Universal Corp (UVV) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Universal Corp (NYSE: UVV) Q3 2023 earnings call dated Feb. 08, 2023

Corporate Participants:

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Johan C. Kroner — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Airton L. Hentschke — Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Analysts:

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Chris Reynolds — Neuberger Berman — Analyst

Bruce Monrad — Northeast Investors — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today’s Universal Corporation Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Megan, and I’ll be your moderator for today’s call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to pass the conference over to Candace Formacek, Vice President and Treasurer. Candace, please go ahead.

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

Thank you, Megan, and thank you all for joining us today. George Freeman, our Chairman, President and CEO; Airton Hentschke, our Chief Operating Officer; and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer are here with me today and will join me in answering questions after these brief remarks. This call is being webcast live, and will be available on our website, and on telephone taped replay. It will remain on our website through May 8, 2023. Other than a replay, we have not authorized and disclaim responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription of this call. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission.

Before I begin to discuss our results, I caution you that we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on our current knowledge, and some assumptions about the future, and are representative as of today only. Actual results could differ materially from projected or estimated results, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For information on some of the factors that can affect our estimates, I urge you to read our 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2022, as well as our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2022.

Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, customer-mandated timing of shipments, weather conditions, political and economic environment, government regulation and taxation, changes in exchange rates and interest rates, industry consolidation and evolution, and changes in market structure or resources. Finally, some of the information I have for you today is based on unaudited allocations and is subject to reclassifications. In an effort to provide useful information to investors, our comments today may include non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our current earnings press release.

We are extremely pleased with our results, driven by strong tobacco shipments in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in fiscal year 2022. Tobacco shipments are generally moving smoothly, and we are not seeing logistical constraints that we saw in the prior fiscal year. Our Ingredients Operations segment also continued to positively contribute to, and diversify our results in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022. There continues to be significant demand for leaf tobacco, with all types of leaf tobacco currently in an undersupplied position. Short burley tobacco crops in Africa, largely due to weather conditions have contributed to the lower leaf tobacco supply.

As of December 31, 2022, our uncommitted inventory levels stood at less than 7% of our tobacco inventory, an exceptionally low level. Although it is still early, we are forecasting larger crops in several key tobacco origins in fiscal year 2024.

In our Ingredients Operations segment, we recently have been experiencing some softening of demand for some of our ingredients products, which we believe is temporary, and largely due to customers adjusting their inventory levels. Some of our ingredients customers have been carrying higher inventory levels because of supply chain uncertainties. Increased costs, particularly selling, general and administrative expenses, including costs related to the expansion of sales and product development resources and deferred compensation costs from acquisitions reduced our results for our Ingredients Operations segment in the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2022.

We remain excited about the long-term outlook for our ingredients businesses, and continue to make significant capital investments to enhance and increase the capabilities of our plant-based ingredients platform. We are ahead of achieving some of the earlier identified operational synergies across the platform, and making considerable progress on our vision for the segment. As announced on February 1, 2023, we have appointed a new director with extensive experience in the ingredients and value-added supplier space, to our corporate Board of Directors, to assist us as we continue to promote and expand this business.

Turning to the results, net income for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, was $70.3 million or $2.82 per diluted share, compared with $60.8 million or $2.44 per diluted share for the nine months ended December 31, 2021. Excluding certain nonrecurring items detailed in today’s earnings release, net income and diluted earnings per share increased by $1.1 million and $0.04, respectively, for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, compared to the nine months ended December 31, 2021.

Adjusted operating income, also detailed in today’s earnings release, of $128.7 million increased by $12.2 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, compared to adjusted operating income of $116.5 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2021. Net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, was $41.7 million or $1.67 per diluted share, compared with $34.9 million or $1.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2021.

Excluding certain nonrecurring items detailed in today’s earnings release, net income and diluted earnings per share decreased by $3.1 million and $0.13, respectively, for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the quarter ended December 31, 2021. Adjusted operating income, also detailed in today’s earnings release, of $77.5 million, increased by $2.7 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, compared to adjusted operating income of $74.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022.

Consolidated revenues increased by $419.2 million to $1.9 billion for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same period in fiscal year 2022, on higher tobacco sales volumes and prices, as well as the addition of the business acquired in October 2021 in the Ingredients Operations segment. For the quarter ended December 31, 2022, consolidated revenues were $795 million, an increase of $142.4 million, compared to $652.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, on higher tobacco sales volumes and prices.

Turning to the segment detail, Tobacco Operations. Operating income for the Tobacco Operations segment increased by $13.4 million to $119 million and by $7.3 million to $77.1 million, respectively, for the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in the prior fiscal year. Tobacco Operations segment results improved primarily due to large shipments of both carryover, and current crop tobacco.

