Cabot Corporation

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Cabinet's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After this week's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press the star, then the one key on your touch-tone telephone. If you recall operating systems at any time, please press star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker host, Steve Delahan of Cabinet Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Livia. Good morning. I would like to welcome you to the Cabot Corporation Second Quarter Earnings Teleconference. With me today are Sean Cohane, CEO and President, and Erica McLaughlin, Senior Vice President and CFO. Last night, we released results for our second quarter of fiscal year 2022, copies of which are posted in the investor relations section of our website. The slide deck that accompanies this call is also available in the investor relations portion of our website and will be available in conjunction with the replay of the call. During this conference call, we will make forward-looking statements about our expected future operational and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Additional information regarding these factors appears in the press release we issued last night and in our 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021, and in subsequent filings we make with the SEC. all of which are available on the company's website. In order to provide greater transparency regarding our operating performance, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that involve adjustments to GAAP results. Any non-GAAP financial measures referenced on this call are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in a table at the end of our earnings release issued last night and available in the investor section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Sean, who will discuss the second floor highlights and provide an update on our progress in the areas of battery materials and ESG. Erica will review the company and business segment results, along with some corporate financial details. Following this, Sean will provide some closing comments and open the floor to questions.

Sean? Thank you, Steve, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our call today. I am very pleased with results in the second quarter as we delivered record adjusted earnings per share of $1.69, which was up 22% compared to the same quarter last year. Demand across all businesses was strong, and we continue to leverage our global scale, a differentiated portfolio, and our strong track record of operational excellence. While geopolitical events, the persistence of COVID-19, and global supply chain disruptions presented execution challenges to industries globally, we demonstrated continued resilience across our operations, driving strong earnings and discretionary free cash flow generation. Results across our businesses were very strong, with record performance in both the reinforcement materials and performance chemical segments, as we delivered volume growth while mitigating the impacts of rising raw material and energy costs. During the quarter, we made important progress on our Creating for Tomorrow strategy. We completed the sale of purification solutions and are now solely focused on growing our industry-leading portfolio of businesses. Central to our purpose and strategy is a commitment to sustainability leadership, and during the quarter, we achieved important recognition, earning a platinum rating from EcoVedas. And finally, on the capital allocation front, we move forward with strategic high-value growth investments while continuing to return capital to shareholders through our robust dividend and share refurchases. I've talked quite a bit about battery materials over the last few quarters, as I believe it represents a transformational opportunity for Cabot. Over the past several years, we've been systematically building out the product portfolio, technical expertise, customer support, and global footprint required by the leading lithium ion battery producers. Battery technology is complex and rapidly changing as manufacturers look to improve safety and battery range while reducing costs and shortening charging time. Conductive carbon additives are one of the critical ingredients to address these evolving market needs and will be required regardless of whether the battery roadmap evolves from current chemistry to dry process or solid state. Cabot is the only global conductive carbon additive player that has the broad product range of conductive carbons, carbon nanotubes, and carbon nanostructures, each of which offers different levels of conductivity and formulation flexibility for battery manufacturers. Our portfolio breadth and ability to formulate blends of conductive carbon additives allows us to tailor the solution for our customers' unique battery chemistries. During our recent Investor Day, we outlined an investment plan that will triple capacity over the next three years across our battery materials portfolio. Recently, we completed technical upgrades at our Shuzhou Specialty Carbons plant with the first unit commissioned in April. This will immediately free up additional conductive carbons capacity in our global network to support growth of battery materials. We've also commenced the de-bottleneck project to expand capacity at our carbon nanotube plant in Zhuhai, China, and have begun the technology conversion of our newly acquired plant in Tianjin to further add capacity for battery materials. This portfolio of projects is capital efficient, and we intend to execute these projects with speed to capture the market growth opportunity and meet the needs of our customers. Results in our battery materials business have continued to surpass expectations. Year-to-date EBITDA in this business increased by approximately 80% compared to the prior year, driven by rapid market growth for electric vehicles and continued momentum with customer adoptions for our products. We believe there is tremendous potential to deliver greater performance from lithium-ion battery chemistries through innovation and optimization of conductive carbon additive blends, and we are seeing active engagement with our customers in this area. In the quarter, we achieved a key conductive carbon additive blend win with a top five battery manufacturer that will be utilizing a blend of our conductive carbons and carbon nanotubes. This customer win further supports our belief that blends of conductive carbon additives will play a key role in the future of battery innovations. as the formulations can be tailored to optimize both short-range and long-range conductivity. Given our strong momentum, we are tightening our EBITDA guidance range to $30 to $35 million for fiscal year 2022. The midpoint of this range represents a 100% year-over-year growth rate of earnings for battery materials. Sustainability is at the heart of our purpose and integral to everything we do. Given that, we are especially proud of the various forms of external recognition that we have received over the years for our sustainability leadership. At the top of this list is the platinum rating we recently received from EcoVedas, the highest recognition available for the second consecutive year. EcoVedas is the world's largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings with more than 90,000 rated companies. A platinum rating recognizes our sustainability efforts and places Cabot among the top 1% of companies in the manufacturing of basic chemicals group. This prestigious recognition underscores Cabot's commitment to transparency and provides customers with a better understanding of our sustainability performance. We are very pleased with our progress this quarter, both on the operational execution front and on our strategic priorities. I'll now turn the call over to Erica to discuss the financial and performance results of the quarter in more detail. Erica?

