This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk08: Good morning and welcome to the DuPont first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. Chris McCrae, you may begin your conference.
spk06: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for a review of DuPont's first quarter of 2022 financial results. Joining me today are Ed Breen, Chief Executive Officer, and Laurie Koch, Chief Financial Officer. We've prepared slides to supplement our comments during this review, which are posted on the investor relations section of DuPont's website and through the webcast link. Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the slides. During this financial review, we'll make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Our 2021 Form 10-K, as updated by current and periodic reports, includes detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties which may cause differences. Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today exclude significant items. We'll also refer to other non-GAAP measures, a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is included in our press release and posted to the investor page of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Ed.
spk14: Good morning and thank you for joining our first quarter financial review. We posted strong results this quarter, but before we discuss that, I would like to thank each of our employees for their continued dedication and strong commitment to our customers. Their perseverance in the face of many obstacles is what made our results possible. I'd especially like to express our appreciation for our China-based colleagues, many of whom have endured weeks of lockdowns, but have continued to operate and get necessary work done. Also, our hearts go out to those affected by the war in Ukraine, and we sincerely hope this conflict can be ended as soon as possible. Our first quarter results from continuing operations included a strong 9% organic sales increase from the prior year, or 14% growth, including the layered acquisition contribution. Organic volume increased 3%, led by an 8% increase in the E&I segment. Overall customer demand remained strong across the vast majority of end markets, led by low double-digit volume growth in both semiconductor and industrial technologies within the E&I segment, and mid-single-digit volume growth in water, and shelter solutions within the water and protection business. Our top-line growth included 6% average pricing increases that we took to offset the continued cost inflation that we are experiencing. We realized price increases in all businesses totaling about $190 million and a fully offset raw material, logistics, and energy cost inflation. I continue to be impressed by the job our teams are doing as we target to remain price-cost neutral for the full year 2022, including the incremental actions taken in March, largely in reaction to the conflict-driven spike in energy and related costs during the period. Turning to slide four, I'd like to update you on key focus areas for 2022 stakeholder value creation, including our portfolio transformation, our balanced approach to capital allocation, and our continued focus on growth execution. First, we believe we are on track with what we noted previously regarding the timing associated with the M&M divestiture to sell in these. The M&M transaction is anticipated to be complete around the end of the year, and we're also continuing with the process to divest the Delrin business. For the Rogers acquisition, Progress is being made on the required regulatory reviews. While we remain optimistic by closing by the end of the second quarter, the process could extend into early third quarter. We continue to see no issue that would prevent a close of this transaction. I'd like to reiterate that DuPont's financial profile pro forma for these transactions will firmly position the company with top quartile revenue growth, operating EBIT margins, and low cyclicality relative to top-tier multi-industrial companies. A greater focus on secular high-growth end markets in electronics, water, industrial technologies, protection, and next-generation automotive will serve as a sound basis for our innovation-led organic growth execution. Regarding the layered performance materials acquisition, We are also on track to achieve cost synergies of $63 million, somewhat ahead of initial expectations. The deal has been a success so far, including overall financial performance ahead of plan for both top and bottom line results and early progress to achieve commercial synergies on top of the cost synergies noted. As one example, we are starting to see some nice synergies with layered process and equipment technology enabling more effective solutions for downstream customers, including auto OEMs, as well as consumer electronics applications. Regarding future capital allocation, and namely the net cash we will receive from our planned divestitures, we will continue to pursue a balanced strategy that includes prioritizing the return of excess capital to shareholders, as well as strategic M&A. This is consistent with our actions taken over the last year, during which we increased our share repurchase and dividend allocation, as well as completed the layered acquisition. Once the Rogers and M&M transactions are completed, we'll be poised to continue to improve our portfolio and financial position, as well as accelerate capital return options. Given the magnitude of the anticipated deal proceeds, we expect that there will be room to execute substantial incremental share buybacks, while disciplined M&A will also remain a key deployment priority. Regarding our existing $1 billion share repurchase program authorized during Q1, we anticipate completing that authorization during 2022 ahead of the one-year duration initially guided. Turning to core growth, We continue to focus on execution of our innovation-based organic growth opportunities. We are pleased with 3% volume growth in the quarter given production constraints due to lack of raw material availability and supply chain challenges. We are excited about visible growth drivers enabled by our technical innovation teams and application engineers who are squarely focused on helping customers solve their most complex challenges. In E&I, continued top-line growth momentum this year is being driven by growth in semiconductor, healthcare, and displays and markets, by cyclical recovery in aerospace markets, and by new share gains and innovation wins, muted somewhat in auto by supply chain constraints. Key examples of recent new product successes driving growth and strong margin performance include newly launched mechanical planarization pads for semiconductor manufacturing, as well as new lithographic photoresists for the high-performance computing market. In WMP, we expect growth in 2022 coming from each of the lines of business. Safety is seeing market growth across major segments, including aerospace, electrical infrastructure, oil and gas, and health care, but muted by lower demand for protective garments. Shelter continues to experience growth opportunities from strong construction and remodeling trends. Water is experiencing strong mid to high single-digit growth globally across all technologies. Examples of new innovation drivers for this segment include several new membrane product families, within water to drive growth in desalination and wastewater markets, as well as the launch of a new building insulation product offering increased sustainability solutions for customers. We also have a strong adhesives business that is positioned well to capture growth with its product offerings in next-generation auto and electric vehicles, especially through the commercial synergy opportunities that we expect through the Rogers acquisition. With that, let me turn it to Lori to discuss the details of the quarter as well as our financial outlook.
