all of that, for existing approaches, there has been a very large shift from stainless steel to single-use, and that also accentuates the good growth in the market. So that’s been an excellent growth market for a number of years for us and one with a very bright future. So with that, let me bring the call to a close with a couple of quick comments. First, thank you for participating. We had a really strong excellent first half, that’s behind us; we’re very well-positioned to deliver another strong year. And of course, we look forward to updating you on our progress in the third quarter. Thanks everyone.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.