Danaher Corp (DHR) 2016 Q4 法說會逐字稿

My name is Roxanne, and I'll be your conference facilitator this morning.

At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to Danaher Corporation's fourth-quarter 2016 earnings results conference call.

(Operator Instructions)

I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Matt Gugino, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Mr. Gugino, you may now begin the conference.

Thank you, Roxanne.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on the call.

With us today are Tom Joyce, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Comas, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

I'd like to point out that our Earnings Release, the slide presentation supplementing today's call, and the reconciliations and other information required by SEC Regulation G relating to any non GAAP financial measures provided during the call are all available on the investor section of our website www.danaher.com under the heading Financial Reports and Earnings.

The audio portion of this call will be archived on the investor section of our website later today under the heading Events and Presentations and will remain archived until our next quarterly call.

A replay of this call will also be available until February 7, 2017.

During the presentation, we will describe certain of the more significant factors that impacted year-over-year performance.

Please refer to the supplemental materials and our Annual Report on Form 10-K when it is filed for additional factors that impacted year-over-year performance.

Unless otherwise noted, all references in these remarks and supplemental materials to Company specific financial metrics relate to the continuing operations of the Company and the Fourth Quarter of 2016, and all references to period-to-period increases or decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year.

We may also describe certain products and devices which have applications committed and pending for certain regulatory approval.

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of Federal Securities laws including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future.

These forward-looking statements are subject to the number of risks and uncertainties including those set forth in our SEC filings and actual results might differ materially to any forward-looking statements that we make today.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tom.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone.

2016 was an exciting year for Danaher, and we finished on a strong note with our fourth quarter results.

We were very pleased with how the team executed throughout the year delivering solid core revenue growth, significant margin improvement, adjusted EPS growth of more than 20%, and outstanding free cash flow.

The Danaher Business System continues to be our foundation, our competitive advantage, and a key driver of our performance.

You've heard us talk about running the Danaher play book, meaning that we're consistently driving our businesses to improve gross and operating margins and lower G & A, all while reinvesting more into R & D and Sales and Marketing.

In 2016 alone, we improved both growth, gross, and core operating margins by more than 100 basis points.

At the same time, we reduced G & A and meaningfully increased R & D and Sales and Marketing spend as a percent of sales.

For the full year, our differentiated portfolio, investments in organic growth initiatives, and good execution helped drive 3% core revenue growth in a challenging macro environment.

With the addition of our recent acquisitions and other portfolio moves, our total annual revenues are now nearly $17 billion.

From an M & A perspective in 2016, we closed eight acquisitions across all five platforms for nearly $5 billion, including our two largest deals, Sefia and Phenomenex.

We also completed the spinoff of Fortiveh, which is an important step towards optimizing our portfolio and strategically positioning Danaher for long-term outperformance.

We generated $2.5 billion of free cash flow in 2016, and our free cash flow to net income conversion ratio was greater than 115% representing the 25th consecutive year in which our free cash flow has exceeded net income.

Turning now to the fourth quarter.

Sales grew 6% to $4.6 billion with core revenue increasing 3.5%.

The impact of currency translation decreased revenues by 1.5%, while acquisitions increased revenues by 4%.

Geographically, high growth markets revenue was up high single-digits.

China and India continued to lead the way, while Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia all returned to growth in part due to easier comparisons.

Developed market core revenues were up low single-digits lead by growth in the US and Western Europe.

Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 54.5%, an increase of 230 basis points from last year and core operating margins were up 170 basis points.

These strong margin results are a testament to our team's focused execution and help to drive double-digit adjusted net earnings growth in the fourth quarter.

Fourth quarter adjusted diluted net EPS was $1.05 which represents an increase of 15% over last year.

For the full year, adjusted diluted net EPS was $3.61, up over 20% from 2015.

Now let's take a more detailed look at results across the portfolio.

In life sciences, reported revenue was up 6% and core revenue grew 4%.

Reported operating profit margin increased to 16.8% and core operating margin increased 345 basis points.

This increase was driven by great execution using DBS, particularly at Paul where the team drove a number of meaningful operational improvements.

Back in to life sciences, core revenue grew low single digits in the quarter lead by our flow cytometry and particle counting businesses.

A strong finish to the year in China was capped off by another quarter of double-digit growth in the region while weakness persisted in Latin America.

Growth in North America was driven by demand for CytoFLEX, which continued to be a meaningful contributor to share gains in our flow cytometry business.

Like at micro systems, we saw incremental improvements in the quarter with core revenue up low single-digits.

This was largely driven by North America and China, offset by declines in Japan.

SCIEX increased core revenue at a mid single-digit rate, lead by growth in China and Western Europe.