spk09: Thanks, Beth, and good morning, everyone. As I mentioned, we saw continued strong demand during the quarter in key end markets. Global supply chain challenges and cost inflation have persisted and even intensified during the quarter due to the war in Ukraine. In response to inflation, we continued our strategic pricing actions and were able to fully offset higher costs during the quarter related to raw material, logistics, and energy. These factors, along with our team's continued focus on execution, contributed to net sales, operating EBITDA, and adjusted EPS results well above expectations. Focusing on financial highlights on slide five for the quarter. Net sales of $3.3 billion were up 9% on both an as-reported and organic basis versus the first quarter of 2021. The acquisition of Laird, partially offset by non-quarter investors, provided a 2% net tailwind to net sales, while currency was a 2% headwind during the quarter. Organic sales growth included 6% pricing gain and 3% higher volume. Pricing gains reflect the actions taken to offset overall cost inflation, including the spike in energy costs that we are seeing at our site. Volume growth reflected continued strong customer demand with order patterns remaining solid, led by electronics, industrial technologies, water, and construction end markets. These factors resulted in organic sales growth during the quarter of 10% and 9% for W&P and E&I, respectively. On a regional basis, organic sales growth was broad-based globally, with W&P driving growth in North America and EMEA and ENI driving growth in Asia Pacific. From an earnings perspective, operating EBITDA of $818 million was up 2% versus the year-ago period, and adjusted EPS of $0.82 per share was up 19%. The increase in operating EBITDA was driven by pricing actions, volume gains, and strong earnings from the layered acquisitions, which more than offset higher inflationary cost pressures, as well as weaker product mix in W&P and the absence of a gain on asset divestiture in E&I last year. Operating EBITDA margin during the quarter was 25%, which was better than our expectations set earlier this quarter, but 160 basis points below the year-ago period, which I'll explain further. Navigating cost inflation was the key focus during the quarter, and our success in doing so was a significant driver in our results. While the majority of the raw material inflation that we have discussed in the past relates to the M&M businesses, which are now part of discontinued operations, our RemainCo businesses also have inflation exposure, and we saw a spike in energy costs during the quarter, most notably in W&P. We fully offset about $190 million of cost inflation during the quarter, which kept our results whole on a dollar basis. While these pricing actions enabled us to maintain a neutral earnings profile, price-cost dynamics resulted in a 150 basis point headwind to operating EBITDA margins during the quarter. Our underlying operating EBITDA margin adjusted to exclude price-cost factors with 26.5%, or essentially flat compared to the year-ago period. Further, if you adjust margins in the prior period to exclude the one-time gain related to the asset sale in E&I, our underlying margin of 26.5% would have increased about 70 basis points from last year. Another key metric that we track is incremental margins. On a reported basis, incremental margin for the quarter was 6% from the year-ago period. However, I indicated previously the importance of evaluating your results on an underlying basis. If you remove the impact of price cost, incremental margin was over 20%. And if you also exclude the headwind from the one-time asset sale, on top of that, incremental margin was almost 60%. I mention these data points to illustrate the volume strength we are seeing within the portfolio. From a cash perspective, cash flow from operations during the quarter of $209 million and capital expenditures of $251 million resulted in a free cash outflow of $42 million. The cash outflow was the result of variable compensation payments to our employees, which were approximately $100 million more this year than our normal payout, and higher working capital trade, inclusive of actions taken to increase inventory in reaction to continued product supply constraints. We expect significant improvement in free cash flow as we move towards the second half of the year, consistent with our typical seasonal pattern. Turning to slide six, adjusted EPS of 82 cents per share was up 19% compared to 69 cents per share in the year-ago period. Higher volumes and strong results from Laird collectively provided a benefit to adjusted EPS in the quarter of 11 cents per share. These gains more than offset other previously disclosed portfolio-related actions, weaker product mix in W&P, and additional capped timeline startup costs in E&I, totaling 9 cents per share in the aggregate. A lower share count and reduced expense from deleveraging actions continue to benefit our EPS results. Our base tax rate for the quarter was 21.8%, and we continue to expect our base tax rate for the full year, 2022, be in the range of 21 to 23 percent. Turning to segment results, beginning with E&I on slide seven. E&I delivered net sales growth of 18 percent, including 9 percent organic growth, an 11 percent portfolio benefit from Laird, and a 2 percent headwind from Currency. Organic growth for E&I includes an 8 percent increase in volume and a 1 percent increase in price. From a line of business view, organic sales growth was led by semiconductor technologies, which increased mid-teens as robust demand continued, led by the ongoing transition to more advanced nodes, growth in high-performance computing and 5G communications, as well as