Earnings Call Transcript - ATR Q3 2023

Mary Skafidas, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thanks for being with us today. Joining me on today's call are Stephan Tanda, President and CEO; and Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO. Our press release and accompanying slide deck have been posted on our website under the Investor Relations page. During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in our press release, which was disseminated yesterday. Please refer to the press release. As always, we will post a replay of this call on our website. I would now like to turn it over to Stephan Tanda. Stephan, over to you.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Thank you, Mary, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us on the call today. I will begin my remarks by highlighting our results for the third quarter. Later in the call, Bob Kuhn, our CFO, will provide additional details. Starting on slide 3. For the third quarter, Aptar achieved core sales growth of 2% and delivered double-digit EPS growth of $1.39 per share, due to continued strong demand for our proprietary Pharma dosing and dispensing systems as well as our fragrance dispensing technologies. We experienced significant margin improvement in the quarter with an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 22%, a 4-point increase over the prior year's quarter. The margin improvement was driven by a strong focus on cost management across the company and the better mix from relatively faster sales growth in Pharma. In quarter three, robust demand continues for our proprietary Pharma drug-delivery systems, which grew across multiple therapeutic applications, including allergic rhinitis, emergency medicines, central nervous system therapeutics, nasal saline rinse solutions, eye care, and cold and cough as well as asthma and COPD therapies. In the last year, there has been a lot of focus from our shareholder base on sales of our Unidose drug-delivery dispensing system for Narcan and generic naloxone as this emergency medicine has gone over the counter, or OTC. We have certainly seen solid growth in this important life-saving application. In addition, we also want to highlight our proprietary bidose dispensing system for J&J's Spravato, which has also been a strong contributor to our growth this year. Recently, a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine outlined the positive benefits for patients using Spravato. This drug targeting treatment-resistant depression in adults is delivered in a bidose liquid nasal free system that underwent numerous human use studies to ensure optimal positioning and consistent dosages are delivered with every administration. The medicine is administered as a nasal spray that is absorbed by the lining of the nasal passages and into the bloodstream. This nasal delivery supports rapid and appreciable absorption into the bloodstream. Relative to an IV formulation, the nasal route of delivery provides a noninvasive and more convenient dosing option for patients and physicians and is associated with a reduced likelihood of dosing errors. We are proud of the role our dispensing systems play in helping to make critical medication more easily administered. Nasally delivered therapies for neurological diseases, like depression, is a growing area of focus for our customers. Over the last few quarters, we have talked about our Pharma service offerings. These are a small part of our overall revenue but helped to position us as a partner of choice for Pharma companies large and small. We are very honored that our Pharma service group has been awarded a new contract by the US Food and Drug Administration studying opportunities for low global warming potential propellant solutions for metered dose inhalers. This contract recognizes and reinforces our thought leadership and expertise in the inhalation space and also highlights our focus on sustainability, which we know is a differentiator and competitive advantage. In our Beauty segment, we saw continued healthy demand for our dispensing solutions for prestige and mass fragrance. Demand for fragrance pumps continues to be driven by growth in Europe and Latin America. Sales for our fragrance sampling solutions also grew modestly in Europe. Additionally, FusionPKG, our full packaging solution provider in North America, had strong growth in the quarter when compared to the prior year, with its sales pipeline continuing to build. Having said that, Beauty North America overall continues to be substantially below 2019 volumes, especially in personal care. However, in recent weeks, we are starting to see a pickup in orders for some end markets as inventories approach normal levels for certain SKUs. While recovery will not be linear, we believe the worst is behind us and look forward to improving dynamics in North America in 2024. Now turning to Slide 4. I would like to highlight a few products and medications that launched in the quarter featuring our technology. In Pharma, after a seven-year collaboration with Helion led to the launch of a nasal spray technology with an innovative side push button to activate the spray. This patented intuitive and more consumer-friendly Lateral Control System technology by Aptar, a first of its kind, features a shorter nozzle, which means more comfort when using the product while the one push button provides more accurate dosing. In addition, Aptar's metered dose inhaler valve is featured on the Breyna Inhalation Aerosol, the first FDA-approved generic version of Symbicort. In the European beauty market, Aptar's fragrance and lotion pumps are featured on Jean Paul Gaultier's Divine brand products by Puig. In Asia, our airless technology is the refillable dispensing solution for a new facial skin care product by the brand Zhiben. Turning to sustainable solutions. We've expanded our sampling portfolio to include mono material paper fragrance sampling which LVMH is now featuring for a top fragrance brand. Finally, our Post-Consumer Recycled Resin pump is the dispensing technology for Estee Lauder's MAC brand foundation in North America. For closures in North America, McCormick is now featuring our closure on their new spice package and our snap top dispensing closure for inverted packaging is providing controlled dispensing for SC Johnson's Off! insect repellent lotion in Latin America. As we mentioned at our recent Investor Day, we have additional information to share around our focus on footprint rationalization and reduction of manufacturing costs. To that end, we have started a second process with our European and French labor representatives to shut down our closure facility in Poincy, France. As we have stated before, these processes take time. We will share more information with you as we can and expect to start realizing savings from this plant closure by mid- to late 2024 and full run rate savings in 2025. Our SG&A as a percentage of sales is on track to be around 16% for the full year 2023. Finally, I would like to touch on an ESG update. Earlier this month, we were recognized by 3BL Media and by ISS ESG for our transparency and performance in categories such as Climate Change, Stakeholders and Society, Human Rights, and ESG Performance for the third consecutive year. We are ranked number 34 on the list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens. Before I hand the call over to Bob, I also want to highlight that in September we added a new Board member, Sarah Glickman, the CFO of Criteo. Sarah is a highly accomplished executive with more than 30 years of global financial and deep operational experience in diverse industries with such companies as Novartis, Honeywell, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. And with that, over to you, Bob.

Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO

Thank you, Stephan, and good morning, everyone. Starting on Slide 5, I would like to summarize the quarter. Our reported sales increased 7%. When we neutralize for currencies and acquisitions, our core sales grew 2% in significant part due to strong demand for our proprietary drug delivery systems, as well as solid demand for fragrance dispensing technologies while the challenging environment for personal care and home care in North America continued in the third quarter. As shown on Slide 6, we reported third quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.39. This represents a 39% increase over prior year adjusted EPS. We achieved adjusted EBITDA of $193 million, which was an increase of 26% from the prior year's third quarter driven by strong operational performance and ongoing cost management. Turning to some of the details by segment for the quarter, our Pharma segment's core sales increased 8%. Approximately 6% of the continued growth came from increased volumes, especially for our proprietary drug delivery systems. Looking at sales in the Pharma segment by market, prescription core sales increased 20% primarily due to continued strong demand for dosing and dispensing technologies, for allergic rhinitis, emergency medicine, central nervous system therapeutics, and asthma and COPD therapies. Consumer Health Care core sales increased 14%, driven by higher sales for nasal saline rinse solutions, eye care, and cough and cold applications. When looking at our injectables division, core sales increased 6%. Turning to our Active Materials Science Solutions, core sales decreased 23% of which 17% was due to less tooling revenue as well as a decrease in active vials used for our Diabetes Care products and decreased demand in sales of our products used on probiotics which had experienced rapid growth in the prior year's quarter. Pharma's adjusted EBITDA margin was 35% for the quarter, an improvement of about four points over the same period last year. This also includes start-up costs for the injectables division capacity expansion of approximately $2 million. We expect startup costs in the range of $2 million to $3 million in Q4. Overall, our Beauty segment's core sales increased 2%, due to the ongoing challenges in North America. Europe continues to perform solidly, with sales and adjusted EBITDA margins well within our long-term target range due to the increased demand for prestige fragrance. Latin America saw a healthy demand for mass fragrance solutions, and Asia also saw a slight growth in the quarter. Fragrance solutions for the prestige and mass markets continued to perform well, with core sales for these dispensing solutions growing double digits in the quarter. Looking at the Beauty segment by market, Beauty core sales, which represents 64% of Beauty segment sales, increased 14% driven by higher tooling sales as well as higher sales in both prestige and mass fragrance. Personal Care core sales decreased 15% as lower demand in several end-use categories in North America persisted. Europe had modest sales growth primarily due to sales of our products used in Hair Care and Sun Care applications. Home Care core sales decreased 24% due to lower sales in North America across several categories including Air Care and Surface Disinfectants. This segment's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was about 13%. This is more than a 0.5-point improvement over the same period last year. The Closures Segment Core sales decreased 9% compared with the prior year's quarter. Approximately 6% of the decrease for the current quarter is due to lower resin costs. While product volumes improved in Food and especially in Beverage Dispensing closures in the quarter, they could not fully offset the decline in volumes for Personal Care and Home Care. Looking at the Closures Segment by market, Food core sales decreased 11%. The decline in sales was driven by lower tooling sales which accounted for 8% of the decrease and pass-throughs of lower resin costs. Beverage core sales increased 3% due to strong sales in Europe, which is our largest beverage market and in North America. In the quarter, we saw increased demand for bottled water and concentrates. Personal Care core sales decreased 24%, due primarily to lower global demand. In our fourth category, which includes Beauty, Home Care, and Health Care, core sales increased 24% mainly due to tooling sales. The segment's adjusted EBITDA margin was around 15%. This represents a three-point improvement over the same period last year even with a decline in sales, due to our continued focus on cost management as well as the effects of passing on lower resin costs. Our total CapEx spend for the third quarter of 2023 was $76 million with the majority going to our Pharma segment. The three large capital projects are winding down, making up about 15% of our total CapEx spend for the quarter with the majority allocated to our injectables capacity expansion. As a reminder, our injectables capacity expansion will come