While sales volumes were higher in the Tobacco Operations segment in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in the prior fiscal year, margins were lower due to sales mix, and sales of tobaccos that were written down in prior quarters. Tobacco shipments from Brazil of both carryover and current crops, were up significantly in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in the previous fiscal year.

In Africa, despite some lower burley tobacco crop sizes, Tobacco sales volumes were up due to earlier shipment timing in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in fiscal year 2022. Results for our oriental tobacco joint venture were down in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in the prior fiscal year, on lower sales volumes and unfavorable foreign currency comparisons.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the Tobacco Operations segment were higher in the nine months ended December 31, 2022, compared to the nine months ended December 31, 2021, primarily due to unfavorable foreign currency comparisons, higher provisions to suppliers, and higher compensation costs.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2022, selling, general and administrative expenses for the Tobacco Operations segment were higher compared to the quarter ended December 31, 2021, largely due to higher compensation costs, and larger provisions to suppliers, in part due to lower crop yields, partially offset by favorable foreign exchange comparisons.

Moving to the Ingredients Operations, operating income for the Ingredients Operations segment was $9.9 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, compared to $10.6 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2021, as benefits from increased sales, better margins, and the inclusion of the October 2021 purchase of Shank’s Extracts, LLC, were offset by increased costs, mainly higher selling, general, and administrative expenses. Operating income for the segment was $0.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to $3.5 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, on lower sales, particularly lower sales of extracts and higher costs.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the segment increased in the nine months and quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in the prior fiscal year, largely on higher compensation costs, including final deferred compensation costs from acquisitions, as well as costs related to the expansion of sales and product development capabilities of our plant-based ingredients platform.

In Other Items, we successfully refinanced and expanded our bank credit facility in the quarter ended December 31, 2022, positioning us to meet our future financial needs. In line with our previous expectations, we also reduced our outstanding borrowings considerably in the three months ended December 31, 2022, as we moved beyond our peak working capital requirements for fiscal year 2023. Also, our fiscal year 2022 Sustainability Report was published in December 2022, and is available on our website, www.universalcorp.com. Sustainability is an essential pillar of our business at Universal. We are committed to disclosing our operational activities, as well as our sustainability performance, in a consistent and transparent manner. We are excited about our sustainability achievements, and the new and updated information and disclosures contained in our 2022 Sustainability Report.

At this time, we’re available to take your questions. Megan, I’ll turn it back to you.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Ann Gurkin with Davenport & Company. Your line is now open.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Thank you. Hi, everybody.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Hey.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

I want to start with the Ingredients segment, on the slowdown in sales, and I think, Candace, you just said it was mainly due to extracts, but I wanted to walk through the different segments, and see if anything else is going on, beginning with FruitSmart, is there any kind of slowdown in the end market for the use of those derivatives and beverages?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

No, Ann, really what we’re seeing in this year one, where we’re seeing it really is because the uncertainty during COVID and everything, a bunch of customers just had additional inventory that they’re just trying to sell off right now, and that’s where the slowdown is, and we believe it’s temporary.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay because it seems to me the end market for specialty ingredients is very strong, growing strong double digits. So is that — are you also seeing reduced inventory there? I thought the pull-through from that segment was very strong?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Again, depending on what products you’re talking about, you’re partially right, but in all the products, it’s down a little bit. But again, we truly believe that it’s temporary at this point in time. We saw it through the quarter. There’s a bit of an uptick, but we just have to see what the rest of the quarter will do and the rest of the year.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. How do I think about fiscal ’24 for the Ingredients business?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

That remains to be seen, Ann. But it looks really positive. We’re doing — we’re making some significant investments. We received quite a bit of upside. So, we’re really excited about that, but we’re incurring some additional costs as well, in order to get that all up to speed. So, it looks good. Margins are holding up nicely. We just have to see what the sales do throughout the year.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. And then, in terms of SG&A, for the whole company, I never knew how to think about that. It was about $70 million, slightly under that in this quarter. Do I take that and run that into fiscal ’24? Or how — some of that seemed to have some of these compensation expenses and maybe Shank’s payments, and different factors that maybe should flow out? I don’t know. How do I think about that number for fiscal ’24?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Well, as always, there’s lots of variables in there. Exchange rates, comp costs are certainly up, inflationary things that are going on. So, at the moment, we’re in the ballpark. We’re always looking for efficiencies and things we can do, but on the other hand, again, like I said before, on the Ingredients side we’re ramping up, some hiring and everything. So that will increase the amount of it, but right now, where we’re at, looks about right.

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

Ann? Are you…

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Did we lose you, Ann?

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

Did we lose you? Megan?

Operator

Hey. It does seem that Ann has muted her line?