share gains. With an industrial solution, organic sales growth was up low double digits on a continuation of strong volume growth led by OLED materials for new phone and television launches. ongoing strength for cow-breast product offerings, most notably for semi-cap-ex, and strong demand for healthcare applications such as biopharma tubing. InterConnect solution sales decreased low single digits on an organic basis due to a slight volume decline. Volume gains for films and laminates in certain industrial end markets were more than offset by declines in consumer electronics, primarily related to China. as well as the anticipated return to more normal seasonal order patterns for smart zones. For the full year, we expect interconnect solutions to be up mid-single digits on an organic basis, led by strong demand in the second half and additional capacity coming online later this year from our tecton expansion. From a regional perspective, E&I delivered sales growth in all regions, with high single-digit organic growth in Asia-Pacific, noting China was down slightly. Operating EBITDA for E&I at $476 million increased 9% as volume gains, strong earnings from LARED, and pricing actions more than offset the absence of a prior year asset sale gain, higher raw material and logistics costs, and a continuation of startup costs associated with our cap-time capacity expansion. Operating EBITDA margins of 31% reflect sequential improvement from the fourth quarter of more than 200 basis points. On a year-over-year basis, the primary driver of the decline in operating EBITDA margins was the absence of a prior year gain. Adjusting margins in the prior year to exclude the one-time benefit, operating EBITDA margin was down 70 basis points year-over-year as a result of price costs and cap-time startup costs more than offsetting volume gains. Turning to slide eight. W&P delivered net sales growth of 8%, consisting of 10% organic growth and a 2% headwind from currency. Organic growth for W&P reflects broad-based pricing actions across the segment implemented to offset cost inflation. Volumes were flat as gains in shelter and water solutions were offset by declines in safety. From a line of business view, organic sales growth was led by shelter solutions, which was up high teams driven by pricing actions, and continued robust demand in North American residential construction for products such as Tyvek house rats, as well as ongoing improvement in commercial construction for quarry and surface products. Sales for water solutions were up high single digits on an organic basis on volume and pricing gains. Global demand remains strong for all water technologies and across all regions. Within safety solutions, sales were up mid-single digits on an organic basis as pricing actions were partially upset by lower volumes of Tyvek as we shifted production from garments to other end market applications. Volumes were up slightly for aramid fibers on continued improvement in industrial end markets. Operating EBITDA for W&P of $341 million declined 4% versus last year due to a weaker product mix. Operating EBITDA margins was better than our expectations set earlier in the quarter, but the impact of price costs with about a 210 basis point headwind to margin. Excluding the price-cost impact, operating unit margin was about 26%, approaching more normalized levels for W&P. Before I turn it back over to Ed, I'll close with a few comments on our financial outlook on slide 9. Despite the strong start to the year and solid demand, the macro environment remains volatile with several key uncertain factors. Based on our expectations and in consideration of these uncertainties, our full-year guidance ranges for operating EBITDA and adjusted EPS remain unchanged at $3.25 billion to $3.45 billion and $3.20 to $3.50 per share, respectively. These ranges include a $35 million earnings headwind as a result of suspending operations in Russia. We are increasing our guidance range for net sales to be between $13.3 billion and $13.7 billion to reflect price increases needed to offset cost inflation, which we now anticipate at $600 million in year-over-year headwinds. Although underlying demand in key ed markets such as electronics, industrial technologies, and water remain strong, we are seeing further supply chain constraints, primarily from additional government-mandated lockdowns in China, which will likely impact volume growth in the second quarter. Based on these anticipated headwinds, as well as an element of previously projected QQ sales realized in the first quarter, we expect second quarter 2022 sales to be between $3.2 billion and $3.3 billion, or up about 5% year-over-year at the midpoint. Based on these same assumptions, we expect second quarter operating EBITDA between $750 million and $800 million, and adjusted EPS between 70 and 80 cents per share. At the midpoint of our guidance, second quarter operating EBITDA margin is expected to decline just over 100 basis points sequentially as supply chain constraints are assumed to impact production rates. We expect operating EBITDA margin in the back half of 2022 to improve on typical seasonal volume strength and improve plant utilization as we clear COVID-related production challenges impacting the first half of the year. This outlook assumes moderating China lockdown impacts as we get into mid-May, given the positive trajectory in the Shanghai region and our limited exposure around Beijing. However, further outlook risk could be triggered at the lockdown spread to Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region, given the concentration of manufacturing and shipping there for DuPont, as well as our suppliers. With that, let me turn the call back to Ed.
