Cooper-Standard - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cooper-Standard second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the company's prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone to join the queue. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded, and the webcast will be available on the Cooper-Standard website for replay later today. I would now like to turn the call over to Roger Hendriksen, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Roger Hendriksen (Director of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Rocco. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for spending some time with us this morning. The members of our leadership team who will be speaking with you on the call this morning are Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jon Banas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I need to remind you that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. While they are made based on current factual information and certain assumptions and plans that management currently believes to be reasonable, these statements do involve risks and uncertainties.

For more information on forward-looking statements, we ask that you refer to slide 3 of this presentation and the company's statements included in periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This presentation also contains non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the presentation. With those formalities out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Edwards.

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Roger. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate the opportunity to review our second quarter results and provide an update on our business and outlook going forward. To begin, on slide 5, we provide some highlights or key indicators of how our operations performed in the second quarter. We've maintained our focus and dedication to delivering quality products and exceptional service to our customers and to keeping our employees safe in our workplaces around the world. In terms of product quality, 98% of our customer scorecards were green in the quarter. We also had 98% green scorecards for new program launches. We continue to achieve outstanding performance from our operations, delivering value to our customers. The safety performance of our plants continues to be outstanding.

During the second quarter and through the first six months of the year, we had a total incident rate of just 0.33 reportable incidents per 200,000 hours worked, well below the world-class benchmark of 0.57. Leading this outstanding safety performance were the 37 plants that have maintained a perfect safety record of zero reported incidents through the first six months of the year.

I want to recognize the teams at these plants for their ongoing commitment and leadership as we continue to strive for the ultimate safety goal of zero incidents for the company overall. I could not be more proud of our global team for their continued commitment and world-class achievements in this most important KPI. Market conditions and production volumes are improving, we're not letting up on our efforts and commitment to maximize operational efficiency and become as lean as possible.

During the second quarter, our manufacturing and purchasing teams delivered $16 million in savings through lean initiatives and improving efficiencies. We're also maintaining our focus on non-manufacturing fixed costs and keeping them as low as possible. When you consider SGA&E expense, we were pleased to see more than a full percentage point decline as a percentage of sale.

Finally, we're continuing to win new business awards, especially on electric vehicle programs. These wins are a result of our strong customer relationships and the value we provide through our advanced engineering and design capabilities, innovative technical solutions, and world-class service. In the second quarter, our customers awarded us $84.9 million in net new business awards, including $36.4 million on their upcoming electric vehicle platforms. We're very pleased to see our hard work drive meaningful improvement in our financial results. The combination of a leaner cost structure in our enhanced commercial agreements, leveraged across increasing production volumes, is powerful. I will now turn the call over to Jon to give you the financial details for the quarter.

Roger Hendriksen (Director of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. In the next few slides, I'll provide some details on our financial results for the quarter, discuss our cash flows, liquidity, and aspects of our balance sheet. On slide 7, we show a summary of our results for the second quarter of 2023, with comparisons to the same prior period last year. Second quarter 2023 sales were $723.7 million, an increase of 19.4% compared to the second quarter of 2022. The increase was driven by favorable volume and mix across all regions and our enhanced commercial agreements, primarily in Europe.

Jon Banas (EVP and CFO)

The positive volume and mix were partially offset by unfavorable foreign exchange. Gross profit for the second quarter was $77.7 million, or 10.7% of sales. This compares to a gross profit of only $15.4 million, or just 2.5% of sales in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA on the quarter was $47.9 million, compared to -$10.4 million in the second quarter of last year. The year-over-year improvement was driven primarily by favorable volume and mix, enhanced commercial agreements, and lean savings achieved in manufacturing and supply chain, all partially offset by ongoing inflation headwinds in areas such as energy and labor costs, as well as the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange.

During the second quarter, we made further progress in our commercial negotiations to recover inflation and establish sustainable pricing overall, are seeing the incremental positive impact on our results. Negotiations with certain customers are ongoing, the timing for concluding them remains open. Similar to last quarter, we did conclude some negotiations shortly after the end of the reporting period. As a result, we did not recognize the full pricing impact of these negotiations in Q2 as originally expected, we will see the retroactive benefit and our results when we report on the third quarter. As remaining negotiations are concluded successfully, we expect to see further improvements in top-line growth and margin expansion in the remaining quarters of the year.