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

Unmute, Ann. Is there another question, Megan? Maybe we can move along if she can get back in or dial back in, we can take an extra moment for her. If you have someone else, we can…

Operator

There are no further questions registered. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Chris Reynolds with Neuberger Berman. Your line is now open.

Chris Reynolds — Neuberger Berman — Analyst

Good afternoon and congratulations on the good quarter.

Johan C. Kroner — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Chris.

Chris Reynolds — Neuberger Berman — Analyst

I wanted to ask you just a general question about global tobacco consumption. And it seems like it continues to be pressured because of trends towards smoking less and then combustibles and then sort of general economic conditions being weak. That doesn’t appear to be showing up in your numbers though. And I’m just wondering if you can give some commentary about sort of how you view the tobacco segment. You’ve always been fairly conservative with your guidance for growth, but maybe if you could just give an update on how you view global industry consumption trends this year?

Airton L. Hentschke — Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, Chris, it’s different from market to market, of course. I mean, if you separate the U.S. and the Americans, of course, Europe and Asia, we see different dynamics in different markets. But overall, we still see a very positive consumption out there, which our major customers reported numbers. And we’re very positive about the combustible side. At the same time, as we all know, there are new products, these new generation products, whether it’s heat-not-burn and vaping products out there, but we remain positive about the consumption of combustible cigarettes.

Chris Reynolds — Neuberger Berman — Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

You’re welcome.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Reynolds. Our next question comes from the line of Bruce Monrad with Northeast Investors. Your line is now open.

Bruce Monrad — Northeast Investors — Analyst

Hi, everyone. Can you hear me okay?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Bruce Monrad — Northeast Investors — Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks for hosting the call. A question that you made a reference in the, I think, the script that there were some indications of crops for fiscal year ’24 were looking favorable. Can you add a little color on that, and then maybe staple on to that, what that might mean in terms of pricing? And I guess, I’m also asking what that would mean for your inventory levels going forward and sort of on a comparison basis because I think maybe part of the reason inventories are elevated is pricing. So, what’s the crop outlook if there’s any color to add on that and how does that fit in, please?

Airton L. Hentschke — Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Certainly, Bruce. What we are seeing in the key markets, especially where we operate, we see increased crop sizes there. And that’s positive because we play a important role in these key markets as well where we promote tobacco production with our farmer base out there. What we have seen in terms of costs, of course, these inflationary costs and fertilizer costs from — that it’s hitting this crop, we do see increase on tobacco prices, win prices to the farmer. And that is different, again, in every market. So — but we remain very positive about the demand, as you have seen there. Our uncommitted inventory is in our lowest level for many, many years. It’s about below 7% right now. We like to have some additional uncommitted inventory because we don’t want to lose any opportunity or any request that our customers have there.

So, looking into this 2023 crop cycle, we remain positive. In some areas, the crop sizes are confirmed. In some other areas, they’re still developing, like Africa. In some other areas, they have not been even started the growing process, so — but we remain positive about the increased crop sizes and so Universal is well positioned for that as well.

Bruce Monrad — Northeast Investors — Analyst

Great. And if I — maybe a little bit further, so big picture, stepping back, we’ve had a couple of years of transport issues and the like. And I think I’m right in saying that your customers, your end customers can have lots of inventory, long cycle and the likes. But would it be unfair to say that there’s sort of clear sailing here? And do you have an indication that they would want to make up for a couple of years’ worth of shipping problems and the like? So if there’s structural tailwind for you in terms of your customers wanting to rebuild inventories to where they might have been, would that be fair? Or how would you describe that?

Airton L. Hentschke — Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

We don’t see that, and each customer have its own policies on inventory on their durations. What we have seen is that cost of transport and logistics has come substantially down. And again, the demand seems to be strong, so I — we don’t see adjustments, big adjustments in their durations policy now.

Bruce Monrad — Northeast Investors — Analyst

Okay. All right. Thank you, again. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Monrad. Our next question is a follow-up from Ann Gurkin with Davenport & Company. Your line is now open.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Hi. I got cut off somehow. I apologize.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we were like, Ann?

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Hello. I don’t know if you all talked about the refinance bank credit facility, but have you fixed that rate? Or is that a variable floating rate on that new facility?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

We fixed some of it, Ann. Based on where the current rates are and not knowing where the Fed is going with this whole thing, we decided to fix some of it and just wait to see if we do more in the future. But…

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

Those details will be in the Q.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Correct. They will…

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

I saw that and I couldn’t tell how much. Sorry, I couldn’t read it fast enough to see how much was fixed in the Q.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, about 50% of the long term.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Yeah, to ask on it before that fixed rate, like, yeah, okay. So rates should go up, interest rate expense should go up in fiscal ’24, depending on what happens, but…

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, again, the rates are going up depending on working capital and all the borrowings that we require. We certainly had some of the old hedges were in place. We have some positive there that might offset it, but yeah, the rates are up, certainly, and [Indecipherable] certainly were up around the year, so…

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

And how should I think of the margin progression for the tobacco segment in fiscal ’24 versus fiscal ’23? Margin was a little bit less than I was looking for this quarter, I think, due to mix, maybe some carryover. You said you wrote down some tobacco. So, I’m not sure how to think about tobacco margin over the next, say, 12 to 18 months for this segment.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

It’s too early for that, Ann. Just Brazil just started and hopefully, that market remains where it is, and it doesn’t go into the situation where it was last year. But if we get the crops and everything, there certainly is a strong demand, as Airton pointed out. So, we believe it looks all positive, but again, it’s really early, the African crops are in the ground and we’ll have to see. Hopefully, weather will continue to cooperate there. And then in some areas, we don’t have it even in the ground yet. So, we’ll have to determine what volumes are out there and everything. And hopefully, we can do what we need to do and get the margins that we require. But yes, certainly, this year, we had some of the mix and some of those written down inventories that we moved in the last nine months.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. And then worldwide uncommitted inventory number, Candace?

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

And the worldwide unsold flue-cured and burley stocks are at $47 million at 12/31, which is down $2 million from the June rate level.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. And then, with your inventory, you were just saying your inventory level for Universal at 7%. That is low given that you usually keep a little reserve for customers. So, can you walk me through kind of the thought process behind that?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

It just wasn’t there, Ann. We fully agree with you. Airton just pointed out on one of the other questions that we prefer to have a little bit more because we certainly like to be able to offer tobacco to customers, and we have very little at the moment. And so, we’re trying to get the crops up where we can and it looks all positive, certainly, for the 2023 crop. But like I said, some of them are not even in the ground yet, but we’re certainly working on that. If the weather cooperates and all that, then we will certainly get some additional volume that we will buy because, again, demand is strong at the moment.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. And then capex plans for fiscal ’24, do you have any range for that?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

No, we’re giving the — for the next 12 months, we’re between $70 million and $80 million. And again, that’s because we’re looking at to make some significant investment in the ingredients platform to enhance the capabilities that we have.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. And then the synergy number for the ingredients platform, is that $20 million, am I remembering that correctly?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

No. We have not put out a synergy number. We’re talking about operational synergies there, where we’re going across the platform, hiring some R&D people and some sales folks, which, again, that’s where you have the addition to some of the SG&A cost. But we need to do that to be able to do all these things that we have in mind with the platform.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. So you haven’t put out a target number?

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

No, we have not.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Okay. Great. And then the last thing is I’m just bracing for a volatile year in the tobacco landscape for your customers with potential standards being set for reducing nicotine and maybe menthol ban later in the year and California as well banning the sale of menthol, smokable products went into effect beginning of ’23. I guess, how are you working with customers? How are you positioning Universal? And what is the transition to a heat-not-burn or smoke-free world and what could be a volatile combustible environment? I was just like an update kind of on your thoughts here on assets from time to time and I’m just curious.

Johan C. Kroner — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Well, Airton, you addressed the — our outlook on combustibles earlier, but just remind so Ann doesn’t have to relisten.

Airton L. Hentschke — Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, we remain positive about the combustible market overall. And of course, as stated in previous quarters that we operate also in the heat-not-burn market with our sheet operations there in Europe and our AmeriNic, the liquid nicotine, still continues to developing, but it’s not material for us today. But we do see opportunities for Universal in all these segments. What is also very strong there is on the cigar, the cigar business, and we do see increased demand for wrappers and binders for that segment of the market, which we are also working hard to increase production there, so — but we remain positive about this market.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

And in addition, just keep in mind, right, the U.S. is from a cigarette consumption standpoint, is less than 5% worldwide ex-China. So very important customer certainly here in the U.S. for us, but just keep that in mind when they are starting to talk about this and still what’s going to happen with regard to the legal lawsuits type of things, we just don’t have insight into that.

Ann Gurkin — Davenport & Company — Analyst

Great. Okay, that’s great. Thank you all for your time. I apologize for disconnecting.

George C. Freeman, III — Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

No problem. Thanks, Ann, for that.

Johan C. Kroner — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No problem. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you, Ms. Gurkin. There are currently no further questions registered. [Operator Instructions]

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

All right.

Operator

There are no additional questions waiting at this time. I do apologize.

Candace C. Formacek — Vice President and Treasurer

That’s okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to jump in on you. Just was going to say, thanks to the folks listening in, and we appreciate your time as usual. We look forward to talking to you next quarter. Bye-bye.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]