online in phases and be ready for commercialization at the beginning of 2025. Reported depreciation and amortization expense increased 9% over the prior year quarter to approximately $63 million or 7% of sales. Slide 7 and 8 cover our year-to-date performance and show the 3% core sales growth and our adjusted earnings per share, which were $3.57, up 22% compared to $2.92 a year ago, including comparable exchange rates. Year-to-date cash flow from operations was $356 million, up from $306 million due to the improvements in earnings. Moving to slide 9, which summarizes our outlook for the fourth quarter. We anticipate our strong momentum to continue and expect fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share excluding any restructuring expenses, acquisition costs, and changes in the unrealized fair value of equity investments to be in the range of $1.06 to $1.14 per share. The estimated tax rate range for the fourth quarter is 24% to 26%. As a reminder, in the fourth quarter, we expect to have a $0.02 to $0.03 impact in start-up costs from our injectables expansion program. Additionally, we are expecting some currency tailwinds compared to the prior year. For example, the euro rate for the prior year's fourth quarter was 1.02, and our guidance for the coming quarter is assuming a 1.06 euro rate. We have said that roughly for every one-point move in the euro rate, that equates to roughly $0.02 per share for the full year. So for the coming quarter, we expect to be looking at approximately a $0.02 currency benefit on earnings compared to the prior year due to the euro rate as well as other currency movements. We currently estimate depreciation and amortization for 2023 to be between $240 million to $245 million. Our capital expenditures in 2023, net of any government grants, is estimated to be around $300 million, including a capacity expansion investment for our pharma proprietary drug delivery systems. In closing, we continue to have a strong balance sheet with a leverage ratio of 1.6 at quarter end, which allows us to continue to invest in the business, pursue strategic opportunities, and continue to return value to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. In addition to our cash dividend payment to shareholders, which totaled $26.9 million in the quarter, we repurchased approximately 66,000 shares for $8.3 million. At this time, Stephan will provide a few closing comments before we move to Q&A.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Thanks, Bob. In the first nine months of 2023, we have delivered very strong results and showed exceptional growth during our two biggest quarters, quarter two and quarter three. We expect quarter four will continue our trend of double-digit adjusted EPS growth over the prior year period. While quarter four tends to be a smaller quarter for us, we expect our pharma and fragrance franchises to finish the year strong. In the fourth quarter, we expect robust demand for our proprietary pharma drug delivery system to continue. Our fragrance dispensing solutions will finish on a high note for 2023, and we look forward to an improving environment in North America, especially for our personal care dispensing solutions as we believe the worst of the destocking will be behind us. As we look ahead to 2024, our proprietary drug delivery systems have seen significant growth. Some of that can be attributed to distribution channels refilling to more normal levels following destocking due to COVID. Narcan and generic naloxone versions going over the counter has also helped spur our growth this year. While the launch of this new distribution channel will not repeat next year, adoption of this life-saving drug continues to expand. We expect our proprietary pharma drug delivery systems to continue to grow in 2024 within the long-term core sales target of 7% to 11%. Our injectables division will be ramping up new capacity for higher value products through the end of 2024. Over the past year, our dispensing devices for fragrances have also seen tremendous growth. 2023 has been a catch-up year for the fragrance industry that postponed new launches for a number of years due to COVID. We expect core sales in fragrance to continue to grow within our Beauty long-term target range of 3% to 6%. Both our Beauty and Closures segments will benefit from an improving environment in North America as we move post the unprecedented COVID destocking. Therefore, we are energized for the fourth quarter and for 2024. You have seen measurable improvement in our SG&A as a percentage of sales and reduced manufacturing fixed costs, which we expect to continue in quarter four and into 2024. And we are excited about the growth opportunities across each of our segments for next year, taking advantage of our increased operating leverage as cost reduction efforts become more visible in the P&L. With that, I now would like to open the call for your questions.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from George Staphos from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