On a U.S. GAAP basis, net loss for the quarter was $27.8 million, compared to a net loss of $33.2 million in the second quarter of 2022. The current quarter included $8.5 million in restructuring costs. Excluding the special items and the related tax impact from both periods, adjusted net loss for the second quarter of 2023 was $20 million, or $1.15 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net loss of $58.5 million, or $3.40 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2022. The year-over-year improvement resulted primarily from higher sales and improved gross profit, partially offset by higher interest expense.

Our capital expenditures in the second quarter totaled $17.5 million, or 2.4% of sales, compared to $12 million, or 2% of sales in the second quarter of last year. We continue to have discipline around capital investments, which remain primarily focused on customer launch readiness. We expect to keep our CapEx at around 3% of sales for the year as we committed in our full year guidance. In the first half of 2023, sales totaled $1.4 billion, an increase of $187.3 million, or 15.4% versus the first half of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was $60.4 million in the first half, compared to -$10 million in 2022.

This year-over-year increase of $70.6 million is a clear sign of our continuing progress. Adjusted net loss for the first half was $66.1 million, or $3.83 per share, compared to a net loss of $109.9 million, or $6.40 per share in the first half of 2022. CapEx in the first six months was $46.8 million, or 3.3% of sales, which again, is in line with our full year target of approximately 3% of sales. Moving to slide 8. The charts on slide 8 provide additional insights into some key factors impacting our results for the second quarter.

For revenue, favorable volume and mix, including net customer price adjustments, increased sales by $123 million versus the second quarter of 2022. Improving customer production volumes year-over-year were the biggest driver, with customer price adjustments in the quarter also benefiting the volume mix category. Net foreign exchange, mainly related to the Chinese renminbi and the Canadian dollar, reduced sales by a net $5 million versus the same period last year. For adjusted EBITDA, volume, mix, and net price adjustments drove a combined $55 million of improvement for the quarter. Lean initiatives in purchasing and manufacturing efficiencies contributed $16 million year-over-year, and material cost improvements were a benefit of $9 million in the quarter. These positive contributors were partially offset by certain ongoing headwinds in the quarter.

General inflation, including energy, salaries, wages, and transportation and other costs, reduced adjusted EBITDA by $15 million in the quarter. The impact of foreign exchange was $6 million, primarily related to the Mexican peso, Canadian dollar, and Polish złoty. Moving to slide 9. Looking at the analysis for the first half of the year, for sales, favorable volume, mix, and net price adjustments added $209 million versus the same period last year, while foreign exchange was an offset of $21 million. For adjusted EBITDA, favorable volume, mix, and net price adjustments added $95 million compared to last year. Manufacturing and purchasing efficiencies added $24 million, material economics were a favorable $5 million.

These positive factors were partially offset by $33 million of general inflationary headwinds for items such as labor, utilities, and transportation costs, $14 million of foreign exchange, and $6 million in various other impacts. Moving to slide 10. Looking at cash flow and liquidity, cash used in operations was approximately $13 million in the second quarter of 2023, which reflected semiannual cash interest payments made in June, the payout of prior year compensation-related accruals, and other changes in working capital, all which offset improved operating income. As mentioned earlier, CapEx was approximately $17 million in the second quarter, primarily reflecting the timing of program launch activity. Free cash flow was an outflow of approximately $31 million in the quarter. With this free cash result, we ended June with a cash balance of approximately $73 million.

Our revolving credit facility was undrawn at quarter end. With $157 million of availability on our ABL and cash on the balance sheet, we had solid total liquidity of approximately $230 million as of June 30th. We believe that the cash balance at the end of the quarter was likely the low point for the year based on seasonality, increasing sales volume, and the timing of payments from our customers. We do expect stronger cash flow in the second half of the year, and it's important to note that during July, our cash balance had already significantly improved from June 30th.

Based on our current outlook and expectations for light vehicle production, improving operating efficiencies, and subject to the successful completion of, and the further benefit from enhanced commercial agreements from our customers, we believe that we'll be cash flow positive in the second half and for the full year. Further, we believe our current cash on hand, expected cash generation, and access to flexible credit facilities will provide sufficient resources to support our ongoing operations. That concludes my comments. Let me hand it back over to Jeff.