SCIEX's service offering had another quarter of double-digit growth, and we saw continued strength in the food, environmental, and pharmaceutical end markets particularly within the fast growing biopharmaceutical space.

In 2016, our life sciences platform delivered a significant number of new products to our biopharma customers in order to improve their bioproduction processes.

One example is at SCIEX, where we just launched the X500B, the latest model in our X Series mass spectrometry platform.

You may remember that the first model in the series, the X500R, was designed for routine food, environmental, and forensic testing labs.

Now we've added the X500B, which is specifically designed for complex biologics characterization.

The X500B brings simplicity and high performance to one of the most compact mass speck footprints in the market.

It's ease-of-use makes it accessible to even novice mass speck users and helps customers get better answers, faster in their bioprocessing workflows.

During the fourth quarter, we successfully closed the acquisition of Phenomenex, a leading player in chromatography consumables that operates in an attractive industry adjacent to where SCIEX participates.

Phenomenex is off to a great start, and we're excited to have the team on board.

Over at Pall, mid single-digit core revenue growth was driven by Pall Life Sciences where we saw continued demand across our biopharmaceuticals business with particular strength in single-use technologies.

Pall Industrial delivered positive results for the first time since the acquisition with low single-digit core revenue growth supported by strong execution in micro electronics and aerospace.

This growth was offset by declines in our process technologies business.

2016 was a great year for Pall, and the team improved execution both operationally and commercially using the Danaher Business System.

Pall delivered more than 400 basis points of operating margin expansion, improved on time delivery by over 1,500 basis points, and significantly increased the market visibility.

By applying DBF principle's to Pall's R & D initiatives, the team has been able to combine Paul's innovation prowess with greater executional focus to launch a number of new technologies ahead of schedule.

In total Paul launched 35 new products this year, a 50 percent increase over last year, and the team was able to get these new products to market 25% faster.

Moving now to diagnostics.

Reported revenue increased 11% and core revenue increased 3%.

Core operating margins grew by 80 basis points, and reported operating margins declined to 12.6% predominantly due to the acquisition related charges from the Sefia transaction.

For the full year, diagnostics core operating margins were up 200 basis points.

Core revenue at Beckman Coulter was up low single-digits in the quarter lead by immunoassay solutions.

Growth across all major geographies was lead by demand in high growth markets including double-digit gains in the Middle East and China.

We saw better performance in North America; and importantly, the team continues to drive improvement in customer retention and win rates.

Radiometer achieved high single-digit core revenue growth in the quarter.

We saw positive performance in all major regions with high growth markets lead by double-digit growth in Latin America and China.

Both our blood gas and AQT product lines performed well and we believe Radiometer continued to gain share in 2016.

At Leica Biosystems, core revenue declined at low single-digits with growth in Western Europe and China offset by softness in North America and the Middle East.

Advanced staining consumables achieved double-digit growth while we saw weakness in our core histology and pathology imaging product lines.

In November, we successfully closed the acquisition of Sefia, a leading innovator in the fast-growing area of molecular diagnostics.

Sefia is off to a good start delivering double-digit revenue growth in the quarter and we continue to see tremendous opportunity to deliver better top and bottom line performance over time through the application of DBS.

Turning to our dental segment.

Reported and core revenues increased 50 basis points and reported operating margins decreased slightly to 15.4%.

While we have solid growth across our specialty product lines including orthodontics and implants, this was mostly offset by continued market weakness in our traditional dental consumables and equipment businesses.

We anticipate that these more challenging market conditions will persist into the early part of 2017.

We've mentioned before that we're approaching the entire dental platform as a new acquisition; and despite the recent market weakness, we're encouraged by the early results.

In 2016, the team improved core revenue growth, added over 75 basis points of gross margin, and increased core operating margins by 90 basis points.

We also lowered our G & A cost by 50 basis points, which was helped in part by a 30% reduction of our manufacturing and back office footprint.

By improving the cost structure, we facilitated greater investment back into the business to drive growth.

We increased R & D spend by approximately 10% to reinvigorate new product development and our investments in grow to market initiatives are up 5% year on year to help improve our commercial execution.

So overall, we feel very well positioned with our dental portfolio and remain focused on enhancing our foundation for long term growth.

Moving now to our environmental and applied solutions segment.

Reported revenue grew 3.5% with core revenue up 4%.

Good execution by the team generated 210 basis points of core operating margin expansion and reported operating margin increased to 24%.

In product identification, core revenue increased at a mid single-digit rate.

This growth was load by strong demand for marketing and coating equipment and relating consumables across most major geographies.

Sales growth of our packaging and color solutions was lead by positive momentum in both North and Latin America.

Videojet closed out a great year on a strong note delivering high single-digit core revenue growth in the fourth quarter.

