Stevanato Group - Earnings Call - Q3 2021

Transcript

Speaker 0

Hello, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Stevanato Third Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Simona, and I'll be coordinating your call today. With that, I have the pleasure of handing over to Head of Investor Relations at Devenato, Lisa Miles. Please go ahead, Lisa.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me today is Franco Devenato, Executive Chairman Franco Mauro, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer and Marco De Lago, Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that a number of statements being made today will be forward looking in nature. Please remember that such statements are only predictions. Actual events and results may differ materially as a result of risks we face, including those discussed in our registration statement on Form F-one, which was filed with the SEC on 07/16/2021.

We encourage you to review the information contained in our earnings release today in conjunction with our associated SEC filings and F-one. The company does not assume any obligation to revise or update these forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Today's presentation may contain non GAAP financial information. Management uses this information in its internal analyses of results and believes this information may be informative to investors in gauging the quality of our financial performance, identifying trends in our results, and providing meaningful period to period comparisons. For a reconciliation of the non GAAP measures presented in this document, please see the company's most recent quarterly earnings press release.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Franco Stefonado for opening remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Lisa. We are

Speaker 3

pleased with another successful quarter. Our strong financial results reinforce the solid fundamental of our business, the long term demand and our leading position in growth market. We remain focused on delivering an integrated end to end product portfolio supported by our scientific analytical process and service, all of which are designed to match the rising need of our customers across the entire drug lifecycle from preclinical to commercialization. We continue to make progress toward growing our industrial footprint to meet the demand for our high value solution as a customer move up the value chain invest in research and development to maintain accelerate our market leading position to increase the pipeline of our proprietary solution like ALBA, Nexa and our drug delivery system expanding geographically U. S.

And China and building a multiyear pipeline of opportunity heavily weighted in the growing biologic market. We are investing in the business to deliver sustainable organic growth that we believe will drive increased shareholder value. Before I hand the call over to Franco, I want to thank you all our employees for their extraordinary effort over the last eighteen months. Their remarkable work during a global pandemic helped ensure business continuity, support our customers and grow our business. So in the third quarter, we award a €6,700,000 discretionary bonus to employees as a thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Franco. Our third quarter featured over delivery on the top line, thanks to strong sales for both segments and better than expected results from the engineering segment. This gives us confidence to raise our full year revenue guidance for 2021 and the bottom end of the ranges for adjusted diluted EPS and adjusted EBITDA. For the third quarter, we had a strong order intake of €310,000,000 and a backlog of committed orders totaling €834,000,000 We believe that the strength of our results and robust backlog are indicative of favorable customer demand and the growing markets in which we operate. The positive momentum in new order intake and backlog set the stage for fiscal twenty twenty two and beyond.

An important pillar to our long term strategic plan is responding to rising demand for our high value solutions. In the third quarter, high value solutions represented approximately 23% of total company revenue. Based on high visibility of our backlog, we expect an increased revenue from high value solution in the fourth quarter. The trajectory for our high value solution is unchanged from the 2021 forecast we previously provided. We still expect that they will contribute approximately $2.00 €5,000,000 to €210,000,000 for the full year 2021.

Let's turn our attention to strategic investments and capacity building. The extension of our footprint in The United States marks an important step in boosting our presence in one of the fastest growing markets. We broke ground in Indiana and we are recruiting, hiring and training for key managerial position. We expect that construction will last approximately eighteen months, followed by start up and validation in 2023, with the revenue generation sometime between late twenty twenty three and early twenty twenty four. The plant is designed to expand production for our adhesive pressurized buyers and syringes.

This meets the stringent quality and performance requirements needed for biologics and high value treatments. This product offers significant benefits to customers by reducing time to market, lowering risk and most importantly, reducing the overall total cost of ownership. The Indiana EZ Field Hub strengthens our presence in this important region where we expect to support customers from design and development through commercialization. The new facility will also house our North American engineering after sales support services. This helps to our existing manufacturing facility in California and our Boston based technology external center that provides vital scientific analytical support to customers.

At the same time, we are expanding our production facilities in Italy. Thanks to our current efforts that started in 2016, we have been able to meet increased demand and drive double digit revenue growth. We recently operationalized two new lines tied to high value solution in our Italian facility. The first is dedicated to easy fill syringes and the second to premium easy fill vials. As we approach twenty twenty two, we are striving to maximize production of high value products through continuing expansion and optimization of our industrial footprint.