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Jon. Over the next few minutes, I'll provide you with a status update on our continuing commercial negotiations and other strategic initiatives we're executing to drive increasing value in the near term and in the years ahead. I'll conclude with a few comments on our outlook for the remainder of the year, including our full year guidance. Please turn to slide 12. We're continuing to work with all of our customers to recover incremental costs related to inflationary pressures and establish sustainable pricing that will enhance quality of earnings and value creation over the long term. Last year, our commercial priority was to reduce and limit our risk exposure from commodity and material costs globally.

Having successfully concluded those negotiations early this year, our focus is now on achieving fair and sustainable pricing that accounts for current input costs, market dynamics, as well as the value we deliver for our customers. We prioritized our European business first to address negative margins and unsustainable cash flow. Most of our customers have been supportive. We've successfully concluded negotiations with the majority of them. You saw the positive impact in our European segment results for the quarter. Commercial negotiations with customers in other regions are progressing. As Jon already mentioned, we expect to conclude more negotiations in the third quarter. We're also advancing our commercial efforts to improve cash flow. Our progress to date includes implementation of more favorable payment terms on trade receivables and customer-owned tooling, as well as supplier-funded tooling.

We expect these changes will have a meaningful, positive impact on our cash flow going forward. Turning to Slide 13. Concurrent with our commercial initiatives, we are continuing to optimize our operating footprint and business portfolio to accelerate value creation and improve profitability. We believe there are still opportunities to further improve our cost structure by directing more of our new business to advantage production facilities over time and reducing our exposure to high-cost labor markets. We will also consider divesting non-core businesses that don't meet our strategic minimum rates for margins, ROI, or future growth, similar to what we have done before. Our commitment to either fixing or exiting underperforming businesses remain a central part of our strategy to restore our margins and returns on invested capital to double-digit levels. Turning to Slide 14.

Another element of our strategy is to leverage our Fortrex technology and portfolio of products to extend our competitive advantage in automotive businesses and expand our business profitability through diverse market applications. In automotive applications, we're now able to go to market with MicroDense Fortrex, which provides even further weight reduction and lower carbon footprint while providing superior performance in sealing systems. In addition, we expect to begin the rollout and installation of equipment to optimize Fortrex production early next year. The manufacturing process improvements will give Fortrex further competitive advantage over traditional materials, and we expect it will drive further market penetration with our automotive customers. Beyond automotive markets, we're pleased to report that a new high-end line of running shoes with a Fortrex foam midsole is finally available for sale in stores and online.

Our footwear customer remains pleased with the new technology, and they have praised the new line of shoes publicly. Ultimately, consumers will determine the future demand and production levels of the shoes, and we're excited that consumers will now be able to try them out. Turning to Slide 15. To conclude our presentation this morning, let me reiterate that I am proud of our team's accomplishments in the first half of the year and pleased with the progress we've made in improving the profitability of our company. We are in a far better position than we were a year ago, but we are still a long way from our objective, with much more room for improvement.

We believe we are in the early stage of margin inflection, as all of our cost improvement efforts and enhanced commercial agreements come together with continued higher industry production volumes over the next few quarters. If current production forecasts and schedules hold up, we expect our full year results to be within the ranges we provided in our original guidance. If actual production levels continue to exceed expectations, as they did in Q2, there could be some upside to our ranges and outlook. We are not predicting that at this time, given that there could also be risks to the downside due to any number of factors, including the timing for closing or implementing any achieved commercial agreements, the possibility of extended OEM labor negotiations or other market disruptions. I want to thank our customers for their continued trust, confidence, and support.

We remain committed to supporting them with existing and exciting innovations, world-class design and engineering services, and as always, flawless program launches and quality products. This concludes our prepared comments. Let's open the call for Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then one on your telephone to join the queue, and star then two on your telephone to remove your name. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before entering your request. One moment, please, as we assemble the queue for questions. Today's first question comes from Michael Ward with Benchmark. Please go ahead.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. A couple of things. You, you, you talked about the commercial agreements, and it sounds like there are two parts to it. There's the retro benefit, and then there's the new pricings that you have specifically, and I think all of the suppliers are dealing with the retro, then there's pricing, and it sounds like you've prioritized different regionally. Is that what we're looking at?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. Good morning, Mike. This is Jeff. Clearly, our, our priority as we started the year was to get Europe to a cash flow position that, that wasn't burning cash at the rate that we were talking about, right? If you remember, we said that if we didn't get that fixed, we would burn $90 million between this year and next year in Europe. That's why it was a priority, and we've gotten it fixed, and you can see that in our numbers. A few more negotiations will take place here the rest of the year, but for the most part, everybody is, has done a really good job in, in Europe.