spk14: Before we take your questions, I'd like to highlight that we published our annual sustainability report this week, and I'm really proud of the progress we made on our 2030 goals. Our sustainability strategy is grounded in three pillars, innovation, protecting people and the planet, and empowering employees and customers. I'll just note a few highlights. DuPont is leveraging our innovation focus to help customers meet their sustainability goals A great example of that is the new formulations within our building insulation products that help increase energy efficiency, as well as new technologies from our water solutions business that reduce process energy intensity. We're also focusing on renewable energy as part of our integrated climate and energy approach. Last year, we signed a virtual power purchase agreement that will supply about 25% of DuPont's total electricity starting in 2023. Additionally, Apple just announced that DuPont was selected to join their supplier clean energy program, which is an example of DuPont working with industry partners to drive sustainability progress at scale. We continue to advance our commitments to DE&I. We are excited about the newest female nominee to our board of directors, Christina Johnson. Also, the strong gender and ethnic representation of our leadership teams continues despite competitive labor markets. There are many great examples and stories in the report of how our teams are delivering on our purpose and driving sustainability. Overall, our teams have done a tremendous job. With that, we are pleased to take your questions, and let me turn it back to the operator to open the Q&A.
spk08: Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We will allow one question and one follow-up per caller. Your first question comes from Steve Tusa from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
spk09: Hey, guys. This is actually Sam Yellen on for Steve. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk about the sequential trends from 2Q to 2H? It looks like a big step up in EBITDA. Is that the China recovery or something else? And as part of that, maybe give us an update on the price-cost spread on a quarterly basis. What are you expecting in 2Q and then in 2H when comparing to the neutral you did in Q1? And then if there's anything else we're missing. Thank you. No, thanks, Ashley. Yeah, the second half ramp from the first half is really just a reflection of our seasonal volume improvement in the back half. Within E&I, it's primarily driven by smartphones as we go into the Christmas season and within water, a lot in the construction space as we see a ramp there. So the list on volume is dropping to the bottom line, which is translating to the EBIT improvement and the margin improvement in the second half as we drive leveraged through the P&L. On your question around net price, we'll expect all year to remain neutral on net price cost. So we raised the midpoint of the guidance for the full year to reflect about another $100 million of raw material escalation on a full year basis. So we're now expecting somewhere in the range of $600 million that will fully offset with price. So that won't change coming out of the first quarter for the rest of the year.
spk14: Actually, I would just add to Lori's point, the first half to second half ramp, it is our typical seasonality. If you go back and look at last year, it's about a 7% sequential lift first half, second half, and that's typically what we do because of the items that Lori mentioned.
spk16: So nothing unusual in the pattern there.
spk09: Got it. Thank you.
spk16: Thank you.
spk08: Your next question comes from Scott Davis from Milius Research. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hey, good morning, everyone. Good morning, Scott. Lori and Chris, welcome. Welcome aboard, Chris. Anyways, is there something, you know, can we talk in terms of like backlog or book to build? Did backlog actually grow in the quarter? I mean, you know, or any metric, I guess, you can give us to give us a sense of, top-line pent-up demand?
spk14: Yeah, Scott, the backlog looks great. It's been staying at very elevated levels. We look at it weekly. There's really no end market that's not feeling good. As you know, auto's down a little just because of auto production, but that's not a demand-driven thing. It's just chip shortages and supply chain issues, but All our end markets from an order pattern standpoint feel good as of looking at it this week. So no issues there at all. And really the only issues we're dealing with here, again, it's not demand driven. It's really more centered around supply chain and China and COVID lockdowns, you know, for the guide on the second quarter. But, you know, if we didn't have those issues, you know, our sales would definitely be higher in the second quarter. But, you know, that's what we're dealing with there.
spk03: Yeah, it makes sense. And as we speak kind of now, is price still going up because inflation is still going up, or are we at a point now where we've kind of hit some sort of plateau?
spk14: It seems like we've plateaued, Scott. All the price increases are implemented. When the war broke out, we did a whole other round of price increases, mainly because of natural gas lifting as significantly as it did, and by the way, other constraints in there, but that was the big one. So We did a round of increases again, which we had just finished doing. We did it again in every business. And as we said, we caught all the inflation in the quarter on the rolls, on logistics, and on energy. So we caught everything with $190 million of inflation that we saw. And as Laurie just mentioned a minute ago, we think it's plateaued. If it hasn't, we'll do another round of price increases, I feel like. We'll have an incremental $600 million of inflation if things hold where they're at for this year, and we'll have that all covered with price.
spk16: Okay. Sounds great. Good luck. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.
spk08: Your next question comes from Jeff Sprague from Vertical Research. Please go ahead.
spk13: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Hey, Jeff. Good morning. Ed, on... Share repurchase, you're, excuse me, it's battling a little cold here. Hopefully it's not COVID. Your language on share repurchase went from it being important last quarter to substantial incremental share repurchase. So I sense a bit of a pivot there in your posture. Maybe you could just elaborate a little bit more. And do you need to wait for the M&M proceeds to actually do more? Or can you get... you know, a bit of a running start on maybe the incremental that you're talking about?