Thanks, Sean. I will start with discussing results for the company and then review the segment results. We reported record results in both reinforcement materials and performance chemicals, with adjusted EPS in the second quarter of $1.69, up 22% compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2021, and up 31% sequentially. Discretionary free cash flow in the quarter was $96 million, driven by strong EBITDA, and we ended the quarter with $215 million of cash. CapEx in the quarter was $41 million, and year-to-date we are at $71 million. We expect full-year CapEx to be approximately $250 million. The balance sheet also remains strong with total liquidity of $1.2 billion and net debt to EBITDA of 1.8 times as of March 31st. We plan to refinance $350 million in public bonds in the third fiscal quarter. Rising interest rates affecting both our bond refinancing and our short-term commercial paper are expected to increase our quarterly interest expense by approximately $3 million per quarter for the back half of the year. This expectation has been included in our updated adjusted EPS guidance range. Our operating tax rate was 27% for the quarter, and we anticipate the fiscal year rate will be between 26 and 27%. Now moving to reinforcement materials. During the second quarter, EBIT for reinforcement materials increased by $12 million as compared to the same period in the prior year. The increase was principally driven by improved unit margins from higher pricing in our 2022 calendar year customer agreements and higher volumes across all regions. This is partially offset by higher fixed costs associated with increased utilities and maintenance costs. Globally, volumes were up 3% in the second quarter as compared to the same period of the prior year. Due to 6% growth in the Americas, 2% in Europe, and 1% in Asia. Higher volumes in Europe and the Americas are largely due to volume gains in our customer agreements and our unique position in Mexico, which is enabling us to capture the strong volume growth in that country. Looking to the third quarter of fiscal 2022, we expect the reinforcement materials EBIT to improve sequentially due to our expectation that strong volume levels will continue with seasonally stronger growth. We also anticipate unit margins to be maintained at healthy levels and prices will adjust for changing input costs. Now turning to performance chemicals, EBIT increased by $12 million in the second fiscal quarter as compared to the same period in fiscal 2021. The increase was driven by higher unit margins as a result of improved pricing and product mix in our specialty carbons and fume metal oxides product line. This included the successful implementation of price increases ahead of rising input and operating costs in the fume metal oxide product line. Year-over-year volumes in the second fiscal quarter increased by 1% in performance additives and decreased by 17% in formulated solutions. The decrease in formulated solutions was due to the continued plant downtime at our Belgium specialty compound site. The site came back online in April and is expected to return to full production in the third quarter. We delivered impressive volume growth in products sold to battery materials applications as we continue to see growth driven by higher EV demand and adoption of our products by top battery producers. As we look ahead to the third quarter, we expect a sequential volume increase led by growth in battery materials applications and the benefit from our specialty compounds plant being fully back online. We anticipate that unit margins will remain strong, but we do not expect to see the same benefit from price increases ahead of raw materials in our few metal oxide product lines. This contributed $10 million in the second quarter that we do not expect to repeat sequentially. In addition, we expect fixed costs to increase due to the plant startups and higher utilities. Now moving to capital allocation, as we discussed at investor day, our capital allocation framework supports our creating for tomorrow strategy. Sean has discussed the investments and the acquisition completed this quarter to support the growth in battery materials. In addition, we broke ground in our Indonesian capacity expansion to support growth in our specialty compounds product line. These are high confidence, high return projects to support our growth agenda. In addition, we are also focused on providing an attractive return of cash to shareholders. During the quarter, we returned $36 million to shareholders through $21 million in dividends and $15 million in share repurchases. Year-to-date, we have returned $76 million. We are able to make these growth investments and return cash to shareholders while maintaining a healthy balance sheet with $1.2 billion in liquidity and net debt to EBITDA of 1.8 times. I will now turn the call back over to Sean.

