LeMaitre Vascular, Inc.

Welcome to the Lemaitre Vascular Q1 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. J.J. Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer of Lemaitre Vascular. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Joanna. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our Q1 2021 Conference Call. With me on today's call are Chairman and CEO George Lemaitre and our President, Dave Roberts. Before we begin, I'll read our safe harbor statement. Today, we will make some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is subject to risks and uncertainties. Wherever possible, we will try to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as believe, expect, anticipate, pursue, forecast, and similar expressions. Our forward-looking statements are based on our estimates and assumptions as of today, April 29, 2021. and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates or views on any subsequent date. Please refer to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information and the risk factors in our most recent 10-K and subsequent SEC filings, including disclosure of the factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. During this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which include EBITDA and non-GAAP outstanding debt. A reconciliation of gaps and non-gap measures discussed in this column contained in the associated press release. It is available in the investor relations section of our website, www.lemaitre.com. I'll now turn the call over to George Lemaitre.

Thanks, JJ. On today's call, I'll cover four topics. Number one, COVID's impact on our employees and company. Number two, rebuilding our sales force. Number three, autographs results and other biologic updates. And finally, number four, our financial results. New COVID infections at LaMate have declined recently. To date, 36 of our employees have been infected, with 35 having recovered and one still recovering. We expect that the vaccination of our employees will prompt the return of more of our administrative personnel to the office. Massachusetts has one of the lowest vaccine hesitancy rates in the country, Perhaps this will mean a quicker return to normal for Lomate. Away from headquarters, the vaccines are also helping our sales reps gain greater hospital access. We estimate that 70% of our American sales force and 100% of our British sales force have received at least one vaccine shot. And now the European and Canadian vaccine efforts seem to be turning the corner. More vaccines for our sales reps likely means more sales calls and more sales. As things open up, we're simultaneously rebuilding our sales force. At March 31st, we had 86 sales reps, and we currently have 14 open rep hiring requisitions. Our field personnel report to us that doctors and nurses are showing more willingness to take sales calls. Investment in our sales force also means building a larger physical presence and stocking inventory in more international locations. So we're expanding our warehouse footprint in three geographies, Hereford, England, Milan, and Tokyo. This should create tighter customer connections and quicker order fulfillment. Soon we'll be shipping inventory from warehouses in eight countries, the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, Australia, and China. As to our recent acquisition, we estimate that Autograph will grow to $24 million in sales this year, due largely to the January price hike. This $24 million figure implies 29% growth versus hospital-level sales of $18.6 million in the 12 months prior to the acquisition. Autographs has also begun to add to the bottom line, contributing approximately $3 million of op income in Q1 and $0.09 per share. In January, we also began paying autograph commissions to our broader U.S. sales force, which may increase unit sales going forward. There are three other biologic projects to note. First, Xenosure was approved in Japan in Q3 2020, and sales are ramping quickly, perhaps adding $1 million in 2021. Number two, we launched RestoreFlow cardiac allografts in 2020, perhaps adding $500,000 of 2021 sales. And finally, number three, our Chinese Xenosure cardiac trial succeeded in meeting its endpoints, and we will be submitting our approval application to the Chinese FDA this June. We expect approval in two or three years. As for our financial results, we posted sales of $35.9 million, up 17% year over year. Sales were up 29% in the Americas and 25% in Asia-Pac, and they were down 5% in Europe. Strong sales in Q1 and restrained operating expenses contributed to robust bottom-line growth. We generated $7.9 million of off-income in Q1, EBITDA of $10.5 million, and EPS of $0.28. All of these metrics were 83% better than their year-ago comparisons. With that, I'll turn the call over to JJ.