The business grew across all major product lines and geographies, with particular strength in North America, Western Europe, and Latin America.

Videojet also achieved another quarter of double-digit service growth, and we believe that we continue to gain share relative to the market.

With over 15 years of experience applying the Danaher Business System, Videojet continues to utilize DBS to drive improvements across the business.

By applying DBS to drive disciplined marketing, R & D, and service growth initiatives, Videojet has achieved mid single-digit core revenue growth or better in each of the last seven years while meaningfully expanding margins.

Videojet team continues to set a tremendous example of how we can continuously sharpen our competitive advantage with DBS.

At Esko, core revenue increased at a mid single-digit rate on strength in both North and Latin America; while at X-Rite, core revenue was up low single-digits, driven by good performance in Pantone's color standards business.

Finally, turning to water quality.

Core revenue growth for the platform increased at a low single-digit rate.

At Hach, low single-digit core revenue growth was supported by modest improvements in municipal, industrial performance in the US partially offset by sluggish project activity in Eastern Europe.

We are, however, encouraged by mid single-digit bookings growth in the quarter as we saw improving order trends in both the US and Western Europe.

Earlier in the year, Hach launched the TU5 Series turbidity meters, an innovative new technology that dramatically improves water quality testing for customers.

A first in the industry the TU5 Series uses the same new detection technology in both online and lab instruments to deliver fast, accurate measurements that consistently match.

This is important as it now provides drinking water professionals with identical online and lab results giving them superior confidence that they deliver clean, safe drinking water to their communities.

This successful launch of the TU5 Series has been driven by Hock's highly effective new product commercialization process, and it's also a great example of how Hach continues to deliver breakthrough innovation to our customers.

During the fourth quarter, Trojan increased core revenue at a low single-digit rate off a top prior year comparison.

Trojan had very strong performance in 2016, achieving high single-digit core revenue growth for the second consecutive year, helped by continued demand in the municipal disinfection end markets in both the US and Western Europe.

And finally, at ChemTreat, core revenue grew at a high single-digit rate during the quarter as the team continued to gain share relative to the market.

Strength in both North and Latin America benefited from improved conditions in certain industrial end markets, including mining and steel.

It's worth noting that in 2016, we mark ChemTreat's 49th consecutive year of growth, a tremendous accomplishment and a testament to the team's commitment to DBS and their best-in-class commercial execution.

So to wrap up, we're very pleased by our strong fourth quarter results, capping off a transformative year for Danaher.

In 2016, the team delivered double-digit earnings growth, meaningful margin expansion, and strong Free Cash Flow.

We also executed on a number of strategically significant acquisitions during the year, including Sefia and Phenomenex.

We believe that the strength of our portfolio combined with the power of DBS provides the foundation for enhancing our growth trajectory and delivering long-term outperformance.

We're initiating first quarter adjusted diluted net EPS guidance between $0.82 and $0.85.

This assumes core revenue growth of approximately 3%, which is modestly impacted by one less selling day year on year in the first quarter.

As we announced at our annual investor event in December, we continued to expect full year 2017 core revenue growth of 3% to 4% and adjusted diluted net earnings per share to be in the range of $3.85 to $3.95.

Thanks, Tom.

That concludes our formal remarks.

Roxanne, we're now ready for questions.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

We'll take our first question from Scott Davis with Barclays.

Hi.

Good morning, guys.

Good morning, Scott.

Dental is kind of a business that seems to come in and out of favor for you guys every couple of years and problems here and there and good times, bad times; but I know it's a global business so it's hard to isolate exactly.

But when you think about fixing it -- "fixing it" still a pretty darn, good business.

But is it more of a product fix, a channel fix, a cost fix?

And how -- is it -- how difficult is it?

Just give us a sense, because I feel like I've heard this fixed dental speech a few times before in the Danaher history.

Sure, Scott.

Thanks for the question.

You know, my history with the dental platform is about, I guess, 2 1/2 years old.

And as far as favor goes, I've long been in favor, at least in last 2 1/2 years of the dental platform, largely because I think it has tremendous opportunities.

I think it has such fundamental growth drivers on a global basis, and I think our performance over a number of years has not been up to our capabilities.

In other words, I think we have a tremendous opportunity to improve both the growth trajectory and the margin performance of the platform.

So I'm very much -- I'm very favorably disposed towards the platform both from the standpoint of the fundamentals of the market on a global basis as well as the opportunity that it represents.

Relative to what we have been doing and will continue to do and the challenges associated with it, I think it started with that approach that I mentioned both in December as well as on this call about thinking about it as a new acquisition, essentially taking a new approach.

You might say a somewhat more radical approach.

In other words when we approach a newly acquired business, we tend to not approach it through small incremental improvements.