Thanks, Erica. I'll close out my prepared comments today by talking about our outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year. We are very pleased with our momentum coming out of the second quarter, and we feel very good about the second half of the year. Based on our second quarter results and the outlook across our businesses, we are raising our guidance for adjusted earnings per share and to be in the range of $5.80 to $6.20 for the fiscal year. The upward revision represents a $0.30 increase at the midpoint compared to our prior guidance as we anticipate the strength of the first half of the year to continue with second-half results at a similar level to those in the first half of the fiscal year. In the second half, we expect underlying customer demand to remain strong in both segments. We continue to closely monitor the dynamic situation in China regarding COVID restrictions and the impact from the war in Ukraine. To date, our plants have continued to operate with limited impact in China, and our local team has done an exceptional job navigating lockdown-related supply chain disruptions. However, we are expecting some impact on the economy and our China volumes in Q3 from COVID-driven lockdowns, which is included in our Fiscal 22 guidance. Regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we don't have operations in Russia or the Ukraine, and the impact so far on our business has been minimal. Margins are expected to remain strong in the second half as we realize the full-year benefit from the calendar year 2022 reinforcement materials customer agreements, and spot market pricing actions remain timely to address dynamic input costs. I continue to be very excited about the momentum across our growth vectors, particularly in battery materials. We are performing at a very high level and are making the investments necessary to win as the automotive industry undergoes the transition to electric vehicles. Overall, I am very pleased with our strong execution and the progress against our Creating for Tomorrow strategy. The long-term fundamentals of our businesses are strong. Our end markets remain robust, and we continue to execute at a high level. Thank you very much for joining us today, and I will now turn the call back over for our Q&A session.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, you will need to press the start and the one key on your touch-tone telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question coming from the lineup, David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone. This is Anthony Mercandetti on for David Begleiter. In battery materials, will the win you announced impact this year's results? And just as a follow-up, can you maybe give some insight into the pipeline for future battery materials wins? Thank you.

Sure. Good morning, Anthony. So certainly the recent customer win we commented on will have impact in the back half of the year and is embedded in the tightened guidance range for this business that we provided on the call here. Now, as you may recall from our Investor Day materials, we we outlined our strategy here for this business. It's a very high growth opportunity, really a transformational opportunity as the automotive industry transforms from internal combustion to EVs, and we're making the investments to capitalize on that, and we've outlined, I think, a pretty compelling strategy and a pretty aggressive set of targets. So, We're working with all the major battery producers in the world and we're making the investments to support their growth needs and I would say that the value proposition of Cabot is resonating with customers. We bring a broad portfolio of winning conductive carbon additives and ability to formulate blends for optimal performance. We have an unmatched global footprint of manufacturing assets and application labs and the commercial and technical support that our customers need in order for us to work closely with them. And we've built a longstanding culture of operational excellence, and this application is a demanding one, and I think our customers value that. So overall, very excited about our progress here, and we're performing at a very, very high level, and we expect the momentum to continue.

Thank you.

Our next question coming from the line of Josh Rospector with UPS. Your line is open.