spk14: Yeah, so Jeff, you, I think, summarized it well. We're leaning much more towards a decent large, if you could call it, share repurchase with where our multiples at. I don't think this is where DuPont's model will be sitting in the future. And obviously softness in everyone's stock price, just because of recent external events out there. So we're going to step on the $1 billion share repurchase a little bit quicker, as we said in our prepared remarks, by a quarter, four months, something like that, and get it done early. I would expect, as conversations with the board, that we're going to look at a much larger share repurchase program. I don't think we need to wait until the proceeds are necessarily in, but I would like to make sure nothing else crazy is going on in the loan on the rogers a piece um that will get paid off so you know our leverage will be north of three and you know with that but when we get the proceeds from m m you kind of know the math we're sitting on lots of billions of dollars here so um so yes you do hear a little bit of shift in tone uh because of where the multiples at uh the market's a little bit tough right now for everybody and my my gut is we're going to step on it in a bigger way that's great to hear and then also um
spk13: Could you just, maybe this is for Lori, just how significant on the top line was China, you know, the kind of the lockdowns and supply chain and COVID issues and how big a part of kind of the Q2 outlook is it?
spk09: Yeah, in total, there's two major pieces that are impacting the 2Q guidance, and they're both related to China. So first is a shift of sales that we had expected to land in 2Q that landed in 1Q, and that was primarily with customers pulling in some volume because of what was going on in China. We would size that at about $35 million of sales. And then as far as the shutdown that happened, it started to get progressively worse in mid-March, and we're anticipating a mid-May reopening. we estimated we missed about $20 million worth of sales. And there's also an impact on our margins with our plants not running at full capacity. So we have two sites in China that went into full lockdown mode in mid-March. We expect them to be fully reopened by mid-May. And then we had some key raw materials within our electronics business that we sourced from China that we weren't able to get full supply. So we ran some of our domestic plants at lower unit rates. And so that was impacting our margin profile in the second quarter as well.
spk14: Yeah, to give you a specific one, what Lori said, in Circles, Ohio, we make our Capcom, which is a high margin product. We're fully sold out. We get half of a monomer that we need out of China, and we had delayed shipments out of China. So we did have supply of the monomer. So instead of running it full tilt and then shutting the facility down, we just eased off the run rate some. We know when we're now getting supply from China. So there's an exaggeration. you know, a month, month and a half like that. So it's just these one-offs because of the China lockdowns, which hopefully dissipate as we exit the quarter.
spk09: And I think the other piece, Jeff, too, with our guidance for the second quarter, but beyond just China and the production-related effects with Russia. So we noted in our slides that we pulled Russia out. On a full-year basis, it's about $35 million of EBITDA, probably about $80 million of sales. But, you know, that's impacting primarily QQ and beyond.
spk14: And then, Jeff, when you look at the full year guide, you know, we beat by $90 million in EBIT in the first quarter kind of from consensus. We're down kind of $60 million in the second quarter off of, I'll use you guys' consensus, all because of what Lori just described here. But then we have nothing in the second half that's unusual. It's our normal seasonal ramp. That's 7% that I mentioned. That's what we're counting on, including we'll get some and order patterns for us that we would typically see.
spk13: Great. Thanks for that, Kala. I appreciate it.
spk08: Your next question comes from John Walsh from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
spk10: Hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions here.
spk14: Good morning, John.
spk10: I guess just first thinking about a couple of end markets that you touch where there's some investor angst I mean, residential, auto, consumer smartphones. Can you talk about what you're kind of expecting there from volume and then what you're expecting from price either? If you can break it out, what's inflation and then that price component that you have because of the higher value you're adding to the customer's offering there?
spk09: Yeah, I would say as far as demand is concerned in the 3N markets, you had notes. So we saw strength in residential construction. We expect that to continue to be a point of strength in the second quarter. We did note softness in consumer electronics, but that was primarily in China with respect to the lockdown. And also a little bit of an impact of our own doing of seasonality with respect to when we do our normal smartphone shipment. So we've telegraphed in the past that The first half will be weaker. The second half will be stronger because of a change in seasonal patterns as we sell into the smartphone market. But on a full-year basis, we expect that end market to be up mid-single digits. And then in auto, you've seen the revisions downwards with respect to IHS autos. I think now it's sitting at 4% on a full-year basis. So our estimates would probably be a little bit lighter than that with respect to what we think that the market will do. But the underlying demand remains strong. It's just really a matter of supply chain, specifically around the chip constraints that are impacting that. But I think the highlight, too, there is we do continue to see very strong growth within the EV space. And so for us, a large portion of that comes from our adhesive business. We saw really nice growth in our EV-related sales in Q1, and we expect to about double those sales in Q2 in line with where the EV market is going in general. And we really look forward to the incoming business from Rogers to pair with our business to really take advantage of the opportunity there. On the price side, I wouldn't say it materially differs across those end markets with what we're seeing with respect to inflation by segment. So within E&I, the inflation is not as material as what it is within W&P, so you see that in price. So we got about 1%. in E&I, in price, and about 10% in W&P. So there is a difference there. But nothing more than just around the raw material inflation-related items.
spk10: Great. Thank you. And then maybe one quick follow-up to Jeff's question around cap allocation. Maybe can you just update us on what the deal pipeline looks like and if you're seeing sellers' expectations change change given what's happened in the public markets? Thank you.