George Staphos, Analyst

Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. The first one is for Stephan and Bob. Can you talk about your excitement for 2024? Are there any key end markets or product lines that you expect will grow below your long-term target range, to the extent that you have any visibility? Should we interpret your comments, acknowledging that it’s still early, to mean that you anticipate overall earnings growth in 2024? The second question I have is regarding your Analyst Day, where you mentioned efforts to reduce SG&A and a goal for combined SG&A plus fixed costs within COGS. How did you perform relative to that metric in the third quarter, and how will you update us on your performance there? Thank you.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Hi, George. Thanks for your questions. While we don’t provide guidance for 2024, I want to emphasize that we are excited about the upcoming year. Our proprietary dispensing devices grew in the double digits, and we expect to maintain growth within our target range next year. The issues we had with injectables due to ERP will not happen again. For active materials, the difficult comparison from COVID is behind us, and we anticipate a return to growth in that area. Digital health continues to be a challenge, but the impact will lessen. We expect fragrance to keep growing, although rates may decline as comparisons become tougher, and we anticipate North America stabilizing with some positive signs observed in the fourth quarter. China, although at a slow pace, is also showing signs of growth. Altogether, this supports our expectation of growth consistent with our targets. Moreover, our cost optimization efforts should lead to improved operating leverage and robust earnings growth, even without guidance for next year. Regarding your second question, we have observed significant expansion in EBITDA margins across all three segments. This improvement results from higher gross margins driven by reduced fixed costs at our factories, and we are far from finished. The initiatives we started a year ago are beginning to reflect in the P&L. As previously mentioned, actions taken in France are just now being implemented, with the next phase involving the closure of the Poincy site set to impact the P&L in the second half of next year. These changes require time to take effect. We are committed to ensuring effective operating leverage and the connection between strong top-line growth and even stronger bottom-line performance.

George Staphos, Analyst

So just kind of a quick follow-on, and I appreciate all that. From the Analyst Day deck, I think you said SG&A and fixed COGS as a percentage of sales you're going to drop that about two points from 2021 to 2025. Where does that ratio stand right now relative to the starting point? Thanks, guys. I will turn over.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Well, this is not something we disclose externally. What we disclose externally is the SG&A ratio and that we expect to end the year at 16%. Quarter three was actually lower. But given that we always have the equity rewards in the first quarter, it averages out to be 16% for the year and 16.1% for Q3, and we expect to be at 16% year-to-date by the time we finish the year. But overall, George, I think we can say that we are tracking to where we expected to be for the combined metric.