You look at what we've done at Beckman, you look at what we've more recently done at Pall and you see much more significant amount of activity around DBS, a much more significant infusion of talent; and as a result of that, more significant levels of improvement.

You asked about product channel cost, etc.

I would really go back to this comment I made about running the Danaher play book.

It does involve cost, it does involve rationalizing a number of dimensions of the platform that has an impact on the cost structure.

It involves rationalizing manufacturing footprint, the instrumentation and equipment platforms, the brands, even the operating structure from a people perspective.

But the play book then has that cost not all dropping to the bottom line.

You've seen good operating performance this year, but it really involves reinvesting some of that back into the business to drive growth, and I think what the team has done so successfully in the last year is both drive that operating margin performance up and reinvest with -- as you heard me comment 5% to10% increases in R&D and Sales and Marketing to get the growth engine moving.

And so I think it's going to take some time, but I think we're on the right track.

Again, I think the fundamentals are solid, and the operating -- room for operating improvements are significant.

Good answer.

Just a real quick follow-up.

Sure.

How do you do M & A when you don't really know the tax rate of what you're buying?

Is that something right now you put back on hold until you have more clarity on tax, or does it not -- as important as maybe we think?

Well, Scott, given all the various proposals out there, it is a little bit of an unknown; but the two or three sort of leading candidates of the new potential structure, based upon the analysis we've done, would all suggest it would be neutral to positive to us.

So I don't think there's a structure out there -- at least that high on the list right now that would be a negative for us; and that would worry me from an M&A perspective, but I don't think that's the case.

Got you.

Thank you, guys.

Good luck.

Thanks, Scott.

Just before we go to the next question, Roxanne, I just want to make one other point on the back of Scott's question about the dental platform.

I think if you step back for a second, I know we get a lot of questions about the dental platform.

I think it's important to recognize that the dental platform does represent about 15% of the Corporation and there are a number of businesses inside of that platform like our implant business and our orthodontics platform that continue to perform quite well; and you've got the other 85% of the platform that from a core growth perspective is well on its way, and I think is performing quite well.

So I think it's also important to put the dental platform in context relative to the scale of it within the Corporation.

Fair point.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Scott.

We'll take our next question from Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan.

Hi, thanks.

Tom, I'm wondering if you can elaborate a little bit on some of the areas where you've shown improvement on the industrial side.

You talked about Pall picking up low single-digit core revenue growth.

Can you maybe just talk about what the order book looks like and expectations for 2017; and similarly with Hach, you talked about mid single-digit bookings, so what's the outlook there?

Sure.

Thanks, Tycho.

Good morning.

We were encouraged, somewhat, by what we saw I would say in the latter part of the fourth quarter and certainly in December on the industrial side.

Pall Industrial clearly being one of those.

Our first quarter of positive core growth certainly since -- in some time and since we've owned the business, so we're particularly encouraged by that.

Water quality while that's been somewhat challenged from an industrial perspective during the course of the year, we saw some improvement there in the fourth quarter.

Our PID business, which is admittedly not as industrially oriented as perhaps Pall Industrial is clearly seeing some excellent performance there.

And then finally, I think our life science business, which has some industrial exposure particularly at Lieca Microsystems, to name one example, also showing some improvement.

So I think we're not really ready to call an inflection point, Tycho, but I think there are some signs in the order book that I think are encouraging.

Relative to expectations in the first quarter, again, not calling an inflection point, but I think we would expect some similar performance in the first quarter to what we saw in the fourth quarter, not a dramatic change.

The 3% core growth overall that we have dialed in, in the first quarter implies a level of consistency there, a little bit of an impact of days that damp up the number slightly.

But in general, I think we would expect some stabilization in the industrial markets that we saw late in the fourth quarter to continue into the first.

Okay.

And then for a follow-up, just a clarification on dental.

You mentioned in your comments you thought dental softness would persist in early 2017.

What gives you confidence that things could improve in the back half of the year, and is there a distributor work-down dynamic?

We've heard about that from a number of your peers as well.

Relative to the last part of the question, I think the commentary around sell out from distribution and that we saw, you heard that commentary earlier in the middle part of the year to third quarter in the year.

We saw the impact of that in terms of our sell in certainly in the fourth quarter in the more traditional consumables and equipment.

I think that's, given the channel, setting a tone of caution, if you will and so when you have caution that comes from some moderating sell out, it's going to have some impact there.

They're going to do some -- what I think is probably some right sizing of inventory in the channel with an abundance of caution before they start to see sell out improve.

So I think when we think about the fundamentals of the market, it's hard to see, Tycho, or pinpoint any particular reasons why we wouldn't see the traditional consumables and equipment start to pick up a bit as the year progresses.