Construction is well underway on a new building in Italy, where we are heading a new blast forming lines to boost the easy fill capacity. This includes the planned addition of two new lines devoted to easy fill syringes and one dedicated line for premium analog syringes. These efforts aim to meet the increasing global demand for premium products. We expect that this will have significantly boost production output and bridge capacity demands while The U. S.

And China projects are underway. Our ongoing investment will let us benefit from sector demand trends as customers bring new treatment to market that require products which are further up the value chain. Our integrated end to end solution coupled with our high growth, high value solution are important elements to creating and driving shareholder value. During the last couple of months, there has been much discussion of constraints on global supply chains. To date, we have not experienced a significant supply chain issues, but we have taken precautionary steps to increase the amount of raw materials on hand, and in some cases, we are keeping more inventory available.

In the short term, logistical costs have created some temporary pressure on our cost structure, which has been partially offset by recent operational efficiencies. Dealing with the rising input cost is a near term challenge that we are managing carefully. When contracts with customers are negotiated individually, in general, our long term contracts include the cost escalation clauses that allow us to pass on certain cost increases. This is done regularly and we adjust our pricing accordingly. The reality is that no one is immune to these pressures and this creates an environment where price increases are largely affected by our customers.

We are actively monitoring the situation and we will continue to manage our operation diligently in this dynamic environment. While the pandemic continues to dominate headlines, COVID remains a tailwind to our business. We are currently working with customers as they consider a future transition to single dose vaccine formats. We can support any model of distribution, whether it is a single dose vial or syringe. In fact, today we are already supplying single dose syringes for COVID vaccines in addition to a range of multi dose buyers around the world.

Recent use of a peer to treat COVID at the first onset of symptoms is a welcome development. We know that prevention and care are the hallmarks of a good healthcare system and keeping people healthy. We believe that COVID vaccine and oral treatment will play complementary roles in managing the pandemic. The relationship will be comparable to that of flu vaccine and Tamiflu. The key takeaway according to most health experts is that the pill is expected to supplement not to replace the current COVID vaccination effort.

Even without contribution from COVID, we achieved robust double digit growth in the third quarter. We believe that our existing foothold coupled with our successful track record in supporting vaccine rollout keep us squarely positioned to remain a top player in the overall vaccine market. In summary, our third quarter was highlighted by strong sales, solid order intake and robust backlog and continued progress of our investment, innovation and capacity expansion plans. We operate in growing markets and we will continue to meet the demand expectation of our clients. With another good quarter of financial operating results behind us, we are pleased with the trajectory of our business and the foundation for the future.

I will hand the call over to Marco to discuss our third quarter results in more detail.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Franco. We are pleased with delivering solid third quarter results and raising our revenue guidance for the year. For the third quarter, revenue increased 37% to $214,500,000 driven by strong growth in both segments. As a leading player in machine, we are proud to support the fight against COVID. As expected, approximately 16% of consolidated revenue in the third quarter was linked to this ongoing tailwind.

The solid fundamental of our business and the robust demand for our core products helped us deliver 25% year over year growth excluding COVID. For the third quarter, revenue from iDelu solution grew 29% on absolute basis and represented approximately 23% of consolidated revenue. This was lower by one percentage point compared to the prior year period due in part to total company revenue increasing more rapidly than anticipated. As Franco noted, we currently expect revenue to increase from iValue solution and an improved mix. While we may experience normal quarterly fluctuation in mix, we still believe that our long term growth trajectory of double digit organic growth, the shift to a value solution and expanding EBITDA margin remains the same.

Total company gross profit increased 34% to €63,300,000 despite higher sales from engineering segment, which has a lower margin. As a result, profit margin was 29.5%. Employee recognition reward is an important part of the Stevanato culture and we awarded a €6,700,000 discretionary out of cycle bonus to employees for their extraordinary effort. Employee recognition reward is an important part of the Stronato culture and we awarded a €6,700,000 discretionary out of cycle bonus to employees for their extraordinary effort. The bonus was already included in our full year guidance that we provided last quarter.

This was the primary reason for lower operating profit margin, diluted earnings per share and EBITDA margin in the quarter. This resulted in a net profit of EUR18.6 million or EUR0.07 diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis. As noted in a reconciliation table of this morning's press release and adjusting for certain items in the third quarter, adjusted operating profit margin was 17%. Adjusted net profit totaled €26,400,000 or $0.10 adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA margin was 24%. Moving on to segment results, starting from Biopharmaceutical and Diagnostic Solutions segment.

