HC2 Holdings, Inc.
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 10 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Good afternoon. And welcome to the HCT -- HC2 Holdings’ Fourth Quarter and Year End ‘20 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only more. After the prepared remarks and presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Chesler of FNK IR. Please go ahead.

[Matt Chesler:]

Good afternoon. Thank you for being with us to review HC2’s fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings results. This afternoon, we are joined by Avie Glazer, Chairman of HC2; Wayne Barr Jr., CEO of HC2; and Mike Sena, HC2’s Chief Financial Officer. As usual we have posted our earnings release and our slide presentation on our website at hc2.com. We will begin our call with prepared remarks to be followed by a Q&A session. This call is also being simulcast and will be archived on our website.

[Avie Glazer:]

Thank you. Good afternoon, Alex . Thank everyone for joining us today. Before I became Chairman, the old HC2 had been involved in a myriad of unrelated businesses, including long distance, marine services and energy. In less than a year, HC2 has sharpened its focus as a tremendous collection of best-in-class assets that are laser targeted to today’s new economy. First, we’ve infrastructure represented by DBM and the largest steel fabrication and erection companies in the United States. This is an outstanding asset and even more relevant with the likely increase in infrastructure spending going forward as a result of the change of control in Congress. Second, with HC2 Life Sciences portfolio Pansend, which is a proven track record for creating value. The Pansend investments with the greatest current potential for value creation our R2 technologies and MediBeacon.

[Wayne Barr:]

Thank you, Avie. This is an exciting time for HC2. Over the past year we’ve reshaped the company with the goal of sharpening our strategic focus and restoring our financial strength. We’re doing this with the support of the newly constituted Board of Directors and a broad group of stakeholders and through initiatives and transactions across the organization. As a Board and management, team we are committed to transparency and have taken action to align ourselves with our shareholders. The new HC2 is deeper, not wider, it’s stronger and more focused. We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in a short period of time in a challenging environment. It couldn’t be more appreciative of more than 2,800 colleagues across the company who show up every day with drive and determination to make HC2 better. Thank you for your hard work. Over the course of the past several months, we’ve reduced the number of primary operating segments from seven to four, exiting the marine business last winter and spring, telecommunications in the fall and Clean Energy this winter in January. These transactions better positioned us to successfully refinance our outstanding bonds in February. We’ve also sold selected non-core full power television broadcast stations.

[Mike Sena:]

I’d like to echo Wayne’s commentary about our financial performance and financial strength. We finished a challenging year with stronger and improving financial performance for our individual businesses and overall company. As a result of the steps, we have taken at the holding company and the resilience of our operating businesses, we’re a stronger HC2 with a significantly improved liquidity position and a lower cost of capital. This will serve us well as we narrow our strategic focus to generating growth and seeking value creation opportunities in Infrastructure, Spectrum and Life Sciences. First, let me review our financial performance and then I will walk you through the key changes to our capital structure to help to bridge the quarter and the key transactions that have taken place so far in early 2021. Consolidated total net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $251.8 million, an increase of 1.7%, compared to $247.6 million in the prior year period, as higher revenue from Infrastructure was partially offset by lower revenue from Insurance and Spectrum, net of eliminations. Net loss attributable to common and participating preferred stockholders for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $7.1 million or $0.11 per share, compared to a loss of $31.4 million or $0.70 per share in the prior year period. In the fourth quarter last year, we recognized the $47 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge of our Insurance segment that did not recur.

[Operator:]

Our first question is from Richter Yeske with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

[Richter Yeske:]

Hey, guys. I was hoping you can give a little color on the first quarter and thoughts for 2021 with the backlog at DBM, might we see any kind of catch up effect as we get into 2021 with the economy reopening either projects that have been delayed in 2020 or work on -- and work on projects that was delayed or bid processes that were delayed as well?

[Mike Sena:]

Sure. Hi, Rick. This is Mike. We are seeing -- beginning we’re still continue to see a lot of activity in the market, some of the projects that were delayed as far as on the industrial side in 2021, I mean, in 2020 were delayed until we think 2021. We haven’t seen necessarily any of those come in, but we do expect them to come back in 2021. And as far as the fab and erection side of the business, we’re seeing a lot of activity. We’re starting to see some bigger projects come in. And so Rustin’s pretty optimistic about the pipeline and what -- and what 2021 will look like.

[Richter Yeske:]

And turning the Spectrum, can you give us a bit of a bridge to what guide you to positive EBITDA this quarter and should we expect it to be positive going forward?