I couldn't tell you much more than that other than the fact that we have not seen these types of air pockets, if you will, persist over a long period of time.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

We'll take our next question from Steve Winoker with Bernstein.

Thanks.

Good morning, guys.

Hi, Steve.

Could you maybe talk about, within Pall, you continue to ratchet up very good numbers.

So how's it looking relative to that original $300 million synergy guide?

Where are you in your thinking on that?

We feel very good about that, Steve.

We got off to a fast start and an early start.

We got that rate north of the $60 million that we talked about for the first year to more like $100 million, and I think that's really a function of the impact of the team in place, both the legacy Pall team as well as the Danaher team that went in to help out.

It's a function of the impact of DBS and the over 300 kaizens that we got after.

And so I think we feel great about our opportunities to get to that $300 million target.

I think as we look forward -- and you've heard us say from the very beginning that some of the more challenging tens of millions of dollars in that run rate are going to come in the latter periods as we work on some of the more challenging dimensions of the supply chain, the manufacturing footprint.

And so I think as we think about the timeframe, I think the overall timeframe of achieving that kind of rate in the 4 to 5 year period it's still -- it's still the numbers that we'd hang on to, only given the fact that it's just a little bit more challenging each year to affect those changes in the supply chain in the manufacturing footprint.

If $100 million was achieved in 2016, what's embedded in your forecast for 2017?

Our sort of -- we originally planned roughly $60 million a year over that 5-year period.

We would expect to be in that $60 million plus range this year.

So by the end of 2017, we will still be ahead of -- we would expect to still be ahead of our original schedule.

Okay.

And then on the SG&A, how much of that 110 basis points was G&A versus sales increase year on year?

The G&A was down, sales and marketing was up overall as a percentage.

All right.

I'll leave it there.

Thanks, guys.

Oh, and then -- you mean in the fourth quarter?

Yes.

A fair amount of that's noise from Cephied; but organically, G&A -- excluding Cephied, organically G&A was down and sales and marketing was up as a percent of revenues.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Thanks, Steve.

We'll take our next question from Doug Schenkel with Cowen and Company.

Hi.

This is actually Chris Lynn on for Doug today.

Thanks for taking my questions.

Hey, Chris.

No problem.

Just a question on Cephied first.

It appears on a full calendar Q4 basis it grew 15% to 20% year-over-year in Q4.

Is this right?

And then could you just provide some commentary on the key drivers to the strong performance in the quarter by test category?

Sure.

We did grow in that range during the course of the fourth quarter, so you do have that right.

And when we think about the growth of the business, the growth has been very consistent.

We continue to see the hospital acquired infection business, which is a large part of the business, continue to perform well and pretty consistently.

We continue to see good growth in infectious disease, in sexual health, and in virology.

So when you think about the individual product segments of the business, we've seen a good deal of consistency in terms of those growth rates across the four I just mentioned.

Thanks.

And then just on a higher level, could you just provide some updated thoughts on how the Cephied integration is progressing, and how you are initially leveraging DBS at Cephied?

Sure.

So it's early days, obviously.

We just closed the transaction in November.

We have an outstanding team of people leading the Cephied business, largely Cephied associates, but with the addition of some key Danaher associates as well, which has been consistent with how we've approached organizations, newly acquired in the past.

The team has quickly embraced a number of the tools of the Danaher Business System.

Dan and I were out at Cephied just a couple of weeks ago out in Sunnyvale.

We had an operating review out there, and we toured the manufacturing facility and met with one of the R&D teams as well.

I was incredibly impressed by what I saw on the shop floor.

The before and the after impacts of the use of kaizen on the shop floor, five day kaizens that involved Danaher teams combined with Cephied teams that were making improvements on the shop floor.

The tools of DBS that impact new product development were clearly on display when I met with the Omni team and saw the impact of what they were working on in the kaizen there.

So I think the team is off to a very good start.

I think they're off to a fast start given that we're just about two months post the close of the acquisition.

So we're very pleased with how things have gotten started, Chris.

Great.

Thanks so much for taking my questions.

You bet.

Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Ross Muken with Evercore ISI.

Good morning, guys.

Hi, Ross.

Just focusing in on sort of the pharma market.

Obviously, you provided us a bunch of color, but it seemed like results there are reasonably strong relative to the trend we've seen, and obviously bioprocess continues to be a stand out.

As you sort of enter 2017 with all of the sort of noise around drug pricing and maybe some of the headline issues that have happened on the pipeline side, do you see any disruption to that market whatsoever?

And I guess can you tease out whether it differs in terms of CapEx versus some of the more consumable items, if there's any differential in growth rates?

Sure.

Thanks, Ross.

So, Ross, let's maybe just -- to answer your question, let's take a step back for a second and try to put a context around our position in pharma.

So our pharma exposure is, say, between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in overall revenue.