Operator, Operator

Our next question is from Gabe Hajde from Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Gabe Hajde, Analyst

Good morning, Stephan, Bob, and Mary. I'd like to focus on the Pharma segment. Can you remind us if the approximately $25 million of ERP and start-up costs in 2023 will be eliminated next year? Should we also consider growth contributions from injectables or other factors? Additionally, given the higher mix of Rx compared to other segments in Pharma, do you anticipate some moderation in profitability when adjusting for those start-up ERP costs? How should we approach this?

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Yeah. I mean, on the first question, clearly, the ERP cost, especially in the first two quarters and especially in the first quarter, will not repeat. Now, we continue to build out the Granville two factory, and that will have equipment, trial productions, and labor presence with no revenue for that. So we will continue to have, if you want, start-up track we don't quantify yet. We'll probably give that when we do Q4. It will be a bit less, but still there will be something next year. But compared to the ERP cost, it's obviously much smaller. Then, on your mix question, yes, if injectables and active materials grow much faster compared to Rx and CHC, you will have a negative mix effect. On the other side, as we just said, you will have costs that go away with the ERP system. So we're not going to give you the end result of that in advance here as it plays out, plus we have cost work again across the board to do. I don't know, Bob, if you want to add anything.

Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes. The only thing I would say is I think, Gabe, our number on the injectables ERP and start-up costs for the year is probably closer to $20 million, and I think you mentioned $25 million, and we'll have another couple of pennies or $2 million to $3 million in Q4 of this year.

Gabe Hajde, Analyst

Okay, shifting focus to redeployment and cash generation. I believe you mentioned that capital expenditures are beginning to align more closely with depreciation and amortization. I just want to confirm that. As we look ahead, our model projects a leverage ratio of about 1.4 to 1.5 times by the end of this year. Is there any information regarding the M&A pipeline that we should consider, or would it be more favorable to pursue dividends and repurchases as we move into 2024 and beyond?

Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO

So we're still a little bit above, Gabe, on the CapEx. So for the quarter, we spent about $76 million. Most of the amount above the D&A, which is about $63 million in the quarter, is really coming from the run-out of the three big projects, primarily the injectables expansion.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

We see significant growth in Pharma, and we will ensure we have the capacity needed, particularly for life-saving medicines. However, we will not increase capacity solely to reach specific CapEx targets, especially in areas currently experiencing double-digit growth.

Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes. Regarding your comment about deleveraging by year-end, we're currently at 1.6, down from 1.8, primarily due to strong cash generation this quarter, which was about $97 million compared to $55 million in the same quarter last year. So far this year, we've generated approximately $124 million, and we are continuing to focus on working capital and the margin improvements you've observed in Q3.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Now with respect to your M&A question, we continue to have an active M&A pipeline and look at opportunities along the lines that we have done before; technologies, geographic opportunities, venturing type investments. So we continue our M&A activity unabatedly. For every 10 deals you study or work on, maybe one happens. Clearly the high interest rates give the sponsors a pause, which may help us a little bit because we never look at these high leverage ratios. On the other hand, we also recognize that our cost of capital has gone up with the higher interest rates. So we continue to be a disciplined player in this game.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Ghansham Panjabi from Baird. Please go ahead.

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst

Good morning, everybody. On the Rx growth of 20% and OTC of 14% in 3Q, at least part of that seems to be driven by new products and related inventory build for products such as Narcan. Can you help us dimensionalize the potential headwind from a volume standpoint as you cycle through the inventory build comparisons thinking after 2024, or do you not see that as material at this point?

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Well, certainly, we don't see that to keep growing at these rates. On the other hand, there is not a day that goes by where we don't pick up reports of the non-traditional channels continuing to expand, whether it's school, whether it's communities, whether it's fire department. So yes, the OTC channel has added pipeline fill. But Narcan is increasingly pervasive, and we see continued growth there plus, given that the nasal delivery route is increasingly seen as an attractive shortcut to the brain, we also see the pipeline continue to fill. So, of course, those double-digit or high double-digit growth rates will not continue, but we also don't see a significant decline or anything like that, but more in line with our Pharma growth rates.