spk14: Yeah, so my gut is as we sit right now, I don't see any deal that we would want to do until we're in this 2023. And I'm not saying I know something is available in 2023, but the way stock prices are moving around right now and all, it just makes it a tougher environment. in the near future. So that could change, so don't hold me to that. But I can't see anything happening until we're nicely into 2023, if then, depending on what's going on.
spk10: Great. Appreciate it. Thanks for taking the questions. Yep.
spk08: Your next question comes from Chris Parkinson from Mizuho. Please go ahead.
spk07: Great. Thank you so much. There are a lot of moving parts to the DuPont capital allocation thesis, just including the net proceeds from deals based for cash flow generation, working capital, and then obviously your stated buyback goals. You know, when it's all said and done, and I appreciate your remarks for the deal outlook for 2023, just absent anything new in 2022, you know, what is the kind of the base range based on the current buyback that you believe you'll have cash on the balance sheet, just plus or minus? Thank you.
spk09: So are you talking after considering the proceeds from the M&M sales?
spk12: Yes.
spk09: Yeah, if you look at the proceeds from the M&M sales, the cash flow generation in 2022 and 2023, as well as where our leverage targets are at 2.75 times where we would expect to be, you quickly get to the $10 billion to $11 billion range of cash to deploy after we pay down the Rogers debt. So as we had mentioned on the call, it's significant. And we'll look to take a balanced approach to driving significant share repurchase as well as M&A opportunity.
spk07: Got it. And the second question I have, just, you know, obviously over the last couple of weeks, there's been a bit of a noise across global electronics, some of your peers, which has been pertinent to semis, 5G, you know, base consumer electronics demands. A lot of that driving from China, but can you just give us a quick update overall about how your team is thinking about your relative subsegments within E&I, just given the current demand environment, and then also how you would project your relative performance versus some of your core U.S. peers? Thank you.
spk09: Yeah, so we see very strong demand continuing in electronics, and so we had very strong results in Q1. On a full-year basis, we expect to be up pushing double digits within electronics between price and volume. And we'll obviously add to that as we close the Rogers transaction later this year. So we see a lot of strength. We see a lot of opportunity. If you look at, we do a lot of detailed analysis about our results versus peers. And a couple of them have already been out before us. And we stack up very nicely when you compare likes to like product lines. And so we also stack up very nicely when you compare our results versus some of the key benchmarks out there. So, for example, MSI is one of the key components of the SEMI business. People are expecting that to be up 7% to 8%. We've mentioned that we should outperform by 200 to 300 basis points. And if you look at our Q1 results in SEMI, we were in line with that expectation. So we are very excited about the portfolio. We'll look to continue to see where we can opportunistically broaden and strengthen that portfolio as well.
spk07: Thank you as always.
spk08: Your next question comes from Steve Byrne from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk15: Thank you. Are there any water treating technologies that are really deficient in your platform? Would you consider acquiring or developing anything you don't have and maybe more broadly in water? Would you consider moving downstream to essentially utilize your expertise in the breadth of water treating technologies you have to provide service to customers as a downstream expansion similar to Ecolab?
spk14: Yeah, I would say two things, Steve. Our portfolio we feel very good about, and it's a fairly broad portfolio. water filtration type markets out there, wastewater, home applications, which are big for us in China, desalination, as we mentioned on our prepared remarks. So we feel good about the breadth of what we have and the technology oomph we have behind it, and we continue to bring new products out to market. The one area that we would look at, and by that doesn't mean it's an acquisition, our manufacturing footprint and we need a bigger presence with a manufacturing in the Asia market which is a very fast-growing market for us so we've been studying very hard a project there to bring up a facility in the next couple years in that area so that's a high priority for us and then this kind of goes to the second part of your question there the one opportunity we have or potentially have in And that could be a real opportunity for us to kind of satisfy our customers by doing it that way. And that opportunity, we've been studying hard for that last year.
spk15: Thank you for that, Ed. And maybe any update from you on PFAS issues, anything, any trends that you're observing, any changes to inbound inquiries that you can comment on?
spk14: Yeah, nothing new has changed in the landscape except, you know, I'll just say we continue to be in conversations with the plaintiffs down in the MDL. I feel like we will make progress this year on that. By the way, the judge has continued to encourage us. The judge down there in charge of these MDL cases has actually encouraged us and the plaintiffs to be talking and coming up with a settlement. I'll just leave it at that for now, but nothing new besides that.
spk16: Thank you.
spk08: Your next question comes from David Beckletter from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
spk04: Good morning. Ed, how is Rogers EBITDA tracking your earlier expectations given what you've seen in both Q1 and Q4? I believe the EBITDA view was 270 for this year.
spk09: In the first quarter, they were under the impact of the same things that we were with respect to the China COVID situation. We're really looking forward to the second half when we will own them, and they have a pretty sizable expected ramp as those end markets really open up coming out of the China recovery, and they continue to see a nice growth opportunity within the EV space. And so I think if you look at the second half trajectory, that's being planned by Rogers, it would be more in line with where our expectations were on a full-year basis for that portfolio.