The largest segment of our exposure -- or the segment where we're most largely exposed is biopharma, and we're seeing high single-digit growth in those areas where we're exposed to biopharma.

The largest segment of that is in the production side of biopharma.

So call that $1 billion of that revenue, and that's largely at Pall in biopharma production, which we expect will continue to be a terrific growth market.

That's really driven, as you probably know, well by the growth in biopharmaceutical drug production itself, and the pipeline today is a rich pipeline.

Its never been bigger than it is today in terms of the number of drugs that are -- of the large molecule drugs that are currently in development, and we also see single-use technologies and biosimilars being key drivers of growth over time.

So we feel very good about that.

In terms of drug discovery, so outside of production, call that about $0.5 billion worth of exposure, and that's where SCIEX and Beck LS and molecular devices participate.

We continue to do well in those businesses.

No real slowdown.

We think we've got some terrific products that are highly differentiated.

And so when it comes to large molecule drug discovery, we continue to see, again, based on the pipelines and the continued investment in those drugs versus small molecules, those to be great opportunities.

And then finally, we have positions in small molecule pharma that would be at SCIEX and in a couple of other places, and there's still some excellent revenue growth there but probably not as significant as we see on the biopharma side.

So we feel very good about those markets, largely as a function of where pharma is investing today and is likely to invest consistently in the future.

Just going back, though, for a second to the largest portion of that, that $1 billion or so in biopharma production at Pall, I think the key thing to recognize is that filtration plays an incredibly valuable role in that bioproduction process; and yet on a relative basis, is a fairly low cost component of that overall production process.

So we love businesses where we deliver high quality, high value consumables that are relatively low cost relative to the overall production process or the work flow.

And so that creates an incredibly strategically important position for us and one that we think is quite sustainable over time.

That's super helpful, Tom.

And maybe just quickly, Dan, sequentially, interest expense ticked down quite a bit probably more than certainly I and many others model.

Is this the new base, or was there something with sort of the mix or favorability in some of the rates you got in financing Sefia and et cetera?

What's the explanation and then the cadence off of that?

Part of it is very attractive rates, particularly in Europe where our commercial paper program is essentially 0% right now.

In some cases we're actually getting paid for borrowing money in Europe.

I think we're thinking about roughly $40 million a quarter going into next year as a run rate.

Great.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ross.

We'll take our next question from Shannon O'Callaghan with UBS.

Morning, guys.

Hi, Shannon.

I guess I've got to go borrow some money in Europe apparently.

We're having a tough quarter.

We're just going to borrow more.

Tom, on Videojet, I mean, you talked about the long track record of core growth there.

What is it that Videojet has gotten right so consistently over so many years that other businesses that you have that are in arguably maybe even higher growth end markets haven't been able to consistently translate?

What's the gap that you're trying to close there with the other business?

Yes, Shannon.

That business and the team that has lead that business for a long period of time now has really created what we've sometimes referred to at Danaher as a fly wheel.

A combination of initiatives that continue to build momentum over time and do so on a very consistent and continuous basis.

You heard me mention the great core growth and the long track record.

It's really those initiatives are a combination of things.

It starts with day-to-day execution using the tools of DBS without question.

The -- Videojet was really the birth place of a number of key tools that we now use throughout Danaher around day-to-day commercial execution.

We call those tools transformative marketing, under a broad heading of transformative marketing; and it really involves outstanding market visibility, tailored messaging, and outstanding communication to targeted end customers and tremendous field sales follow-up, backed up by an exceptional service organization which as you heard me say is growing double digits.

That fly wheel of commercial execution is now accelerating based on terrific innovation.

The team would tell you today they probably have the most exciting lineups of new products that they've ever had in their history.

Some of those products are already in the market today and just getting commercialized, and you'll see some of the impact in the recent quarters of core growth and others are coming.

The team would say it's the best line up in probably 15 years.

And they continue to invest, frankly, in some areas where there's still opportunities commercially like in high growth markets.

They've done some acquisitions of distributors recently.

They've added feet on the street in a number of markets; and they would quickly say that there's still opportunities to improve growth in a couple of those high growth markets where perhaps they haven't put the play book to work as consistently as they would have liked.

So it truly is a combination of things.

It's a tribute to the team, it's a tribute to DBS, and it really is something that we're very proud of.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

And then just on the core margin improvement for the year across the Company, clearly really strong and above what you had typically target.

How much of that do you attribute to a deal like Pall that's getting after some extra margin initially versus more mature pieces of the portfolio that are just beating their plan?

Shannon, it really was an exceptionally strong year and very broad based in terms of core margin expansion.

Pall was a meaningful contributor; but diagnostics up 200 basis points for the year, almost 100 basis points of dental despite a very sort of tepid end market particularly in the second half, so really good execution.