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst

Okay. And then for my second question on personal care, which seems – it seems awfully weak across the board. Is there a category or a customer mix issue that is weighing on this segment for you? And then for fragrance, which the whole supply chain ecosystem has called out as strong, how sustainable do you think this is in context of uneven consumer spending that we're seeing in so many other categories?

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

It's really completely different dynamics. In personal care, it is predominantly the US destocking issue. And we see that running its course. I have several anecdotes where customers say, 'Hey we're still fine, leave us alone,' and then the next week they call out and say, 'Oh my God, we are out of stock for this item and please we need it tomorrow.' That hasn't happened in the past few quarters; it's happening now. So it seems to me that things will return. I think we've said before certainly in personal care closures, home care closures, we had some share loss. On the other hand, in other categories, we had share gains. But certainly, North America, whether it's personal care, home care closures, personal home care that's still accounted for in Beauty, has been a challenge for us. On the other hand, what we're signaling from everything we see is that will have run its course by the end of the year. On fragrance, it's a completely different dynamic. Fragrance is really driven by launches and then flankers. And clearly brands are eager to continue to get their franchises out there. We also have gained some share there. And that's without China really getting back into direction, and we see that happening also now. So again, we see a normalization of growth but not going the other way.

George Staphos, Analyst

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Our next question is from Daniel Rizzo of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Daniel Rizzo, Analyst

Good morning. You mentioned the strength in prestige fragrances. I was wondering if you have significant exposure to prestige beauty and if that's holding up well or if it's less exposure or it's just not doing as well as fragrance is?

Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO

If you referred to the prestige skin care, we did grow there, but the majority of our growth there came from some tooling sales that we had in the quarter, but overall product sales were still very, very good.

Daniel Rizzo, Analyst

Okay. And then, you mentioned that you're working to close the plant in France. And I know it's kind of a process, but I wonder once that process is complete, have you quantified what the savings will be on an annual basis at the end of '24 or '25 or whenever it's complete?

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

No, we have not provided that information because it would be harmful to the negotiation process. This is a unique situation, as far as I know, that places significant demands on everyone involved. We will share the details once everything is finalized and signed. The only reassurance I can offer is that unlike previous processes where multiple factors had to be negotiated, this voluntary closure means there is less to discuss regarding the future state. The focus is more on how we will treat the employees. We believe the benefits of this closure will be seen by mid-next year, but it is the only facility we are closing in France.

Daniel Rizzo, Analyst

Thank you very much.

Operator, Operator

As there are no additional questions on the call, I will now turn it over to Mr. Tanda to conclude.

Stephan Tanda, President and CEO

Thank you for your questions. We are genuinely excited about 2024. Many of the steps we've taken in recent years are beginning to yield results. You can observe this in our stronger execution, a more modern and efficient asset base, a growing pipeline, and customers who are enthusiastic about our innovative capabilities. Additionally, our focused and systematic approach to cost management over several years has contributed to improved operating leverage and our double-digit EPS growth trajectory. As you consider the future, it's important to keep in mind the various factors we've discussed. Some areas, like our proprietary drug dispensing systems, will continue to grow, although we expect them to stay within our growth targets for Pharma. The injectable ERP segment is progressing well, and we anticipate strong growth in our pipeline and capacity. The active material business is rebounding as the tough COVID comparisons are fading. Furthermore, our digital health business in Pharma is becoming less of a burden over time. While Fragrance will not grow at double digits, it will align with our overall Beauty growth targets, and the challenges from North America will ease for both Beauty and Closures. Importantly, the Beauty market in China is recovering. Additionally, our SG&A expenses are decreasing as a percentage of revenue, and we are taking further cost-reduction actions. We are also enhancing our global talent centers and addressing differentials. With that said, I wish everyone, especially in the US, a pleasant Thanksgiving and a relaxing holiday season to all. We look forward to seeing you on the road. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all very much for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.