Good morning. This is Lucas Pomon. I'm for Josh. So I just wanted to talk about the impact of Russia a little bit if we can. So, I mean, they're a significant exporter of carbon black into Western Europe. So I just wanted you to give us your thoughts on how tire customers have reacted to there to any sort of lack of supply. Is that something that's going to benefit you in Europe as the year progresses, do you think? Or has that benefited your China supply in any way?

Yeah. Good morning. Good morning, Lucas. So, you know, certainly it's, let me start with the reality that it's been, you know, a very trying time for many of our European colleagues who are impacted by this war and the Russian invasion in Ukraine. And we're fortunate that all of our employees are safe and their families, and we have none that work in Russia or Ukraine. And as I commented, our business has not been materially impacted to date as we don't have operations there. At the moment, we are seeing significant interest from customers, and customers that we already serve, as well as some customers that we do not serve, that are urgently looking for carbon black supply. And I think that links directly to your comment, which is correct, that the European market does import a significant amount of carbon black today from Russia, and that has suffered significant disruption there. from the war in Ukraine. I think both in terms of supply chain potential for sanctions and perhaps most importantly, I think customers just concerned about long-term reputational impacts of continuing to source from Russia. So our view here as we go forward is we're trying to work with customers to help them in any way that we can, although most of our capacity is contractually committed in Europe, so there are limits to what we can do. We are working with customers to try to help them from the rest of our global network, including in Asia and China, if the pricing and logistics make sense for customers here. And then as we go forward, I think it's more a question of what happens over the longer term. And, again, I think the uncertainty that customers have right now has caused many of our customers to reach out early to begin negotiations for 2023. This is much earlier than typical. And what we're hearing from customers is that they're concerned with the security of supply as well as the reputational risk of continuing to do business with Russian suppliers. And I think given our strong, consistent, reliable performance, customers are definitely eager to secure supply with us. And so we've begun negotiations. Given the balanced supply-demand conditions and, I think, The uncertainty around Russia, we feel very good about our prospects and the importance that's placed on the capital value proposition by customers here. So I think that's maybe a bit of commentary on the longer term.

Great, thanks. And then within performance camps and specifically in the specialty black business sector, Are you seeing any change in the response to pricing sort of in any region? Do you think there's going to be a point here whether either you have to sort of expect or we'll start to see some more pushback on that front? Just as, I mean, this seems to be quite different to prior cycles where there is usually sort of more of a lag and so why is this time different? Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. So our team's done an exceptional job here, not only this quarter, but I think this has been a consistent narrative over the last year when we've had more dynamic input cost movements. Our team's done just a great job of moving quickly in the market and getting these passed through to customers through pricing actions. And again, we saw that this quarter. So I think in terms of the execution level, it's been great and we expect that to continue. I think there are a couple of factors here that make me comfortable that what we're executing on right now is a sustainable way of doing business. I think first and foremost, the products that we provide in specialty carbons go into a range of applications and and the loading in those applications, while it varies, tends to be on the lower end, yet the performance requirements in the application tends to be very high, number one. So there's real performance orientation, first and foremost, in customers' minds. Second, I would say, is supply reliability. Our network of plants, our operational reliability, the fact that we can serve customers uh, all over the world, uh, and given the general tightness and, uh, uh, the disruptions, uh, that are out there in the, in the sort of macro environment, I think all of that is, uh, uh, leading customers to place a certain premium on, uh, on supply reliability. So given the performance and application, uh, aspect of this product line and the supply reliability, uh, I think customers are understanding of, uh, that we're needing to pass on these input costs, and I would expect that to continue.

Great. Thank you.

The next question coming from the line of Lawrence Alexander with Jefferies. The line is open.

Hey, guys. It's Dan Rizwan for Lawrence. Thank you for taking my call. You mentioned meeting some European demand from, I guess, your network and other regions. I was under the impression that's kind of difficult to do, that shipping across continents or across oceans is not something that really happens a lot with your products.