And I think what was most noteworthy this year was the increase in the gross margin side.

That was all organic for the full year.

It was driven by new products, as Tom alluded to in the PID side as an example coming up with new products at higher gross margins, really good execution in the factory, really taking advantage of our purchasing leverage.

And, you know, that 100 basis points of gross margins obviously both fell through to the operating margin side, but also let us really step up some R&D and sales and marketing investments across a number of the businesses.

So that's a number we watch very carefully, and our execution on that was as good as its been in 2016.

Great.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Shannon.

We'll take our next question from Jeffrey Sprague with Vertical Research Partners.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Hi, Jeff.

Good morning.

Just one more quick one on dental, if I could.

Could you just provide us a little more color on how to think about dental margins, how they play out in 2017 as we kind of work through these cross currents of restructuring actions and associated payback, you hope to get from them and anything to be kind of aware of first half versus second half, etc., as that plays out?

Jeff, for the full year, I would expect a kind of similar dynamic that we saw in 2016, which was low single-digit -- or very low single-digit organic growth but still churning out 75 basis points of core margin expansion.

It's perhaps a little bit less than that in the first half because we are sort of continuing, continually taking some cost actions.

You might see a little bit more of that in the first half; but again, I think we can cover elsewhere.

But I think for the full year, we'd like to see a little bit of pick up on the top line; but even if we don't, I think we can replicate what we did in 2016.

Great.

And then I just wonder if you could give us a little more color on China.

It sounds like things were better in a few of your businesses.

Do you think there's some legitimate kind of economic traction starting to happen there, or are there comp issues?

Just your bigger picture on China right now.

Jeff, we continue to perform very well in China.

I think a couple of businesses I'd highlight would be our dental business that continues to deliver terrific double digit core growth in China, and that's a broad-based growth rate across all the product lines of dental.

We've got a terrific team over there.

We continue to invest in feet on the street, and the overall fundamentals of the dental market in China continue to suggest that that's going to be a terrific growth driver for us.

Our diagnostic businesses also continue to perform very well there.

We're seeing good growth in that business.

We have at Beckman Diagnostics for a long period of time.

Our Radiometer business continued to perform well and Lieca Biosystems is now developing products in China for China, so a more localized approach to ensuring that we're hitting the right kind of price points in that market.

I think on the flip side, looking at where there's been some challenges, I think where we've had a little bit more industrial exposure in China, there have been some challenges.

I think water quality, to name one, is an area where we've seen some challenges given the slowdown in the industrial market.

So we're expecting to see a little bit of a pick up there as we come into 2017 across the industrial markets, but that's really been where the softness has been is he more industrial exposure we've had, the lower the growth rates in China.

Great thanks I'll leave it there.

Thanks, Jeff.

We'll take our next question from Derik De Bruin with Banc of America Merill Lynch.

Hi.

Good morning.

Hi, Derrick.

A couple of quick housekeeping questions and a follow-up.

So the housekeeping -- and if I missed it, I apologize.

The FX guidance, what's embedded for FX into Q1 and for your full year guidance and also the Free Cash Flow guide for FY17?

Sure.

For the full year, what we've highlighted in December when the Euro was $1.06 I think it's $1.07, was about a $0.08 negative year on year impact, little bit less in Q4 and pretty much evenly -- the other $0.07 roughly evenly distributed among the first three quarters.

And then Free Cash Flow, we don't give out specific guidance.

We, again, ended very strong full year conversion.

It was a little bit lighter in Q4, that was primarily driven by the timing of some tax payments including some kind of one-time payments related to separation that we had highlighted when we announced the separation of Forta that we ended up paying in the fourth quarter.

We would expect very -- again very strong Free Cash Flow conversion in 2017, maybe even a little bit better because of some of the one-time items we had in 2016.

Great.

And more of a -- more just theoretical question.

We've been getting this through investors, but I think there's some concern about if the trade issues sort of escalate and we go into some sort of trade war with China.

I guess the question becomes -- it's like are diagnostic products and some of the things that are just sort of critical into those markets less subject to some of the bans and like that?

Do you have any historical precedence in terms of how we could think about potential trade conflicts in some of your products?

Derik, I don't know that any of us here could speak to a historical precedent relative to what we might be facing.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

But I think there is an important point, all kidding aside.

Our positions in China -- I think you were asking maybe a bit about the diagnostic business.

Our business in China, we have manufacturing in China for China.

I just mentioned LBF just a minute ago, now designing products, manufacturing products for the Chinese market.

We do $2 billion roughly in revenue in China, and so that's really the core of our China business.

When we went to China years ago, we went less for the purposes of low cost manufacturing, more for purposes of being a local player; and I think that's key to our strategy.