[Mike Sena:]

Yeah. I mean we’ve been hovering right around that break even. I think we’ve seen a few quarters $500,000 to $1 million loss. We finally crossed the threshold. We’ve done a lot of things on the cost side of the house to become more efficient and save costs. We are still -- we now have the network in place and we’re out there looking to fill the capacity. And so what you should start to see is, as we continue to fill that capacity getting operating leverage from the stations having fixed costs, if you will. And when you turn, we’ve been building stations for the past couple years. So when you build the station you turn on the lights or all your costs are on day one, you have the tower rents, your broadband, and utilities and you are kind of maintenance on those sites. But you don’t necessarily have the revenue filled day one and so that’s what we’re working to do. And so we’ll continue to push forward with the positive momentum that we’ve had. You can kind of see the trend over the past four quarters or five quarters pushing the losses down and fortunately in the fourth quarter to push it into a positive territory.

[Richter Yeske:]

And now that you guys are in a very different liquidity dynamic at the holding company and not having to pull up cash from the OpCos. What growth initiatives does that allow you to pursue at the OpCos that you were not able to previously?

[Wayne Barr:]

Hi, Rick. It’s Wayne. So with kind of the enhanced liquidity that we managed to put together through the refinancing and some of the asset sales, I think, it really allows us to focus on some growth opportunities that we have at each of the operating segments that are sitting there. We are looking at a variety of different opportunities that could take advantage of some potential increased infrastructure spending that might be coming down the road. Obviously, as Mike said, we’re essentially done building out the station group and I think having the liquidity position that we have at the holding company makes us a good partner for any of these content providers that wants to -- want to come along and take advantage of the largest station group in the country. And I think it just allows us to kind of enter into those discussions from a stronger position and I think we were able to attract more, more opportunities across all three of the operating segments.

[Richter Yeske:]

And then last one for me, again in light of the liquidity position, is that changing at all how you’re thinking about the cadence of asset sales you’re pursuing and then is any of the volatility in interest rates or things we’re seeing in the equity markets impacting valuations for your assets at all?

[Wayne Barr:]

No. So, as to the first part of your question, I think, the Board has shown a real interest in being deliberative opportunistic where it can and I think if you take a look at some of the things that we’ve done, including the sale of AMG where there was a process that was undertaken. I think we took advantage of some tailwinds there and we’re able to produce a very nice result. I think that’s going to continue and regardless of kind of the economic environment that’s out there to the extent it’s more challenging. I think the Board and management is up to the challenge, but I don’t see the Board kind of deviating from a very thoughtful deliberative approach in that regard.

[Richter Yeske:]

All right. That’s it for me.

[Wayne Barr:]

Very good. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Our next question is from Booker Smith with Imperial Capital. Please proceed with your question.

[Booker Smith:]

Hi guys. Thanks for taking the question. So starting the holdco throughout 2020 you guys lowered corporate expenses by 13%. Think it was looking into 2021 are there any additional costs base that can happen at the holdco level and what are the cadence and scope of those?

[Wayne Barr:]

So, I think, it 2021 is going to be a continuation of being vigilant with respect to overhead. We did have some very good opportunities that we took advantage of this past year to reduce the overhead. There’s probably some additional opportunities that we can take advantage of, and like I said, we are cognizant of wanting to reduce the corporate overhead. Our liquidity position is good and we kind of strive to get to where we are. But that doesn’t come at the cost of vigilance and trying to keep the corporate overhead at a right level. We did reduce our occupancy by going from three floors down to one and you know we’ve continued to look for other ways to continue to drive that the expense down.

[Booker Smith:]

Cool. Thank you. Cool. And then switching to Insurance, can you guys describe the process of the a potential sale I guess from a regulatory perspective and how that could impact timing if you guys did get to a final deal on that one?

[Wayne Barr:]

Yeah. Sure. So as you’ve pointed out, any sale of the Insurance segment would require approval from the regulators principally the Texas Department of Insurance, which is our home regulator. Our understanding is that the approval or review of the Form A, which is the application that would be made to detect the change of control is taking anywhere from 90 days to 180 days to be reviewed. That’s kind of based on what we’ve just seen in the marketplace. We have a very good relationship with the TDI. I talked with them pretty frequently. They’ve given no indication that and what we’ve typically seen in the market is going to be any different than the event that we do get to the point where somebody is submitting a Form A for continental but we really can’t, because it’s up to them we really can’t predict whether we’re going to fall within the earlier part or the latter part of any of those ranges.

[Booker Smith:]

Great. Thanks. That’s all I had.

[Wayne Barr:]

Thank you.

[Operator:]

Our next question is from Bill Guscher with Cortland Capital . Please proceed with your question.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Hey, Wayne, Mike. Congrats on a very nice quarter, progress during these, let’s say, unusual times to the pandemic.

[Wayne Barr:]

Thank you.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

As we think about EBITDA going forward for the Life Sciences segment, it’s clearly been dragging a negative contribution on overall EBITDA, do you think with the rollout obviously with such a strong team with Glacial RX and Spa, do you think that that rollout could lead to a positive contribution at some point let’s say end of the year or early 2022?

[Wayne Barr:]

I wouldn’t expect it to even though we do -- we’re launching the product. We do expect R2 generate revenues. We still are developing additional products within that business. So as it ramps up, it will continue to incur the losses there we would expect. In addition, you remember, there are a couple other businesses there, they’re still in there pre-revenue phase. So those are still generating losses also as they develop their products.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

And I guess directly for Glacial Rx and Spa, is there -- obviously there’s a very large TAM, but is there -- how do you think about, I guess, a more definable smaller TAM that is there one that you can go right after whether there’s a customer or direct competitors and you’re essentially going after that market share or is it more of a -- I mean because clearly with CoolSculpting it was kind of a innovative new and the kind of there’s a bit of an educational period that involves, you see that the same here, where it’s that type of product?

[Wayne Barr:]

I think it’s a -- I think it actually is a little broader from my perspective Bill. CoolSculpting, which Zeltiq brought to market and we use that as an analogy for R2, because it was developed by the same team that developed R2. But that had a very focused -- kind of focused treatment and a focused result. I think one of the exciting things about the R2 technology is that it has not only aesthetic dermatological use but I think it has a variety of uses that extend just beyond kind of that one use that Zeltiq had. So from an addressable market perspective I think it’s more of wide ranging than just kind of more of the single use or single result that Zeltiq obtained. So from that perspective, I think, that there is a more opportunity than Zeltiq had.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Right. Well, I think that’s all I have. Thanks very much. Keep up the good work and look forward to seeing result as the world hopefully at some point reopens here. Thanks.

[Wayne Barr:]

Great. Thanks, Bill.

[Operator:]

And our next question is from Richard Phil with Cetris . Please proceed with your question.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Hello. To build on the last speaker’s question on the R2 Technology, we were excited to see it roll out in the U.S. this month and China the month after, Can you talk about the supply chain, do you have control over your supply chain of the R2 Technology units and has covered given you any warning signs or what do you see there on the horizon?

[Wayne Barr:]

Yeah. I think it’s a little too early to actually see actual results from device delivery. As you know the launches is fairly new. There was a prelaunch period all of which was very well received. But I am pretty confident that David ensuring or keeping an eye on supply chain and whether the pandemic is having any impact on the delivery of the actual devices like the, anything other than just kind of thought and thinking that generally, the pandemic is caused things to be delayed. I don’t have any specific examples of the supply chain being impacted here.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

At some point, can the team talk about the manufacturer of the units where they sit, how reliable they seem to be. The last thing I want you guys to do with such yourself up six months, from now nine months from now saying hey every unit people love it they can’t wait to have it. We’ve got orders and a backlog growing. We just can’t produce some or not, and I would love some color around that.

[Wayne Barr:]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

You may not have them now.

[Wayne Barr:]

Right. So, I mean, the color that I can’t provide you, it kind of goes back to what I was saying with respect Zeltiq and that is you know this team has rolled out and commercialized a very similar aesthetic device. And so I think while I don’t have that information that kind of detail available to you. Having that management team in place that’s already done this and we talk about a proven track record and whether it’s David and Cherien or the management team at R2, it really holds true in this instance, and it’s very it’s very synonymous with what they did over at Zeltiq. And so I am very confident that a commercial rollout was not going to be embarked upon by this group in particular without kind of dotting those Is and crossing those Ts.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Perfect. Thank you.

[Wayne Barr:]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Operator:]

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I’ll now turn the call over to Avie Glazer for closing remarks.

[Avie Glazer:]

Thanks. We’d like to thank everyone for being on the call today. The entire HC2 team is very excited about the company’s future and I hope you share our enthusiasm going forward. Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

[Operator:]

This concludes today’s conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.