Yeah. Good morning, Dan. No, you're absolutely right. You know, this business, particularly in reinforcement materials, tends to be a make-in-region, sell-in-region business for a whole host of supply chain reasons. You know, it's a pretty low bulk density products or shipping costs or are high, most of these volumes tend to be shipped in bulk, and so that means rail and the like rather than in bags, which is what typically international shipping is done by. So there are a whole bunch of reasons why it just makes sense this business is a regional one. I think right now, given the stress that the industry is under because of the lack of Russian supply, customers are certainly reaching out and having to entertain a range of different options, including importing from other parts of the world. So the stability of that from a logistics standpoint, given the global freight challenges that every company is facing, that's a real issue. And then the costs are not immaterial either. But We're working with customers to try to help them out from our network to the extent that the cost and the supply chain, the lead time, makes sense. But I think it's more of an urgency issue, Dan, than it is anything else.

All right. So thanks. That actually makes sense. And then within battery materials, you seem to be growing fairly well organically and taking advantage of opportunities. But I was wondering if there's other, I don't know, small companies out there that might be a target I mean, because of the technology that they have or something they can offer just to kind of broaden their portfolio, and if you're thinking about growing in that direction.

Yeah, well, definitely very pleased with the performance here in battery materials, and as I said, I think our value proposition with customers in terms of conductive carbon additives is definitely resonating here, and we think we're in a great spot because the The market's growing, and we're growing much faster than that market because of the value proposition. Now, with respect to M&A, it is definitely something that we're actively evaluating. In fact, it was not long ago that we made an acquisition to buy a carbon nanotube player in China to do exactly that, to broaden our portfolio and support our growth strategy. So things like that are important. very much in scope and we're actively looking for opportunities that would make sense for us. So we think about what makes sense through a couple of different lenses. One is that it has to be a material where we really feel that we can bring some value to that. It's complementary to our existing chemistry. and where we really feel that we would have a right to win. But I would say this is very much in scope because I think this is a transformational opportunity here as the whole industry shifts from ICEs to EVs.

Thank you very much.

Our next question coming from the line of Chris Catchwood, Loop Capital Markets.

Yeah, good morning. Thank you. Just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on the situation in China in wake of the COVID lockdowns. You mentioned that your operations hadn't really been impacted that much. So I'm curious if you've seen some impact at your tire maker customers, And if that represents some risk for, I don't know, like a lag, demand sluggishness into the June quarter at all.

Yep. Good morning, Chris. So, yeah, as we commented in the prepared remarks so far, we've only seen minimal impacts to our business, maybe very immaterial impacts. Now, as I think you know, we have a number of manufacturing sites in China, but we have one in Shanghai, and thanks to the extraordinary performance of our staff there, we've been able to operate during the entirety of the Shanghai COVID lockdown. Now, currently, logistics are becoming a little bit of a bigger challenge for companies, so simply moving raw materials or feedstocks in and getting finished product out is becoming a little bit more of a challenge, although we're navigating that, and again, so far, have not had any material impact. As we look forward, though, we have adjusted down our forecasted Q3 China volumes, and this is implied in the guidance range that we gave on the call here today. For exactly that, we do expect that there will be some impact to economic growth, and we expect that, you know, there will be some impact to our customers and then on our volume. So, you know, we've taken that down in ranges by specific business, but we've taken down the Q3 expectation, you know, in the 5% to 15% range in China, again, depending on the specific business that we have, and we think this is This is, you know, appropriate based on the best information we have at this point.

Okay, that's helpful. So basically softening is some sequential softening is in your guidance. Correct. Yeah. So, and then just following up on, so, you know, to the extent that European tire makers have relied on Russian carbon black and to the extent they can, are able to, you know, you know, I guess transition away from that, that carbon black, presumably the Russians will still want to find a home for it, and some have suggested that, you know, they'll look to maybe China as an end market. I'm just curious if there's any evidence of much Russian carbon black finding its way into the Chinese market currently. It seems like that also would be somewhat logistically challenged and not necessarily cost competitive with you know, established and operations in China and including yours, obviously, which is probably produced much more in a sustainable manner than the carbon black that's produced in Russia.