So I think in that respect, I'm probably a little bit -- a little bit less worried about the impact on us specifically relative to China-related tariffs.

Time will tell, obviously.

Great.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

Thanks, Derik.

We'll take our next question from Steve Bushell with Morgan Stanley.

Hi.

Good morning and thanks for taking the questions here.

Sure, Steve.

One very broad question and one more specific question.

The very broad question maybe taking the concept that Derik introduced with the question around China trade.

Let's think about it more broadly.

We're in a period here where not just Danaher, but Danaher's customer base is thinking about an array of different potential policy changes in Washington.

Are there areas where you're hearing from your customer base any incremental animal spirits or conservatism that we should think about as we consider trends in the business into 2017?

Steve, I think one of the terrific advantages that we have at Danaher in this portfolio is being a multi-industry science and technology portfolio.

And what that means is that we don't have any particularly significant exposure to one end market or one customer set in one geography versus relative to the whole.

Specific to your question, I would say no.

We have not sensed -- I think what you asked about is animal spirits or animal instincts in any way, but I think you also used the term conservatism.

And I think certainly there probably are some pockets of end markets today where there's probably some conservatism.

I think there were a couple pockets of our diagnostic businesses where we sense that there could have been a little bit of conservatism in the fourth quarter, perhaps, as people were a little bit uncertain about what the future would be of ACA.

That's, again, something that's rather nuanced and somewhat speculative on the end markets part, but I think there's so much uncertainty in the world today that there must be pockets of conservatism in some places.

But we are not hearing anything consistent or at a particular -- at a high volume level from customers that would diminish our view of the end markets.

Got it.

And then so if I take a step back and look at diagnostics, which was my follow-up question.

If I look at the results in the quarter considering the comp.

I look at the Abbott results, I look at the Thermo results, and a couple of the smaller players, it does look like things across the diagnostics channel in the fourth quarter might have been a little bit lighter.

Safe to say your view right now is that that's a function of just a little bit of a pause, and what are we looking for to call any recovery there?

Thanks so much.

Sure, you bet Steve.

Again, Steve, there could have been some conservatism due to uncertainty in the market, but we were very pleased with actually our performance in diagnostics in the quarter.

And particularly at Beckman Diagnostics, where we saw improved performance.

We're seeing continued progress in customer retention and new customer win rates.

We see continued outstanding performance from Radiometer on a broad basis with high single-digit growth rates, and probably the only weak spot that we saw was at Leica Biosystems.

However, in the case of Leica Biosystems, they had an incredibly strong third quarter, so a bit of a difficult back to back quarter situation and a bit of a challenging comp perhaps.

So we feel pretty good about where we sit in diagnostics and continued good performance.

So some conservatism out there, maybe.

Some uncertainty, without a doubt.

But we'll continue to play offense, and we feel pretty good about where we are.

Thanks, Tom.

Thanks, Steve.

We'll take our next question from Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Dean.

We've covered a lot of ground here.

I did want to address, there's a lot of in intrigue in the industrials regarding the pending sale of GE Water; and I know you can't be specific, but might there be any particular business that would be coming out of GE Water that might fit with Danaher's Water Quality Platform?

And then just a related question, is one of the issues that GE struggled with is trying to manage a membrane business and a chemical business; and in many ways, those are diametrically opposed.

But you all have done this successfully, so what has been part of your secret sauce in being able to have both those technologies within one platform?

Thanks, Dean, and you're right.

We don't comment on any specific transactions; and, yes, certainly public knowledge about what's going on at GE Water, and it's certainly fair to say that we look at and consider everything that might be available.

Dean, you've come to know and hopefully love our water quality position over a number of years, so I think you know well.

We really have a bias towards high margin, lower ticket instrumentation and consumables.

Sort of goes along with what I was talking about earlier when I was talking about the Pall Filtration Business.

High value products that contribute meaningfully to workflows, particularly regulated workflows, and this terrific recurring revenue streams.

And that means that we aren't as favorably disposed towards large infrastructure or lower gross margin businesses that might also bring along lower growth rates.

So I think to your question about our success to this point in having different types of businesses in the same platform, I think the key to that, Dean, has been keeping those businesses that are quite different from one another separate and distinct in their organization structures.

ChemTreat today exists in the same organization structure as an independent truly autonomous operating company, as much so as the day we bought it.

Our Pall Water Business that came along with the overall Paul acquisition, by the way, has now been moved into Hach but is set up as a separating -- separated business unit from the rest of the business.

And so that focus on the end markets with a unique operating structure that's distinct from others in the platform is really key to maintaining the consistency of performance of those businesses.

So we like where we are.

That's real helpful.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dean.

That does conclude today's conference.

You may disconnect at any time, and have a wonderful day.