spk14: They have the backlog. A lot of it is in the EV space. We've looked at it. So it's just a matter of, well, A, getting over the lockdown issue in China and then actually accomplishing the ramp in their production rates. But we think second half of the year, they'll be right around the zip code of where we would expect it. Great.
spk04: And Lori, can you comment on what was M&M EBITDA in the quarter?
spk09: Yeah, so that'll come out Friday in the queue. So in the queue, we'll deconstruct the discontinued operations number that we've reported today. I can give you a high level that they were impacted, obviously, by the China COVID situation as well, and the auto end markets, obviously, being their largest factor. But they did continue to do a really nice job of getting price.
spk04: Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, David.
spk08: Your next question comes from Alexey Yefremov from KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk17: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Can you update us on how the Delrin sale process is going?
spk14: Yes. So Delrin, by the way, we've been putting the data room together and all that. We're just getting ready to launch on that, and we would expect that Delrin will take about a year, just like the other part of M&M, to actually close the deal. So we'll get a deal done in a four- or five-month window, and then regulatory approval, it'll kind of take like a year. So Data Room is getting finished up, and obviously we've had inbound phone calls about it, but we haven't really gone into deep engagement yet. We're just getting ready to do that kind of in the next couple weeks.
spk17: And add... You provided initially some expectations for evaluation during the sale of mobility business. Would you care to do the same about Delrin, maybe in broad terms? What are your expectations for the multiple?
spk14: No, I am not going to do that. We sold 90% of it at 14.1 times. I think what we said more than happened. I will say Delrin is a very good business. It's a very high EBITDA business. So, you know, we're looking forward to a nice sale there.
spk17: Fair enough. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
spk08: Your next question comes from John Spector from UBS. Please go ahead.
spk05: Yeah, hi. This is Josh Spector. So just a question on W&P and pricing and margins particularly. I think, you know, in the past that segment, you know, margins have been mid to upper 20%. Now you're kind of more low to mid 20%. Very clear that you're getting pricing to offset inflation. But do you have any visibility to get pricing more than inflation over the next 18 months, two years? Should we expect margins to expand in the outlook over time? Thanks.
spk09: Yeah, so the underlying margin as we look at it, excluding price and cost, was closer to 26% in the quarter, as we noted on the call. So starting to get back to the more normalized margins that we would expect for the segment in the upper 20s. And in normal times, too, outside that inflation, we would expect to get 1% to 2% of price out of that portfolio that does drop to the bottom line with respect to new product innovations and favorable mix as we move into the more higher margin segment. We'll continue to see headwinds on as reported margins as we go out this year just because of price costs, and we'll continue to let you know what that adjustment looks like so you can get to more of an underlying margin basis opportunity for the WNP segment.
spk05: Okay, but I guess we should take that to mean that if inflation stays where it is and you're pricing towards that, this becomes more of the new normal and then it's normal incremental margins. You're not expecting accelerated pricing to persist to drive margins back up in this segment over time. That's not your expectation.
spk14: I think what would occur is hopefully commodity prices come down and we hold, obviously, some of the price because of the products that we have. I would think that's the more... rational way things could play out here, and you're not incorrect. This business can run at like 28% EBITDA margins, so we're certainly not pleased at 26, but 26 we don't feel bad about in this environment, but we would certainly strive to be more in that 28 range, and we have been there before. So as Lori said, part of it you'll just get by if you just take all this price cost out for a second. because it's not normal times, we'll get a couple
spk11: business should run a couple hundred basis points higher and you know we'll get there okay thank you yep thank you your next question comes from Vincent Andrews from Morgan Stanley please go ahead uh thank you and good morning everyone um if I could just ask in in in safety Solutions um where you are sort of on I guess what would be considered hard covid comps with Tyvek into health care And was that part of what was driving sort of the weaker product mix in the overall segment?
spk09: Yeah, that was it. So it was a function of last year we were producing full-on Tyvek garments, and so we were limiting changeovers on the lines just given that we weren't making other end markets like medical and other types of end market uses for Tyvek. And so as you now go into a more normalized environment, you have more changeovers that So therefore, your production is a little bit less, and that was what was driving the impact of the weaker mix within the W&P segment. Okay.
spk11: And just as a follow-up, Lori, and maybe this will make more sense or be easier to follow once we have the cue, but just looking at sort of what corporate did on an EBITDA basis in the quarter versus if I look at slide 14 and, you know, you've got a corporate expense of $135, stranded cost of $50, which would total up to, the 185, and then you've got unquantified results of retained businesses and biomaterials. So can you give us a little bit of a help on sort of how this is going to progress over the year, presumably start making progress on those stranded costs, the corporate, you know, we can kind of run rate, but what about that third piece of the retained businesses and biomaterials?