Yeah. So, you know, exactly what plays out longer term from this Russia invasion of Ukraine, this whole situation is, I think is still to be determined. But I think at this point, customers are, I think rightly, concerned about long-term supply reliability. And I think the reputational impacts of sourcing, even if you can, the reputational impacts are becoming more pronounced, certainly for the global tire customers. So now... they're going to need carbon black. And so how the rest of the world kind of adjusts course here, you know, to flow some carbon black to meet their needs and is, I mean, that will happen, likely at much higher costs, you know, landing carbon black from a place like China, which is, where some excess would be available, trying to land that into Europe is pretty expensive. You've got the logistics costs that are very high. There's an export duty on carbon black. I think it's 17% or something like that. It's pretty high. So by the time you do the landed economics, plus coal tar prices are pretty high in China right now. So I think it's a tough proposition from an economic standpoint, but, you know, there will be some flows that will have to happen. And we are working with our customers to try to help them from our global network. Now, you know, does Russian material flow other places? I don't think we've seen any evidence that it is flowing into China, and that would really surprise me, my own personal perspective. I doubt that that would happen. I think China has its own material to support its own supply chains, and I don't think that would happen. So does some Russian material flow into some other smaller markets in the world? it's very possible that that happens, but it's quite a disruption here for the tire and the industries that use carbon black.

Thanks for that. If I could just sneak in one more about the battery materials business. Currently, the lithium-ion battery industry is sort of Asia really China-centric and even your assets are there. But if you look at the bigger picture in the pipeline of gigafactories globally, there's a tremendous ramp of gigafactories under design in both Europe and North America. And you flag your sort of global network as a commercial advantage in terms of, I guess, positioning yourselves to those customers. I'm wondering if the engagement with these downstream battery customers is if you're seeing evidence that your global footprint and scope is translating into an advantage dialogue with those potential customers as those pipeline gigafactories come into greater visibility. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, definitely, Chris, our view in terms of how this industry plays out in the long term is that supply chains will regionalize, and you're exactly right. There are significant plants that are either coming on or under construction right now in Europe. Companies like Northvolt and others and some of the Asian players are building plants in Europe, and those will be coming on here. So I think the regionalization in Europe will occur first and a little faster than the U.S., but the U.S. will follow. Certainly, Tesla is leading the way in the U.S., so I think regionalization of supply chains is very much our view on this one, and I think our network of assets positions us very well here. We have assets in the U.S. that produce certain battery materials grades today, and we would expand and broaden the product portfolio as those plants come online. And then the same is true in Europe. We produce battery material grades in Europe today and would expand and broaden the product portfolio as those plants come online. I think it is the is the Cabot network leading to advantaged conversations. I would say that Cabot value propositions resonating very well with customers. And as a result, you're seeing us outpace the market by a significant margin in terms of growth. And I think it's because of that. And I think there's a few things I would just underscore. One is the portfolio of products that we have, the broad range of conductive carbon additives and the ability to formulate blends. I think our view on this one is right, and there's evidence that that's the way this industry will go over the longer term. And then the second is our unmatched global footprint. I think people in the battery space right now are really trying to work with suppliers that can provide long-term supply reliability and move with speed to meet their needs. And I think we're best positioned to do that. And then finally, you know, it's one thing to develop the product that works and build the capacity, but the culture on operational excellence, this is a demanding application, but we have a lot of experience in demanding applications like this from, you know, CMP back some years ago selling directly to fab, you know, chip producers. a very demanding application, inkjet, a very demanding application. So our ability to dial in the operational excellence that these battery customers need is not trivial. So I think all those things are coming to light for customers, and it's part of what's driving our significant outperformance and growth relative to the market.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Cohen for any closing remarks.

Great. Well, thank you. Thank you again for joining the call today. As I said at the end of my prepared comments, very pleased with our performance in the quarter here, both at the operational sort of execution level, but also on the strategic front. And we believe we're well-positioned to deliver on our Creating for Tomorrow strategy and to grow the company in a differentiated way. And we appreciate your support and look forward to speaking with you on future calls. Thank you, and have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's all for our conference for today. Thank you for your participation.