Sotera Health Co Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call

Good morning, and thank you. Welcome to Sotera Health's First Quarter 2024 Results Call. You can find today's press release and accompanying supplemental slides on the Investors section of our website at soterahealth.com. This webcast is being recorded, and a replay will be available in the Investors section of the Sotera Health website. On the call with me today are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Petras; and Chief Financial Officer, Jon Lyons. During the call, some of our comments may be considered forward-looking statements. The matters addressed in these statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied. Please refer to Sotera Health's SEC filings and the forward-looking statements slide at the beginning of this presentation for a description of these risks and uncertainties. The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Please note that during the discussion today, the company will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS, net debt, adjusted EBITDA margin, segment income margin and net leverage ratio in addition to constant currency comparisons. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures for all relevant periods may be found in the schedules attached to the company's press release and in the supplemental slides of this presentation. The operator will be assisting with the Q&A portion of the call today. As always, if you have any questions post-call, please feel free to reach out to me and the Investor Relations team. I will now turn the call over to Sotera Health Chairman and CEO, Michael Petras.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Sotera Health's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Today, we announced both top and bottom line growth compared to the first quarter of 2023 with growth coming from all three of our business units. Jon will provide more detail on our financial results in a moment, but first, I want to highlight a few items from our first quarter results. Total company revenues increased 12.5% and adjusted EBITDA increased 13.7% compared to the first quarter of 2023. We delivered adjusted EPS of $0.13 for the quarter, in line with the same period last year. Sterigenics, our largest reporting segment, delivered another quarter of top line growth of 4.1%. Volumes remained somewhat soft as customers continued to work through supply chain challenges. Nordion, our other reporting segment within the sterilization services business, delivered 181% year-over-year revenue growth. As you may recall, first quarter 2023 was historically light for Nordion and the large year-over-year increase is driven in significant part to the timing of Cobalt-60 harvest delivery schedules from our suppliers, which are large utilities. Nelson Labs, our lab testing advisory services business, delivered top line growth of 10.8% compared to the prior year. This is the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth in Nelson Labs, led by continued strong performance in our expert advisory services business. Core lab testing volumes are down year-over-year, driven primarily by the extension of the deadlines for the European Union Medical Device Regulations as expected. This morning, we are reaffirming the outlook that we communicated in our last earnings call. As a reminder, our 2024 outlook calls for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in the range of 4% to 6% versus 2023. The variability within our full year revenue range will be largely driven by the timing and magnitude of the market recovery in both Sterigenics and Nelson Labs. Now I would like to give an update on some recent ethylene oxide developments. With respect to the lawsuits that were filed in California, we are confident that Sterigenics is not responsible for causing the alleged illnesses. Based on what we know so far, these new lawsuits raise basically the same issues as the ethylene oxide claims previously filed by plaintiff firms in other jurisdictions this time in the context of the burden facilities and in particular circumstances of each of the new plaintiffs. We believe the evidence will establish that Sterigenics has operated its facilities safely and in compliance with all applicable regulations. We operate safely to sterilize vital medical products and devices and have consistently complied with and outperformed applicable regulations regarding our emissions. As the local regulator, South Coast Air Quality Management District has consistently reported ethylene oxide levels in the surrounding residential communities are within background levels found in areas without nearby sterilization facilities. As long as we are able to put on a full and fair defense, we are confident in the judicial outcome. Although we acknowledge the challenges presented by lawsuits involving cancer and other serious diseases, we do not believe that ethylene oxide litigation will have a long-term material impact on the company. We have posted a comprehensive list of FAQs that is available under the Ethylene Oxide section of our investor website, and we will update that periodically with pertinent information. Please recognize that we are in active litigation, we will not provide additional commentary beyond what I stated here and was included in our FAQs and SEC filings. As many of you know, in March, the EPA finalized the updated national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants, commonly referred to as NESHAP. Although the updated requirements will be very challenging for the sterilization industry to meet we believe that our significant and proactive investments across our U.S. ethylene oxide facilities have positioned Sterigenics to be able to comply with the FDA standards within the time frame specified by the final rule. We do not believe a material amount of additional capital expenditures beyond our current plans will be required to meet the finalized regulations. Despite these challenges, let us not forget our mission: Safeguarding Global Health. We help to ensure the safety of health care and protect the lives of millions around the world. One example of this is the role that Nordion plays in the treatment of brain cancer which is referenced in our earnings deck. We take our role in health care seriously, and our team is steadfast in our commitment to living out our mission day in and day out. Now Jon will take us through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Michael. I will begin by covering the first quarter 2024 highlights on a consolidated basis and then provide some details on each of the business segments, along with updates on capital deployment and leverage. I will then conclude with additional details on our 2024 outlook. On a consolidated total company basis, first quarter revenues increased by 12.5% as compared to the same period last year to $248 million. This equates to an 11.8% increase on a constant currency basis as we experienced a total company foreign currency tailwind of just under 1%. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 13.7% compared to the first quarter of 2023 to $112 million. Adjusted EBITDA margins were 45.1%, representing a 50 basis point increase from the first quarter of the prior year, the majority of which is explained by higher Nordion revenues versus unusually light revenue in Q1 2023. Our interest expense for the quarter was $42 million versus $29 million in Q1 of 2023. The increase in interest expense was driven by higher interest rates and having a full quarter of the $500 million term loan that was put in place during Q1 of 2023. Adjusted EPS was $0.13 per share, which was flat to the first quarter of 2023 as improved operating results were offset by increased interest expense. On a GAAP basis, net income for the first quarter of 2024 was $6 million or $0.02 per diluted share compared to net income of $3 million or $0.01 per diluted share in first quarter 2023. Now let's take a closer look at our segment performance. In the first quarter, Sterigenics delivered 4.1% revenue growth to $166 million. Revenue growth drivers for the quarter included favorable pricing of 4.9% and a favorable impact from foreign currency of nearly 1%, which was partially offset by unfavorable volume and mix of 1.6%. Segment income grew 3.6% to $86 million, driven by favorable pricing and changes in foreign exchange rates, partially offset by unfavorable volume and mix as well as inflation. Nordion's first quarter revenue increased 181% to $24 million compared to the same period last year, while segment income increased to $11 million. As a reminder, Nordion had an abnormally low first quarter in 2023. Increases in Nordion's revenue and segment income versus first quarter 2023 were driven by favorable volume and mix related to the timing of reactor harvest schedules. Nelson Labs' first quarter 2024 revenue increased by 10.8% to $58 million driven by favorable volume and mix as well as pricing. Segment income increased by 8.8% to $15 million, also driven by favorable volume mix as well as prices. Segment margin rates declined slightly versus Q1 of 2023 due to a shift in mix as we experienced strong growth in expert advisory services. Now I'll provide details on liquidity, net leverage and capital deployment. The company's liquidity position continues to remain strong. As of Q1 2024, we had over $660 million of available liquidity, which included more than $260 million of unrestricted cash and $400 million of available capacity under our revolving line of credit. We delivered positive operating cash flow in the quarter, although it was lower than normal, primarily due to the payout of the Georgia settlement. Capital expenditures for the first quarter 2024 totaled $35 million. As we have communicated previously, our capital expenditure priorities are focused on Sterigenics' capacity expansions and U.S. EO facility enhancements as well as Nordion's cobalt development programs, which are critical to the long-term growth of the company. Outside of the three current Sterigenics expansion programs, we do not expect material incremental capacity expansions in the near term for Sterigenics. Free cash flow was slightly negative in the quarter given the lower operating cash flow performance I previously mentioned. We do expect to generate positive free cash flow for the year. We finished the quarter with a net leverage ratio of 3.8x, within our target range of 2x to 4x. As Michael mentioned, based on the first quarter and what we see for the remainder of this year, we are reaffirming the outlook we provided in February 2024. To recap, for the full year 2024, we expect total revenues and adjusted EBITDA to grow in the range of 4% to 6%. As stated during our Q4 2023 earnings call, we expect to be at the lower end of our long-term stated price range of 3.5% to 5%. Full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA margin rates are assumed to be similar to last year. In Q2, we expect year-over-year margin rates to be down modestly as a result of a decline in Nelson Labs' margin rates due to the change in mix I mentioned earlier. We do expect Nelson segment income margin rates to improve sequentially throughout the year with full year margin rates approaching 30%. From a cadence perspective, we expect slightly less than 45% of full year total company adjusted EBITDA to occur in the first half of the year. In Sterigenics we still anticipate slight volume and mix recovery beginning in the second half of 2024. At Nordion, we continue to expect the year to be more balanced than last year with approximately 35% of revenues to occur in the first half of the year. Also, we now see Russian cobalt supply risk to be between 0% and 1.5% of total company full year revenue. For Nelson Labs, we expect volume and mix to be relatively flat on a year-over-year basis for the remainder of the year. We expect core testing volumes to improve while we lap some large projects in expert advisory services, which supports our expectation for sequential margin improvement. We continue to expect interest expense between $170 million and $180 million and effective tax rate, our adjusted net income in the range of 31.5% to 34.5%. Adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $0.67 to $0.75. A fully diluted share count in the range of 283 million to 285 million shares on a weighted average basis. Capital expenditures in the range of $205 million to $225 million. As previously communicated, we expect CapEx to step down in '25 and '26, resulting in an acceleration of free cash flow generation. This is a high priority for the company. Our guidance does not assume any M&A, and we still anticipate net leverage to improve during the year. I'll now turn the call back over to Michael.