spk09: Yeah, so there are three buckets, as you had mentioned. And so the retained pieces, the margins, I would say, are in the mid-teens once you get on an upward trajectory as we get outside of the COVID lockdown. So the largest piece of the retained business is the adhesive business. And it did see an impact in the quarter with respect to the China situation. So that's the biggest piece of money. We will disclose the revenue of the retained businesses in the queue on Friday when you get that. You'll be able to calculate kind of what the margin profile was for that space. With respect to normal corporate expenses, those would be on the range of $135 million on a full year basis as we have in our supplemental guidance. And so you would expect around $25, $26 million for the quarter. And then the third piece are the net stranded costs, and we continue to be in the range of about a net $50 million on a full-year basis, and that's our target to get after as we look to eliminate those going forward.
spk16: Okay. Thanks very much.
spk08: Your next question comes from Mike Sison from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
spk00: Hey, good morning. Just, I guess, a quick follow-up on Rogers. I guess if they're being affected by China in 2Q, sequentially EBITDA probably doesn't improve a lot. And then if we get on the run rate that you noted for the second half, we're probably somewhere in the low 200 for EBITDA. And I know you don't own the business yet. So just as a follow-up, why do you think things will improve in the second half? And then, you know, any updates on synergies that you can accelerate given it seems like 2022 is going to come in a little bit short for Rogers this year?
spk14: Yeah, Rogers will not run around $200 million in the second half of the year. The demand is there. We know the book, by the way, again, muted pretty significantly by COVID, China, and But they'll be running at a much more significant rate in the third quarter, assuming, you know, again, the COVID stuff has all cleaned up, lockdowns have ended, and we have line of sight where we're allowed to talk about synergy work on the cost side of $115 million. We're highly confident in it on a percentage basis. With the combo of that coming in with our like business, it's not a percent that's on the high end at all. So, You know, like Laird, the 60, we now line a site detail by detail. The 63, this one, we're really racking and stacking where we have a lot of it identified. So we'll get at it really quick. And remember, one of the things that will happen immediately on the Rogers synergies is, you know, there's corporate expense of some significance because it's a public company. And, you know, that will be cleaned up very, very quickly. And then we'll start on the rest of the synergies. But it will run at a very different rate in the second half of the year.
spk00: Right. So for 23, we should really be thinking about 270 plus whatever growth that the industry should provide is kind of the base case for when we model in Rogers for 23.
spk16: Yeah, I think that's fair. Right. Thank you. With synergies then, you know, you got them kicking in, you know, we'll hopefully move fast on that.
spk02: Understood. Thank you. Okay.
spk16: Thanks, Mike.
spk08: And your next question comes from Arun Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk02: Great. Thanks for taking my question. I guess I just had a longer-term question. So, you know, several years ago, your electronics business faced a lot of pressure in China, you know, around innovation and with the Solnet Pace product. I know that's been disposed of, but do you see that kind of issues cropping up in any of your markets in the future? That'd be my first question. Thanks.
spk14: No, I don't at all. There's nothing in the portfolio, actually nothing, you know, 95% of the portfolio is cutting edge technology. more of a commoditized business that was current, but that's not where the portfolio is headed, and certainly not in addition to the acquisitions with Laird and Rogers. They're very key positions we have in great technology plays.
spk02: Okay, thanks for confirming that. And then if I could, is there any update you could provide on any of the PFAS
spk14: uh dynamics um do you expect any kind of settlement by year end with the water districts or what are you working on on that side thanks yeah no we've been as we've mentioned before we've been uh talking about settlement with the plaintiffs um and by mostly obviously around the water cases um and as i mentioned a few minutes ago the judge
spk16: you know, hopefully good progress this year. Thanks. Great. Thank you.
spk08: And the last question for today comes from Lawrence Alexander from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
spk01: I guess a question about your degree of visibility. You know, in terms of how customers are sharing development schedules and order books and the shift in DuPont's portfolio, how many quarters out do you feel you have good visibility at this point?
spk09: Yeah, we do look at that to see how our order patterns are. I would say on average we have about 60 days visibility to orders that come in in combination between E&I and W&P. It's a little bit longer in W&P than what it is in E&I. But as we had mentioned earlier in the call, we look at the 20-day order pattern every week, and it has not changed in any significance for the past several months. And so we continue to see very strong underlying demand. Some of our backlog within the water space and within the adhesive space has started to build with the dynamics that we're navigating within the China COVID situation. But overall, demand remains very, very strong.
spk14: And I would just give you one other angle, obviously. We look at very hard, and you sort of, I think, just made this comment. We work very closely with our customers on design wins, as does Laird & Rogers. It's a very key component of the business. So we can see, again, we can't see overall demand, you know, out six months, but we can see where trends are developing, where we're going to have nice lift in business. So as Lori just mentioned, in our HESA's business, we are – bidding on and working with design and on a lot of applications in the battery and the next generation auto market. And we know where we're getting wins or we're close to getting wins. So that's something we track very, very closely to look at those trends. Same within semiconductor, same within the water business.
spk16: So that's important to us to look at also. Thank you. Thank you.
spk08: I will turn the call back over to Chris McCrae for closing remarks.
spk06: All right. Thanks, everybody, for joining the call. And just for your reference, a copy of the transcript will be posted on our IR website shortly. This concludes our call. Thanks again.
spk08: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer