Phibro Animal Health Corporation
Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 5 Feb 2021

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Phibro Animal Health Corporation Q2 2021 Conference Call. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Damian Finio, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. Please go ahead.

[Damian Finio:]

Thank you, Mariama. Good morning, and welcome to the Phibro Animal Health earnings call for our second quarter ended December 31, 2020. I am Damian Finio, Chief Financial Officer of Phibro, and I'm joined on today's call by Jack Bendheim, Phibro's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. We will cover key themes for the quarter, our second quarter financial results, guidance for third quarter ending March 31, 2021, and then open the line to respond to your questions.

[Jack Bendheim:]

Thank you, Damian. Welcome to your first investor call as our Chief Financial Officer, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start today's call with 4 key themes for the quarter. First, we are excited about our second quarter and year-to-date financial results. In the second quarter, although on a consolidated basis, company sales decreased 4%, diluted EPS increased 10% versus the same quarter last year. The decline in consolidated net sales were driven by a 5% decline in the Animal Health segment of our business and a 3% decline in Mineral Nutrition, while Performance Products net sales increased 8%. Keep in mind, there was no COVID-19 impact in the prior year results, which is why I am pleased with our bottom line performance this quarter. Second quarter performance also reflects growth over last quarter. Second quarter sales and diluted EPS grew 6% and 7% over last quarter, respectively. These are solid GAAP financial results in a tough market.

[Damian Finio:]

Thanks, Jack. On to Slide 5. I'll start by reviewing consolidated results for our second quarter ended December 31, 2020, and then sharing some more detail on our individual business segments and then close out my remarks with our expectations for the third quarter. In summary, we posted strong second quarter financial results on a consolidated basis. Versus the prior year, second quarter sales declined 4%, but net income and diluted EPS grew 8% and 10%, respectively. On an adjusted basis, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS were comparable to the prior year. Our GAAP profitability measures improved versus the prior year due to reduced spending and a lower effective tax rate. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 20.3% versus 29.6% in the prior year, due primarily to the impact of the final Global Intangible Low-taxed Income, or GILTI, regulations issued in July 2020 and a benefit related to exchange rate differences on intercompany dividends. Next page. Now let me explain what's driving consolidated results in a little bit more detail. As mentioned, consolidated net sales were $206.1 million for the quarter. That's a decrease of $7.9 million or 4% versus the prior year.

[Operator:]

Your first question comes from David Westenberg.

[David Westenberg:]

Congrats on the good margins here. First, can you describe the derma care product? Just kind of the approach you're taking? Is this IL-31, JAK -- is this a JAK inhibitor, monoclonal antibody, et cetera? Why is this the right approach? And can you give us a little bit of -- in terms of time to launch?

[Jack Bendheim:]

A lot of good questions, and I'm not going to really answer any of them. We're sort of early. I think we feel -- and -- that the product that we've been able -- we won sort of a competitive licensing competition. It will definitely serve the market broadly, and -- but it has a lot of milestones to go through in the next 3, 4 years before we can get it to market, and that's with everything going well. So it's in the future, but we would not have entered into it if not -- we wouldn't have felt that we would answer sort of all the demands of what a derma care product needs to be.

[David Westenberg:]

Got it. Okay. I totally understand that, being early in the pipeline. Can you talk about Performance Products margin contribution relative to the overall base business? I'm just trying to get a feel for as that grows, what we should be thinking about in terms of bottom line contribution? I mean because this quarter seemed like it was a little bit different than in usual past -- I mean years past where you had such really good margin contribution despite the revenue slowdown.

[Jack Bendheim:]

Yes. No. Normally, when we talk about Performance products, we talk about -- well, it's a business we're not really concentrating on. It had some -- some unusual factors came together. Some volumes of our copper products and definitely higher prices in copper, and that made it to really stand out this quarter. It might continue another 1 or 2 quarters, but long term, as we've always said, this is not where we put our focus.

[David Westenberg:]

Totally understand. Okay. So just maybe the last one in terms of more growth in the portfolio and new products. What are your appetites for maybe generics in cattle? I mean, obviously, DRAXXIN is coming off pad, and it tends to be an easier product to kind of develop. And since it has generic for -- or at least like that patent has been expired for a long time, and they are large markets. I mean is cattle, in generics, something that interests you in the next few years?

[Jack Bendheim:]

Overall, cattle interests us a lot, and we're very active sort of ex the U.S. in cattle markets, specifically in Mexico and Brazil, growing in Canada, Australia, South Africa. I think I've made more of the big markets. So we are looking, and we recently signed an agreement and announced with Virbac to distribute their generic DRAXXIN in the Canadian market. And we're going to look for opportunities like that. I think there is a lot of generics coming into the DRAXXIN market, but where we have feet on the ground and where we can make some money and why not. So I think that's specifically what we're looking at. But right now, I don't think I want to go any further to the other products we're looking at.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from Balaji Prasad.

[Balaji Prasad:]

This is Balaji. A couple of questions. Maybe first, let me start with China. So 10 days ago -- 8 to 10 days ago, there seemed to be reports of newer strains of African swine fever emerging in China. And what I find most concerning is that they seem to be on farms owned by the fourth largest hog producer. So what are the implications of this, a, for the industry in the near term? And looking beyond, as you seek to participate in the re-herding in China, what implications does it have for your business?

[Jack Bendheim:]

You're definitely right on top of the news. The Chinese overall are making great efforts to repopulate after the depopulation a few years ago because of African swine fever. What seems to be happening on some of these farms is that there are some illegal vaccines that have not been approved by the government that people are using that are causing African swine fever to reemerge. That seems to be -- that's number one. And number two, they've never controlled African swine fever. The way they're controlling it is doing -- is by doing -- at the big farms, they can afford to. And because of the high price of hogs in China, a lot better biosecurity, meaning that the population on the farm is not as dense as it used to be. So yes, there have been outbreaks of African swine fever, but overall, the Chinese are working very hard to repopulate. Having said that, it's going to take them a long time. So I don't see any reason why exports from the markets we are active in, U.S., Brazil, won't continue strongly in the next couple of years.

[Balaji Prasad:]

Maybe just a follow-up to that. So I also asked, where do you currently stand with your registration process which is ongoing in China? And at what point should we factor you participating in the re-herding cycle?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So the good news is, we've -- because China has done such a great job in recovering from COVID, the Chinese regulatory authorities have reopened, and we have submitted our re-registration package. So that's a good news because unless you buy the lottery, you can't win the lottery. So we've begun. I'm not sure. I mean, let's assume, the numbers we're using internally is between 1.5 and 2 years.

[Balaji Prasad:]

That's helpful. Maybe one quick question, and then I'll join the queue. So could you provide us an update on where you're with next-gen OmniGen? What kind of traction you had in the last quarter?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So we are starting to see traction with the next generation, we call it OmniGen Pro. Most of the sales increases we had this past quarter have been in that product, and I think we will continue to see success. Like most people in the Animal Health business, the biggest problem today is being able to really bring the team in to sit with a customer's team and go over all the data and all the success because until -- vaccination rates will be a lot higher than they are today, things are going to go -- move very, very slowly. So we're seeing good success. It's a great product, but it's going to be, my guess, a year until we really get back in and we see accelerated success for that product.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from Erin Wright with Credit Suisse.

[Haley Christofides:]

This is Haley Christofides, on for Erin this morning. I kind of wanted to focus on vaccines. Can you speak to the key drivers of the lower demand trends internationally that you called out this quarter? And when do you think we can potentially return to double-digit growth across that segment longer term?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So the -- it's a great question. In certain parts of the world and parts of the world where poultry is the key protein, the effect of COVID has been mostly an economic effect. I mean the average effect of people getting sick and people dying is true everywhere and that's hard. But in those markets, the demand has dropped significantly because the economic activity has dropped significantly. So I think, again, that will be totally driven by the success of vaccination programs that we're starting to see becoming successful in North America, in Europe, in those markets where those countries depend on vaccines. So I think we're going to start seeing increases, but until we get back to normal and, again, the assumption that vaccines will be completely successful, so far look like they will be, will be, again, in about a year's time.

[Haley Christofides:]

Okay. That's helpful. That makes sense. And kind of a follow-up to that. You provided some helpful clarity on the Animal Health trends by segment for 3Q, but I was wondering if you could kind of go into demand trends across species beyond poultry? And how we should think about those in the next couple of quarters?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So this is in -- sorry, which market?

[Haley Christofides:]

Globally.

[Jack Bendheim:]

The next biggest market for us would be hog, and that business in the market where it often depends on exports, and China, as I said earlier, is still the biggest importer of hogs, pork in the world. So I think that continues and grows a little bit over the next couple of years. So I think for the production animal, the volume is going to be good. The thing you have to start thinking about, which we have not had to think about for many, many years, is higher input costs. The cost of corn and soybeans have risen dramatically. So that's going to change the economics, which changes the dynamics of the overall animal protein business. And -- it helps our business because our products help make those products work better, right? It helps the animals stay healthier so they convert the corn and the soybean at better rates. But there was a balance, and the first number is that if you are a pig producer or if you're a chicken producer, what you look at is what is my input cost? And that is the biggest dynamic that all of our customers all over the world are facing.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from Michael Ryskin with Bank of America.

[Michael Ryskin:]

Actually, I want to pick up exactly where you just left off on input cost and corn prices. So I want to go into that a little bit deeper, if you will. So I mean just looking at the pricing of corn and how much that spiked in the last couple of months, especially -- I mean even since mid-December, I was just reading a lot of reports about, especially poultry and hog producers being a little bit more cautious. I'm just wondering how much of that are you factoring into your outlook for the third quarter? Is it too early to make any assumptions or guesses on what it's going to do to sort of herd size and expansion in the U.S. and internationally? Are you waiting to see if the prices are sustained at these levels? Or sort of -- have you gotten any feedback from customers in terms of purchase orders, slowing things down at all? I'm just wondering because we've seen a lot of concerns on that front.

[Jack Bendheim:]

Thanks, Michael. It's a great question. So right now, right, it's in the talking stage. Most people who we deal with around the world have hedged and locked in their prices 6 months ago. So they might not even be seeing these higher prices, but it's something they start thinking about going forward. The balance is demand. So if there is a demand for chicken or for pork, someone is going to make it, if someone's going to have to use the input cost no matter what the price is. So if you ask me, do I think the price of chicken and pigs will go up around the world? I think the answer to that is yes. If you ask me when, I don't know. But overall, we're seeing these higher input costs and that means, ultimately, the price of protein will be higher.

[Michael Ryskin:]

Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate that color. And then I also noticed that you had a couple of comments calling out strength and nutritional specialties on the back of dairy. I think that's an end market that we've been talking about for it feels like years now about how that's been a challenged end market in the U.S. I'm just wondering if that's any -- if you think any of that is a little bit of a catch-up or easy comps or are you seeing any fundamental changes in the market that makes you think that maybe the outlook for dairy is finally turning?

[Jack Bendheim:]

Yes. The outlook for dairy is like the weather in California. It was always good the week before you got there. So it's complicated. I think the dairy guys had started to do better, and now you're seeing these higher input costs again. So -- it's -- they're still okay. I mean if I look at that segment in the United States, dairy guys are doing okay. The pork guys are probably doing okay. And the poultry guys are starting not to do okay. Again, based on input -- direct input costs. But as I said earlier, it's balanced. If you hedged your corn prices which it was 6 months ago and you have a 2-year hedge, then you're going to be fine, all right? That's just -- that -- we don't have that clarity into our customers, but I think this is going to go back to supply demand. And if the demand is there, the supply will be there and the prices will average that.

[Michael Ryskin:]

Okay. That's helpful. And yes, I totally agree with you on the many, many false starts we've had in dairy, where that would improve for 1 quarter and then it was one step forward, 2 steps back. So completely makes sense. One last one for me and then I'll hop back. I think the biggest surprise for us in the quarter was actually on the P&L, on the SG&A and sort of the -- your ability to contain costs there despite the improved performance in the top line. At the same time, you're talking about a lot of the investment going forward in the companion animal business, in the derma care and some of your other products there. And also just continued investment in your core MFA and nutritional specialties businesses. How should we think about that lever going forward? Was this just a little bit of a timing benefit in the quarter? Or are you able to find some cost constraints that you think will carry forward?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So I think they are -- there are 3 factors, but on the SG&A, there are 2 main factors

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from Kevin Kedra with G. Research.

[Kevin Kedra:]

I want to come back to the companion animal story. Obviously, this is an area of focus for you guys with Rejensa and then the pipeline. Do you feel that what you have right now in development is kind of good? Are you guys looking to further expand in that area? And have you considered moving also into the equine market, given the -- your strength in livestock. I would imagine, there is greater synergies there in equine than necessarily dogs and cats.

[Jack Bendheim:]

So as strange as it is, equine is a pain. So our being -- selling cat into the cattle market doesn't help you sell market, number one. Number two, we are going forward. We are going to create this fourth pillar to the business and that is companion animals, and we're going to do it slowly and in a unique way. I mean it's a very competitive field. When you have to go and buy a product line, it costs a fortune. You know the multiples if something's companion animal business . So we are using our abilities. We're using our scientists. We're using our development people. We're using our knowledge and market. And we've added some really very, very talented people, specifically on the companion animal side. And we're seeing a lot of input. We're seeing a lot of people who have interesting product. They are unable to go to the market, to the giant companies because it's not invented here. It's because they've looked at something like that, et cetera, et cetera. And so far, we've looked at dozens of products. And as you see, we've successfully launched one, and we are investing in 2, 3, 4 others right now. So we're going to take a slow approach. But I would say, going forward, 3, 4, 5 years from now, companion animals will be a significant part of our business.

[Kevin Kedra:]

That's helpful. I wanted to ask about cash flow. You had a very good cash flow quarter. You gave us good metrics for Q3. But just wondering if you could give us any sort of sense directionally on how we should be thinking about the cash flows for Q3, maybe for the balance of the year? And then kind of related to that, the Omaha plant expansion. Anything we should be thinking about in terms of CapEx and the impact there?

[Jack Bendheim:]

I'll take the second half first. We've -- overall, we plan our CapEx a year in advance, and some of these projects are big projects. So the online expansion is just finishing, we have been in it 1.5 years in expanding and modernizing facility that we had there. And we continue to look at CapEx all over our businesses. As you know from prior discussions, we produced approximately 70% of the things we saw, and we see business growing. So that means you continue investing in CapEx. But for the cash flow, I'm going to kick it back to Damian.

[Damian Finio:]

All right. Thanks, Kevin, for the question. So you're right. Year-to-date, we're ahead of our plan in terms of cash flow and that's driven by our stronger-than-anticipated bottom line performance. I would say, for second half of the year, given our inventory levels at December 31, coupled with the guidance for the third quarter, we should have steady cash flows in the second half of the year. I would expect some of that cash, though, would be invested back in the business more so than first half to do 2 things

[Operator:]

. Your next question comes from David Risinger.

[Melina Santoro:]

This is Melina Santoro on for Dave. First, can you maybe discuss what the key factors are to consider for the March quarter? I know guidance kind of implies a flat revenue sequentially at the midpoint, but EBITDA is expected to be down slightly at the midpoint and EPS down as well sequentially.

[Damian Finio:]

Yes. I'll take that one also. So I think it's consistent with what I just said. What you're seeing in cash flows, you're also going to see in the results. So we're expecting more of the same in the third quarter in terms of sales, but when you look to profitability, we do expect a ramp-up of certain expenses to invest in the future, et cetera. So from a profitability perspective, quarter 2 to quarter 3, you're right, the bottom line is a little bit less as a percentage of topline.

[Melina Santoro:]

Okay. That's helpful. And then my second question is, can you provide any updates on the FDA's assessment of Mecadox? And maybe any updates from the Brazilian regulatory agencies on virginiamycin?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So we've -- we're staying in touch with the FDA. We're not hearing much back. My guess is with the change in administration and they haven't appointed a new commissioner yet, things will be slow. And -- but as we said earlier, we're going to rigorously defend this product because this has been a great product. It's been on the market for 40 years, safe and effective, and we are going to make sure this product stays in the market. Brazil is moving. We haven't heard anything yet, but it's Brazil. But we continue. All our -- everything is in. All of our applications are added into the chain. And right now everything is grandfathered, and that's what they tell us, and they will get to us when they get to us.

[Operator:]

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to -- oh, we have one more question that just entered the queue from Balaji Prasad.

[Balaji Prasad:]

So Jack, just wanted to get an update on your Irish facility. When we last spoke, you had received the approval after the inspection. So are we still on for mid-'21 launch? And would you be able to quantify the impact of the market this facility would open for you? And also at what point of time could we start seeing improvements in OpEx coming through from this facility?

[Jack Bendheim:]

So we received that first regulatory approval. We're in the midst of submitting now, getting ready for the second, which involves an inspection. So we are on target for some time, I would say, early in our next fiscal year to be able to start operating that facility. It opens up the Middle East to us on a range of products. I don't want to quantify the number because I'm not sure, but it will be -- once we start selling, it will be profitable. So it's -- as I said, we're on target. Nothing is delayed. And we're optimistic that it's a great facility for us to be having.

[Operator:]

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Damian Finio for closing remarks.

[Damian Finio:]

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful questions. For those interested, Jack and I will be hosting a fireside chat on February 25 at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2021 Virtual Animal Health Summit. Details should be issued on that via press release tomorrow. We appreciate you taking the time to join us on today's call. Have a great rest of your day and continue to stay safe.

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.