Thank you, Jon. As we wrap-up our prepared remarks, I want to reemphasize that Sotera Health remains well positioned for growth throughout 2024. Our global network of 63 facilities provides our customers with excellent service day in and day out, and this team is proud of the critical role the company plays in the health care community. At this point, let's open the call up for questions and answers.

Michael, maybe just on the overall backdrop here, can you talk about what you're seeing on the volume side? I know that the volume headwinds have been lingering a little bit in the past few quarters. It seems like Nelson Labs, maybe you saw a little bit of an improvement. Sterigenics, maybe it's lingering a little bit. Can you just talk to what you're seeing and then the expectations and what you're hearing kind of real-time as we work our way into Q2 and Q3 here?

Patrick, as we look at the business, it's pretty much consistent with what we stated on our last call. We expect a slight improvement as the year progresses. We are not seeing things get worse in neither Nelson or Sterigenics. On the Nelson side, we called out that we continue to do very well in our Expert Advisory Services business. One of our business units, RCA continues to perform very well, which has negative mix attributes but is really helping quite a bit customers that are having challenges with regulators. That's where they're brought in, and they're doing a really good job in executing on that. We're seeing stabilization on the Nelson volumes. We expect that to improve over time with some of the RCA projects starting to slow down because of their non-repeat nature. And that’s one of the things we called out in our prepared remarks. On the Sterigenics side, it’s been relatively stable with some slight improvements, and we'll continue to monitor that. We feel confident in our guidance for the rest of the year and the outlook. But it's not getting materially worse. There are some categories sequentially, such as bioprocessing and lab ware, those have improved sequentially but are still significantly down over the prior year. General Hospital has been the key area; we've seen an improvement in that as inventory has started to stabilize, and our customers' burn rate is also stabilizing. So overall, we feel good about where we've put the guidance out for the rest of the year with slight improvements as the year progresses.

That's helpful. And then maybe just on the litigation side, obviously, our California piece picked up about a month ago or so. Can you just talk about generally how you're thinking about that? Just trying to put some trends post around the expectations. I'm sure timing is uncertain, and these things take a long time, as we all know. But any way to just frame this piece up so we can think about it a little cleaner?

Yes, Patrick, as we stated in the prepared remarks, we've got FAQs out there. There's a lot of information trying to be responsive to the questions that come in. It's very early in the game. There have been two suits filed, about 18 claims in total, similar in nature to what we've seen in other jurisdictions but these ones are specifically related to Vernon. I just want to call your attention to some remarks that we've made that regulators have been monitoring emission levels in their background levels, which means they're equivalent to what other areas that do not have sterilization facilities around it. We continue to perform very well in that facility. We play a critical role. We sterilize over 45 million products a year. That's a really critical role in health care, and we continue to focus on that. Our lawyers will work through the litigation aspect of it. But that's all we know at this point in time. It's very early in that discussion. We feel confident we will be able to put on a defense, as we showed in our second trial in Illinois, and will be victorious.

Maybe just on the final NESHAP requirements. I guess with the final rules out now, were there any meaningful changes in the final versus what was proposed initially? And then, if you could just kind of give us an update on how far along you all are in completing those facility enhancements. How much time is still left there? And how much do you have left to spend to complete all that?

Yes. Thanks, Sean, for the question. As we stated this year, we would expect to spend close to $40 million this year on the facility enhancements. There will be a tail into 2025 that will come down in 2025, but we should be finishing up next year. I'm really pleased with what the team has done in this area. Our leadership here has clearly been demonstrated. You'll see that play out over the next several months and the next couple of years. These are very challenging rules, and I don't want to understate that. The industry is going to face some big challenges, but I feel really good, and the team does as well. In fact, Jon and I just had a deep dive with the team earlier in the week on the progress we're making. Most of the facilities in the U.S. have either been completed or have a significant portion of the necessary work in process already. Some of them, Sean, as I've stated in previous calls, remember, we like to go fast, but some regulators do not prioritize this work, and they're holding up permits. But we feel good about our current position. The challenges are significant, but we feel confident in the investments we've made and do not see a material increase in incremental capital expenditures to comply with these final rules that have been published.

You mentioned that with your guidance, you're expecting revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in the range of 4% to 6%. Could you provide more clarity on how this will play out across your main segments? Especially looking at Sterigenics and Nelson Labs?

Yes. Patrick, we still see Sterigenics as a growth engine for us. We expect to see slight improvement on the volume side as we move through the year. For Nelson Labs, while we expect steady performance, the shift in our business mix is likely to impact margins slightly. However, we remain optimistic about overall growth driven by our advisory services. Both segments will contribute positively towards meeting our revenue and EBITDA expectations for 2024.

I think, Sean, there's probably some modeling that we need to look at offline. I'm having a little trouble keeping track of all your numbers. There's nothing really concerning here for us. We've got normal merit increases coming in. We've got some variable compensation coming in, but nothing huge that I would call out for you.

I appreciate the questions today. As we look toward the remainder of the year, while we expect some headwinds, we feel confident in the strategic direction of our company and our capabilities to navigate through these challenges effectively. Thank you for your engagement and continued support.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. The floor is back to you for any closing remarks.

Okay. We thank everybody for taking the time this morning to join our call. We look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming investor conferences. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Jason. Thank you, and have a good day. Bye-bye.