Third quarter revenue increased 31% to €172,800,000 compared to the prior year. Revenue growth was driven by a 29% increase in High Value Solutions and a 32% increase in other containment delivery solution over the same period last year. Third quarter gross profit margin of 31.2% was lower compared to prior year, mostly due to product mix. This segment is expected to benefit from an increased contribution in iBelu solutions in the fourth quarter. Operating profit margin of 18.1% in the third quarter was tempered by mix and the discretionary bonus.

For the third quarter, adjusted operating profit margin for the BPS segment was 21.3% compared to 21.2% last year. Moving to the Engineering segment, which delivered strong financial and operational results. For the third quarter, Engineering segment revenue derived from third party sales increased 67% to $41,800,000 compared to the third quarter of last year. This segment recorded strong sales from premium products in glass converting and visual inspection machines. Gross profit margin for the third quarter was 15.4 compared to 11.9% in the same period last year.

This also helped deliver operating profit margin of 7.1%. This includes the unfavorable impact of discretionary bonus For the third quarter, adjusted operating profit margin for the Engineering segment increased to 9% compared to 0.6% last year. Let's turn our attention to balance sheet and cash flow. Our balance sheet is stronger than ever, bolstered by our primary proceeds from the IPO. During the third quarter, we raised primary net proceeds from the IPO of approximately €380,000,000 As of September 30, we had a positive net financial position of €153,000,000 and cash and cash equivalent totaled $428,000,000 For the third quarter, net cash generated from operating activities was $17,900,000 and the vessel impacted by income tax payment of approximately 13,700,000.0 and increased working capital to sustain our growth.

The cash paid for capital expenditure totaled €28,600,000 during the quarter to support our expansion plan. This resulted in a negative free cash flow of 9,900,000 for the third quarter twenty twenty one. We currently expect to spend less on CapEx in fiscal year twenty twenty one than previously forecast. This is primarily related to timing and some of these will be realized in fiscal year twenty twenty two. Changes in our capital spending plans for 2021 are currently not expected to the impact our expansion plans, validation timing or commercialization of new lines.

In a nutshell, we believe that our cash, future generation cash from operating activities and availability on our existing debt facilities will be adequate to address future liquidity needs and capital allocation plan. Our capital allocation plan is a critical element to our long term growth strategy. We prudently manage capital with the primary aim of driving organic growth. Our top three priorities remain unchanged. First, investment in capacity expansion focused on growing our capacity in our iValue solution to satisfy market demand.

Second, we are investing in research and development to boost our competitive advantage to drive growth in our high value solution product set. And third, opportunistic M and A to broaden our offering, technical know how and international footprint. Following the quarter end, the company completed two transactions as we sharpen our focus on our long term strategic objectives. First, the company paid approximately EUR7 million to purchase the remaining 35% minority net interest in Denmark based SVM automatic, which specialize in assembly and packaging machines and serialization to the pharmaceutical and corporate manufacturing industries. SVM has played a meaningful role in broadening our effort in specialized assembly and packaging.

Second, the company entered in an agreement to sell its remaining minority interest in Swiss Filon, a provider of fill and finish services to the pharmaceutical and contract manufacturing industries for a net gain of approximately EUR 12,300,000.0 or zero five earnings per diluted share. Our adjusted guidance excludes this gain on sale. We intend to invest the net proceed from the transactions to support our organic growth plans. And finally guidance, based on company's year to date financial results and the high level of visibility from backlog, we are increasing revenue guidance and raising the bottom end of ranges for adjusted earnings per shares and adjusted EBITDA. We now expect revenue in the range of €825,000,000 to €835,000,000 adjusted diluted earnings per share in the range of €0.45 to €0.47 adjusted EBITDA in the range of €214,000,000 to $217,000,000 And with that, let's open it up for questions.

Operator?

Speaker 0

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Call. Our first question today comes from Paul Knight of KeyBanc. Paul, your line is open.

Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, Franco. Could you talk about the Italy expansion? It seems like these line expansions come online relatively quickly?

Speaker 3

Is it due to this

Speaker 5

increased backlog? If you could talk about those expansions.

Speaker 2

Yes. Nice to hear you again, Paul. Yes, we are bridging the capacity expansion waiting for the availability of plants in US and China. But this is something that we started with the program in the recent years and now we are progressing according to our plan. We are meeting the demand of our customer, and this expansion will allow us to keep continuing meeting the demand.

We are in line with our program.

Speaker 5

And Marco, this out of cycle bonus, has this occurred in prior years?

Speaker 4

No. We anticipated in our guidance last quarter, but it is a discretionary out of cycle bonus to recognize of deferred down from the employees in the last eighteen months.

Speaker 5

So it it wouldn't necessarily be something to build into a model for future years?

Speaker 4

No. We are treating as any many other positive items as a nonrecurring items that overall in the year are offsetting one another and that are neutral impacting the EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA level. But in the quarter, of course, we are somehow hitting the reported P and L. But we are pretty nice and no recurring items, so this is not hitting our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating profit.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Welcome.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Paul. Our next question comes from Patrick Donnelly of Citi. Patrick, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe one on the COVID front. Obviously, last week, had an approval that caused some noise in the space, certainly, in terms of the durability of the COVID tailwinds and some people's expectations. So can you just talk through your visibility into not only 4Q but into 'twenty two on the COVID front, what your expectations are and if last week changed anything?

Speaker 2

Yes, sure. It's an important topic, Patrick. You know that we are linked to the majority of the player in the vaccine space, so we have a good visibility talking with them. We know very well that we are at the very beginning of boosters administration and there is a lot of people around the world that is waiting for the first shot of vaccine. We see the trend to move from a multi dose of buyers to single dose forms, but we are in good position because we can deliver any form of delivery for this administration.

But at the end, you can remember that the COVID is a tailwind for our business, but our business is independent from COVID. So we are focused to serve the customer according to their needs, but this our focus in expanding the high value solution that will drive the growth of the company. Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe just on the

Speaker 6

4Q guide, I think it's implying more kind of mid single digit growth. Was there anything onetime in 4Q last year that makes the comp a bit off? It's probably one for Marco. Just want to talk through again, what guidance, what conservatism levels in it? Then again, if the comp had anything weird to know?

Speaker 4

Yes. Last year, we had a nonrecurring item in the studio for about $2,300,000 sitting in the P and L, our G and A expenses, yes. It was related to an old acquisition we have done back in 2016. So we recorded as not recurring last year. And we put some specific color in our press release about that.

Speaker 1

Patrick, I just want to confirm that we've answered your question. I think there was a few that we may have missed.

Speaker 6

Yes. It was a little more on the revenue side in terms of did you guys see any I know engineering was strong in 4Q twenty twenty last year. Was there anything onetime in 4Q last year in

Speaker 3

terms of the revenue? Anything

Speaker 6

that got pushed into 4Q last year that would make the comp a bit harder on the revenue side for this 4Q?

Speaker 4

Not in the engineering part of the business. We recognized last year in q four, we had some, important revenues related to, digital diagnostic molding projects. So we recognize a big revenues in a project last year in Q4, but in BDS segment, not in engineering. That's okay. Thank you.

We consider it as a normal course of business.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Patrick. Our next question comes from John Kreger of William Blair. John, please proceed.

Speaker 2

Hey, guys. Good

Speaker 7

morning. At least good morning in Chicago where I am. Question for you. I believe in your slides, you talked about orders in the third quarter of about EUR $310,000,000. Can you just talk about how that compared to your expectations and what that tells you about the mix of the business in the coming year or two, either kind of COVID versus non COVID or high value solutions versus other?

Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes, a very interesting point. The driver for this increasing backlog is the strong demand that we see in the market. And this demand matches actually with our value proposition and with high value solutions that we bring to the customer. In terms of details of our financial, I can hand over part of the answer to Marco.

Speaker 4

Yes, you are right. We are keeping on increasing our backlog. We are at 34,000,000 at end the of the quarter. We have a very strong visibility on the fourth quarter. And as Franco was saying this a few minutes ago, we have a clear visibility on q four growing in iW solution.

So our trajectory in the medium term remains unchanged, and we are delivering according to our forecast. There could be some temporary mix effect in the quarter, but the trajectory in the medium term is definitely unchanged from our side.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you. And then a quick follow-up. In your prepared remarks, you mentioned supply chain pressures. Can you just elaborate a bit on that?

Where are you seeing pressure? Is it raw materials? Is it labor? Is it something else? Thank you.

Speaker 2

It's a very good topic. Like most companies, we're managing through the current condition. Our supply chain is robust because it's based to multiple supplier and different facilities around all the geographies. In the meantime, we consider the situation. We have taken precautionary steps, increasing the raw material on hand and keeping some more inventory.

There are not a specific topic that is under pressure. It's the overall situation that we are managing to continue to meet the customer demand.

