First Quarter 2019 Highlights
*For a reconciliation of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted Net Income to Net Income, as well as a reconciliation of Adjusted EPS, see note 2 below.
BERWYN, Pa — May 2, 2019 — Trinseo (NYSE: TSE), a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, today reported its first quarter 2019 financial results.
Net sales in the first quarter decreased 10% versus prior year. The pass through of lower raw material cost resulted in a 15% decrease in net sales. This impact was partially offset by higher sales volumes across all segments except Synthetic Rubber. First quarter net income of $36 million was $84 million lower than prior year and first quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $102 million was $93 million lower than prior year. These decreases were mainly due to lower margins in the Feedstocks, Performance Plastics and Latex Binders segments and lower equity affiliate income from Americas Styrenics. Overall, the results of the quarter were affected by macroeconomic dynamics in China as well as weakness in certain key markets such as automotive and tires. Net income was also impacted by approximately $9 million of higher pre-tax spending related to the transition of business services from The Dow Chemical Company.
Commenting on the Company’s performance, Frank Bozich, Trinseo President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “While improved versus the fourth quarter, our first quarter results were affected by continued weak automotive and tire markets and the weak economic environment in China. Despite this, we delivered very strong cash generation in the first quarter as a result of actions taken to reduce inventory levels.”
First Quarter Results and Commentary by Business Segment
First Quarter Cash Generation
Cash provided by operating activities for the first quarter was $153 million and capital expenditures were $25 million, resulting in Free Cash Flow for the quarter of $128 million. First quarter cash from operations and Free Cash Flow included approximately $105 million of lower working capital. The Company repurchased about 0.7 million shares in the first quarter for approximately $37 million. For a reconciliation of Free Cash Flow to cash provided by operating activities, see Note 3 below.
Outlook
Commenting on the outlook for 2019, Bozich said, “While we have seen signs of improved demand across some of our markets, the automotive and tire markets remain weak, as do many of the end markets in China into which we sell. Amid these conditions, we have initiated a number of working capital and cost initiatives to improve operating results. We are also evaluating strategic alternatives for our polycarbonate manufacturing facility in Stade, Germany due to significantly declining polycarbonate margins resulting from low demand and new capacity in China. This is the first action from our ongoing strategic review of our business portfolio. We are cautiously optimistic about better economic conditions in the second half of 2019 and we remain focused on cash generation and cost management.”
For a reconciliation of full year 2019 net income to Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS, see Note 2 below. Additionally, refer to the appendix within Exhibit 99.2 of our Form 8-K, dated May 2, 2019, for further details on how net timing impacts are defined and calculated for our segments.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Trinseo will host a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2019 financial results on Friday, May 3, 2019 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
Commenting on results will be Frank Bozich, President and Chief Executive Officer, Barry Niziolek, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and David Stasse, Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations. The conference call will be available by phone at:
Participant Toll-Free Dial-In Number: (833) 241-7248
Participant International Dial-In Number: +1 (647) 689-4212
Conference ID: 6287412
The Company will also offer a live Webcast of the conference call with question and answer session via the registration page of the Trinseo Investor Relations website.
Trinseo has posted its first quarter 2019 financial results on the Company’s Investor Relations website. The presentation slides will also be made available in the webcast player prior to the conference call. The Company will also furnish copies of the financial results press release and presentation slides to investors by means of a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A replay of the conference call and transcript will be archived on the Company’s Investor Relations website shortly following the conference call. The replay will be available until May 3, 2020.
TRINSEO S.A.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
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TRINSEO S.A.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
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TRINSEO S.A.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
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TRINSEO S.A.
Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Information
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Note 1: Net sales by Segment
* The results of this segment are comprised entirely of earnings from Americas Styrenics, our 50%-owned equity method investment. As such, we do not separately report net sales of Americas Styrenics within our condensed consolidated statements of operations.
Note 2: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Performance Measures to Net income
EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial performance measure that we refer to in making operating decisions because we believe it provides our management as well as our investors with meaningful information regarding the Company’s operational performance. We believe the use of EBITDA as a metric assists our board of directors, management and investors in comparing our operating performance on a consistent basis.
We also present Adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial performance measure, which we define as income from continuing operations before interest expense, net; income tax provision; depreciation and amortization expense; loss on extinguishment of long-term debt; asset impairment charges; gains or losses on the dispositions of businesses and assets; restructuring charges; acquisition related costs and other items. In doing so, we are providing management, investors, and credit rating agencies with an indicator of our ongoing performance and business trends, removing the impact of transactions and events that we would not consider a part of our core operations.
Lastly, we present Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS as additional performance measures. Adjusted Net Income is calculated as Adjusted EBITDA (defined beginning with net income, above), less interest expense, less the provision for income taxes and depreciation and amortization, tax affected for various discrete items, as appropriate. Adjusted EPS is calculated as Adjusted Net Income per weighted average diluted shares outstanding for a given period. We believe that Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS provide transparent and useful information to management, investors, analysts and other stakeholders in evaluating and assessing our operating results from period-to-period after removing the impact of certain transactions and activities that affect comparability and that are not considered part of our core operations.
There are limitations to using the financial performance measures noted above. These performance measures are not intended to represent net income or other measures of financial performance. As such, they should not be used as alternatives to net income as indicators of operating performance. Other companies in our industry may define these performance measures differently than we do. As a result, it may be difficult to use these or similarly-named financial measures that other companies may use, to compare the performance of those companies to our performance. We compensate for these limitations by providing reconciliations of these performance measures to our net income, which is determined in accordance with GAAP.
(a) Net gains on disposition of businesses and assets for the threee months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 relate to contingent consideration earned for the performance of our former latex business in Brazil, which we divested in 2016.