You know about the indexing that we exercised and executed during the first half of the year with all of our customers. That's basically done everywhere, and that addresses the material volatility that we've experienced in the, in the past. Finally was the, what we called sustainable pricing going forward. You know, in years past, I think some suppliers, including this one, would accept lump sum payments to try to bridge a short-term gap regarding inflation. Obviously, with three straight years of you could call record inflation across the board, that was no longer acceptable. We set out to put a negotiation in place virtually with every customer in the world to address pricing going forward, and that's the bucket we refer to as sustainable pricing.

What I would tell you is, by the end of the third quarter, Mike, that should basically all be completed for the most part, and the retros will be accounted for accordingly. When you look at our results at the end of the third quarter, I'm quite sure that it'll be a much easier thing for me to talk about, and a much easier thing for, for you to see from an accounting point of view. I would just encourage everybody to wait for for those results, and I think you'll see much of what you saw here in the second quarter.

Everything should be much clearer as it relates to how much pricing we've gotten here in 2023. Then for us, more importantly, is or at least equally important, I guess, is what is going to carry over into 2024. Hopefully, that was an explanation that answered all of your questions.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Perfect. Yep. Then, you know, you've been talking for several quarters, you know, that gotta be great if we got industry volume back, and we're starting to get closer to more normalized levels. We've seen this positive impact. I think, Jon, in your chart there, you had, like, a $95 million delta in the first half, and we're still 10% or 15% below more normalized levels. Is that the type of magnitude we can look at as far as delta as we go forward, get up to more normalized levels, you know, as far as impact, or is that the first chunk of it, and then maybe it, it cools down a little bit?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

This is Jeff. Mike, I think that, you know, as we all have tried to predict volumes over the last couple of years, we find that that's been less than accurate, I guess. What I'm very encouraged about now is that we have reached a point where the volumes are predictable. We're starting to see a slight increase in those volumes here in 2023. Based on what our customers are saying about the next couple of years, we would expect that the volumes will continue to increase over that period of time.

We're all encouraged by that. I think we need to see a quarter or two of it, and we're hopeful that it'll become a lot clearer as we get to the end of this year. As we roll out guidance for 2024, as we always do in January or February, that we'll be able to predict your question. I'm confident that we'll be a whole lot better at doing that this year than any of us have been the last couple of years. That's what we're encouraged by, and I expect it to go up.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

In the 2025, 2026 time period, if we get back to more historical levels of production in North America, Europe, China. Well, China's there already, but North America, Europe, is that we can expect, you know, operating income or EBITDA income north of $300 million or getting close to those double-digit type margins that you're talking about?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, Mike, you know, what we believe is that we have done a great job reducing our fixed costs. Our company is, continuing to find other ways to take those costs down. As the volumes increase, we clearly expect to see that fall to the bottom line. As I've said publicly several times, we expect double-digit EBITDA, double-digit return on invested capital, to be back in our corner, over the next couple of years here as those volumes increase. Yes.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Just lastly, on page 14, as relates to Fortrex, there were two things that stood out. The first one with the sneakers. Congratulations on the finally getting on the market. Is the sneaker company APL? Is that the brand?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Sorry, Mike, I didn't I didn't hear your question. What was the specifics?

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Is the, as it relates to the shoes, the sneakers, is it APL? Is that the brand?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

No.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Can you tell us what the brand is, or are you still restricted?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

We're still restricted, but we're working on that.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay.

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

I bought a pair. I can tell you that.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Love to be able to find them. Then just lastly, you mentioned there are tire applications. I don't know if that may be the first time I've seen that. Is that going back to your old partner days with Cooper Tire, or what are you looking at with that?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. What we can tell you about the, the tire application is that a customer has asked us to work with a couple of the tire manufacturers to see if by utilizing Fortrex in the compound, that we can help address the, the friction component as they go forward and produce tires for EVs.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

That is a big issue related to battery life. We're working on some advanced projects there, so that's what that refers to.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay.