Speaker 4

Okay. Yes. Just the temporary effect in Q3 beside the mix, we were hit by some logistic cost, but not in a relevant way, it's not material with respect to Stellanto Group overall numbers. But we had about €1,000,000,000 higher logistic cost than expected.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you, John. Our next question comes from David Windley of Jefferies. David, please proceed.

Speaker 8

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Good afternoon to you all. Following up on John's bookings backlog question, would you be able to break that down for us in terms of what coverage you have for the fourth quarter and then in 'twenty two and how much of the backlog stretches into 'twenty three?

Speaker 4

Thank you, David, for the question. Let's say we are covered for the bottom part of the revenue range for the year with the orders we have in our backlog for 2021 in Q4. And we can tell you that as a matter of fact, we have more than $600,000,000 for 2022 and beyond. So we are providing the guidance for 2022 in the next earning call, but we start from a good position for 2022.

Speaker 8

Got it. Thank you for that. I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks that that you were in fact already supplying some, I may have missed it, single dose or low dose format glass for COVID vaccines at this stage. Is that I understand your comments about around, you know, readiness and flexibility to basically do what clients want you to do. I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for whether single dose formats are being manufactured for commercial distribution, or is that still kind of development and validation work?

Can you can you help us with what stage of commercialization those volumes are going to?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you very much for this question. As you know that we are engaged with the majority of the players, so there are different approaches and each customer has a different strategy. But for sure, we are delivering both the kind of form, the balance with it and we are in validation phase of some time, but we have already started the commercial production for them.

Speaker 8

Both of And if I could if I could just tag on to that, are are those high value solutions where those clients are pulling those through for COVID vaccine? Is that high value or is that also a mix of of your products?

Speaker 2

We already stated that the mix of products in COVID businesses are representing more or less the same distribution that in in the standard business, let's say. So we don't see any big significant difference. Okay. Thank you. Welcome.

Speaker 0

Thank you, David. Our next question comes from Derek De Bruin of Bank of America. Your line is open, Derek. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, good day. Thank you for taking my call. Just we've gotten a lot of questions from investors on, obviously, the Pfizer commentary. And just wanting some clarity. Are the contracts that you have with customers take or pay contracts means they're obligated and to buy minimum volumes?

And I guess, is there any way for them to renegotiate those or change them should their sales projections change?

Speaker 2

Yes. That's very good question. As you know, that, each commercial agreement is negotiated individually, but in general, we embed that in this agreement also reduction, cancellation fee or minimum quantity. That is a case by case situation. We don't have a general arrangement that is suitable for every customer.

Speaker 5

Great. And then just one follow-up. On the Diagnostics products in the BDS segment, is there anything that's notable in terms of where you're involved in those products? Meaning, are you involved in any specific COVID diagnostics? Is there anything on the molecular side that is growing outside?

Just a little bit more color on what's involved in Diagnostics segment and how we should sort of think about that growth contribution in that business?

Speaker 2

Yes. The COVID impact in the Diagnostics space is controversial because we added some higher required form specific diagnostic, but at the meantime, the standard treatment suffered for the slowdown of activity in the hospital. So we don't see overall a net impact in a single direction in that area.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Derek. The next question comes from John Silbert of UBS. I

Speaker 2

was wondering just a little bit

Speaker 5

on the supply chain commentary. If you could talk a little bit on pricing? And what is your ability to maybe pass through some of the increased costs onto customers?

Speaker 2

Yes. That's also an important point. But as I mentioned before, the situation is negotiated individually, but in general, we invest in the agreement that closes for escalation of prices in case of increased cost for industrial cost like logistics, raw materials, utilities. We are monitoring carefully the evolution of cost of transfer and price accordingly.

Speaker 5

Got it. And as a follow-up, maybe can you talk just a little bit about the 3Q performance across the different regions in EU, U. S.

Speaker 2

And APAC? We don't disclose the precise figures in different geographies, but you can have a flavor because you know that U. S. Are very strong market for us.

Speaker 4

Yeah. We can experience some fluctuation quarter over quarter, but the trend remain unchanged. So we are growing very, very rapidly in Asia Pacific. We are growing the same in North America, even though in this quarter we slowed down a little bit. But all overall, those are the two markets where we expect to grow the most also based on the backlog we have in our hands.

All overall, we are growing in every and each area, South America, North America, Europe and especially in Asia Pacific as we were saying.

Speaker 2

Thanks for taking the questions. You're welcome.

Speaker 0

Thank you, John. We currently have no further questions registered. So this concludes the Sevenato third quarter earnings call. Thank you all for joining. We hope that you have a great rest of your day.

You may now disconnect your lines.