(b) Restructuring and other charges for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 primarily relate to decommissioning, contract termination, and employee termination benefit charges incurred in connection with the upgrade and replacement of our compounding facility in Terneuzen, The Netherlands as well as our decision to cease manufacturing activities at our latex binders manufacturing facility in Livorno, Italy. Note that the accelerated depreciation charges incurred in 2018 as part of the upgrade and replacement of the Company’s compounding facility in Terneuzen, The Netherlands are included within the “Depreciation and amortization” caption above, and therefore are not included as a separate adjustment within this caption.
(c) Acquisition transaction and integration costs for the three months ended March 31, 2018 relate to advisory and professional fees incurred in conjunction with the Company’s acquisition of API Plastics.
(d) Other items for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 primarily relate to advisory and professional fees incurred in conjunction with the Company’s initiative to transition business services from The Dow Chemical Company, including certain administrative services such as accounts payable, logistics, and IT services.
(e) Adjusted to remove the tax impact of the items noted in (a), (b), (c), (d), and (f). The income tax expense (benefit) related to these items was determined utilizing either (1) the estimated annual effective tax rate on our ordinary income based upon our forecasted ordinary income for the full year or, (2) for items treated discretely for tax purposes we utilized the applicable rates in the taxing jurisdictions in which these adjustments occurred. Additionally, the three months ended March 31, 2018 excludes a $0.5 million tax benefit recognized during the period related to provision to return adjustments.
(f) For the three months ended March 31, 2019, the amount excludes accelerated depreciation of $0.5 million related to the shortening of the useful life of certain information technology assets related to the transition of business services from The Dow Chemical Company (noted in (d) above). For the three months ended March 31, 2018, the amount excludes accelerated depreciation of $0.3 million related to the upgrade and replacement of the Company’s compounding facility in Terneuzen, The Netherlands.
For the same reasons discussed above, we are providing the following reconciliation of forecasted net income to forecasted Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS for the full year ended December 31, 2019. See “Note on Forward-Looking Statements” above for a discussion of the limitations of these forecasts.
(g) Reconciling items to Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income are not typically forecasted by the Company based on their nature as being primarily driven by transactions that are not part of the core operations of the business. As such, for the forecasted full year ended December 31, 2019, we have not included estimates for these items.
(h) Weighted average shares calculated for the purpose of forecasting Adjusted EPS do not forecast significant future share transactions or events, such as repurchases, significant share-based compensation award grants, and changes in the Company’s share price. These are all factors which could have a significant impact on the calculation of Adjusted EPS during actual future periods.
Note 3: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Liquidity Measures to Cash from Operations
The Company uses Free Cash Flow to evaluate and discuss its liquidity position and results. Free Cash Flow is defined as cash from operating activities, less capital expenditures. We believe that Free Cash Flow provides an indicator of the Company’s ongoing ability to generate cash through core operations, as it excludes the cash impacts of various financing transactions as well as cash flows from business combinations that are not considered organic in nature. We also believe that Free Cash Flow provides management and investors with a useful analytical indicator of our ability to service our indebtedness, pay dividends (when declared), and meet our ongoing cash obligations.
Free Cash Flow is not intended to represent cash flows from operations as defined by GAAP, and therefore, should not be used as an alternative for that measure. Other companies in our industry may define Free Cash Flow differently than we do. As a result, it may be difficult to use this or similarly-named financial measures that other companies may use, to compare the liquidity and cash generation of those companies to our own. The Company compensates for these limitations by providing the reconciliation below, which is determined in accordance with GAAP.
Free Cash Flow
About Trinseo
Trinseo (NYSE: TSE), a specialty material solutions provider, partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart, and sustainability-focused manner by combining its premier expertise, forward-looking innovations and best-in-class materials to unlock value for companies and consumers.
From design to manufacturing, Trinseo taps into decades of experience in diverse material solutions to address customers’ unique challenges in a wide range of industries, including consumer goods, mobility, building and construction, and medical.
Trinseo’s approximately 3,400 employees bring endless creativity to reimagining the possibilities with clients all over the world from the company’s locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Trinseo reported net sales of approximately $4.8 billion in 2021. Discover more by visiting www.trinseo.com and connecting with Trinseo on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and WeChat.
In addition to using standard measures of performance and liquidity that are recognized in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), we use additional measures of income excluding certain GAAP items (“non-GAAP measures”), such as Adjusted Net Income, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS and measures of liquidity excluding certain GAAP items, such as Free Cash Flow. We believe these measures are useful for investors and management in evaluating business trends and performance each period. These income measures are also used to manage our business and assess current period profitability, as well as to provide an appropriate basis to evaluate the effectiveness of our pricing strategies. Such measures are not recognized in accordance with GAAP and should not be viewed as an alternative to GAAP measures of performance or liquidity, as applicable. The definitions of each of these measures, further discussion of usefulness, and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures are provided in the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Information presented herein.
This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “see,” “tend,” “anticipate,” “target,” “outlook,” “guidance,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, without limitation, forecasts of performance, growth, net sales, business activity, and other matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such factors include, among others: conditions in the global economy and capital markets; the inability of the Company to execute on its business strategy; volatility in costs or disruption in the supply of the raw materials utilized for our products; loss of market share to other producers of chemical products; compliance with laws and regulations impacting our business; changes in laws and regulations applicable to our business; our inability to continue technological innovation and successful introduction of new products; system security risk issues that could disrupt our internal operations or information technology services; the loss of customers; the market price of the Company’s ordinary shares prevailing from time to time; the nature of other investment opportunities presented to the Company from time to time; and the Company’s cash flows from operations. Additional risks and uncertainties are set forth in the Company’s reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at https://www.sec.gov/ as well as the Company’s web site at https://www.trinseo.com. As a result of the foregoing considerations, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release and are not a guarantee of future performance. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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