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

The other conversation that I had with you today regarding Fortrex was related to automotive sealing, and we're extremely excited about that. Today, we have, let's call it $50 million or so in Fortrex sealing already in the automotive industry. As we move forward and apply what I just discussed with you this morning, we see the revenue opportunity there somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million.

Tripling the amount of product that we have in the marketplace over the next couple of years, that's going to be engineered into product here, starting beginning of the year. We're really excited because that will help not only reduce weight, but it also addresses emissions as it relates to us producing that product for our customers. I think there's gonna be a big benefit for all of our customers around the world as we introduce that improved product, to each of them here in, January of 2024. Those, those are the two discussions regarding Fortrex.

Michael Ward (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, everyone.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star, then one. Once again, that is star and then one if you have a question. Today's next question comes from Brian DiRubbio with Baird. Please go ahead.

Brian DiRubbio (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Morning, gentlemen. A few questions for you. Maybe just starting off on Jon or Jeff, you know, not so small divestiture, you know, earlier this week. I'm guessing you're not going to disclose what that was, the proceeds on the call, but are there any other small divestiture opportunities that you see, that you can enact on over the next year or so?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah, I'll take that one since you're correct, we aren't gonna disclose the amount. This is Jeff. What we have always done is identify the non-strategic, so that's what this is. We've also addressed underperforming businesses in certain regions. We either get them fixed or they end up going someplace else. The answer, short answer is yes, there are still some that fall into that category. As we work our way through this year, we are hopeful that, that we're at the end of those, at least for the, the foreseeable future here. I think we've stabilized South America, as you've seen in the results.

We've stabilized Europe, as you've seen in the results, and we're hopeful that North America and China will regain the type of volumes that make them the leaders that we've always expected them to be in our business and in the industry. That's kind of where we are right now. I wouldn't expect to see many more as we head forward, at least for the next year.

Brian DiRubbio (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Understood. Appreciate that color there. Just on the commercial agreements that you're renegotiating, I just wanna make sure I, I got this correct. It's safe to assume that, you know, you received a number of catch-up payments in 2023, and, you know, the results in 2024 will will be absent those, and it'll just be then on the go forward, commercial arrangements you have?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

Yes, this is Jeff again. Just to be clear, the lump sum type of recoveries that, that we book in any particular year obviously don't carry forward. The sustainable price increases that I keep referring to, and the indexed contracts for the raw material that goes into the products, those two buckets will continue to create a sustainable and improving business for us, 2024 and beyond. That's why we've negotiated it that way. We reached a point where we couldn't deal with anything other than that. We've explained that to our customers.

They have been for the most part, extremely supportive of that. That's why I mentioned before, at the end of the third quarter, I think most of that will be clarified within our results. We will be able to explain the retro portion of it that hits in the third quarter. Then we're hopeful that, that things smooth out for the fourth quarter and for 2024, and it'll allow us to have a very intelligent conversation about it at the end of the third quarter. That's how I think it's gonna work out at this stage.

Brian DiRubbio (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Great. That clarity would be phenomenal. Just on the guidance, you know, you're seeing, you know, slightly better light vehicle production here in U.S., you know, and in Europe, just but you didn't change the guidance. It's just your effort to be conservative at this point in time?

Jeff Edwards (Chairman and CEO)

This is Jeff. Yes.

Brian DiRubbio (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Okay, fair enough. Then just finally, Jon, can you just remind me what the minimum liquidity is that you guys need to operate? Can't find that on my notes.

Jon Banas (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Brian, what we've talked about in the past is having $100 million-$125 million of minimum liquidity. When I, when I define that, I include cash on the balance sheet, as well as access to our ABL facility and other smaller revolving credit facilities around the world. That's how I would continue to look at it today. Nothing's really changed in that in that perspective.

Brian DiRubbio (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Excellent. Appreciate all the color, as always. Thank you.

Jon Banas (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Brian.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. It appears there are no more questions at this time, so I'd like to turn the call back over to Roger Hendriksen.

Roger Hendriksen (Director of Investor Relations)

Okay, thanks, everybody. We appreciate the engagement in the call today, and if there are other questions that you didn't ask this morning and would like to ask in a different environment, please feel free to reach out to me directly, and we'll have any discussion that you'd like. Thanks again for joining the call, and we appreciate your participation. That'll conclude our call this morning.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, sir.

Roger Hendriksen (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.