IT Tech Packaging Inc (ITP) 2015 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the third quarter 2015 Orient Paper earnings conference call. At this time, I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions).

Joining us today are Mr. Zhenyong Liu, Orient Paper's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Jing Hao, the Company's Chief Financial Officer. Remarks from both Mr. Liu and Ms. Hao will be delivered in English by interpreters.

Orient Paper announced its third quarter 2015 financial results via press release yesterday, which can be found on the Company's website at www.orientpaperinc.com.

First, Mr. Liu will brief you on the Company's key operational highlights, and corporate developments over the third quarter 2015, then, Ms. Hao will review the Company's financial results. Then, management will respond to your questions during the Q&A session, after management's prepared remarks.

Before we start, I would like to draw your attention to our Safe Harbor statement. Management's prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, anticipated revenues from our corrugating medium paper, offset printing paper, and digital photo paper business segments; the actions and initiatives of current and potential competitors; the Company's ability to introduce new products; Company's ability to implement capacity expansion; market acceptance of new products; general economic and business conditions; the ability to attract or retain qualified senior management personnel and research and development staff; and other risks, detailed in the Company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections about the Company and the industry. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent or current events, or circumstances, or to changes in its expectation, except as may be required by law.

Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that these expectations will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

There is a presentation document featuring management's prepared remarks, and it is now available for download from the Company's website at www.orientpaperinc.com.

Please note that there will be discussions on non-GAAP financial measures, or EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Please refer to our press release for a complete reconciliation of EBITDA to net income.

As a kind reminder, all numbers in our presentations are quoted in US dollars, and all comparisons refer to year-over-year comparisons, unless otherwise stated.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Liu. His comments will be delivered in English by [Tina Zell] from [Weichin] Investor Relations. Miss Zell, please go ahead

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. This is Tina Zell from Weichin Investor Relations. I will deliver the English version of Mr. Liu's prepared remarks.

Thank you for attending our third quarter 2015 earnings conference call today.

We experienced decrease in both revenues and earnings in the third quarter, with total revenue decreasing 20.5% to $32.4 million, and net income decreasing 50% to $1.7 million, or $0.08 per diluted share. This was primarily driven by the negative impact of the temporary production suspension from August 20 to September 4, 2015, which was mandated by the Baoding City Government in connection with the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship games, and the military parade commemorating the 7th (sic) anniversary of the end of World War II, held in Beijing.

The production of affected products was resumed on September 5, 2015, and has returned to its normal levels.

During the third quarter of 2015, our EBITDA was increased of 11.7% to $7.8 million.

Gross margin also improved 4.1 percentage points to 19.8% as declines in unit material cost for regular CMP, and energy costs, as well as an increase in ASP of regular CMP.

During the third quarter, we focused on execution of several initiatives, and have positioned ourselves to capture greater market share in the long run, as we continue to see tremendous opportunities in a consolidating China paper market.

As previously announced, we commenced a packing operation of tissue paper in Wei County Industry Park, which generated $0.3 million in sales on shipments of 208 tonnes of tissue paper for the third quarter. We also completed the relocation of digital photo paper production lines, and resumed its commercial production in August 2015.

With productions continuing to ramp up, we anticipate increased revenue contributions from both tissue paper and digital photo paper in coming quarters.

Now, I would like to turn the call over to Ms. Hao, CFO of the Company, who will review and comment on our financial results. [Rachel Su] will deliver her comments in English as well.

(interpreted) Thank you, everyone, for being on the call. Next, on behalf of the management team, I will summarize some key financial results for the third quarter of 2015 and nine months ended September 30, 2015 respectively.

Also, I will occasionally refer to the specific production lines associated with various products. I will make clear to which product I am referring to. For reference, though, the numbering system for our production line is provided in our earnings press release and on slide number 17 in the earnings call presentation.

Now let's look at our financial performance for the third quarter of 2015. Please turn to slide number 7. For the third quarter of 2015, total revenue was down 20.5% to $32.4 million as a result of government-mandated temporary suspension of production from August 20 to September 4, 2015.

Turning to slide 8, for the third quarter of 2015, the CMP segment, including both regular CMP and lightweight CMP, generated revenue of $22.7 million, representing 69.9% of total revenue. $19 million of revenue was from our regular CMP product and $3.7 million was from lightweight CMP.

Volume for the CMP segment decreased by 23.5% to 62,875 tonnes, of which 52,737 tonnes was regular CMP and 10,138 tonnes was lightweight CMP. Average selling price or ASP for regular CMP increased by 1.4% to $359 per tonne, while ASP for lightweight CMP decreased 0.6% to $366 per tonne

Turning to slide 9, for the third quarter of 2015 our offset printing paper segment generated revenue of $9.3 million, representing 28.7% of total revenue. We shipped 13,689 tonnes offset printing paper in the third quarter, down 13.3% from the same period of last year. ASP of offset printing paper also decreased slightly by 1% to $680 per tonne.

For the third quarter of 2015, the tissue paper segment generated sales of $0.3 million. The volume of tissue paper was 208 tonnes and ASP was $1,324 per tonne.

For the third quarter of 2015, digital photo paper segment generated revenue of approximately $0.2 million or 0.5% of total revenue. In October 2014, we shut down and disassembled our digital photo paper production facilities for the relocation mandated by the local county government to a new workshop that we built across the street from our main production base, Xushui Paper Mill.

As mentioned earlier today, we completed the relocation and resumed commercial production of our digital photo paper in August 2015. During the third quarter, we shipped 38 tonnes of digital photo paper, representing a 73.5% decrease versus the same period of last year. ASP of the digital photo paper segment was $3,983 per tonne, up 1.9% year over year.

Slide number 10 summarizes the changes in our revenue mix. For the third quarter of 2015, cost of sale decreased by $8.4 million to $26 million, leading to gross profit of $6.4 million, essentially unchanged from the last year.

The gross margin was 19.8%, which increased by 4.1 percentage points from the 15.7% in prior year. For the third quarter of 2015, our selling, general and administrative expenses was $3.8 million compared to $1 million for the same period of last year.

The increase was primarily due to the increase in the depreciation costs associated with disassembling the digital photo production line for relocation that were charged to SG&A, and with the new facility in the Wei County Industrial Park.

For the third quarter of 2015, income from operations decreased by $2.3 million to $2.6 million. Operating margin was 8%, compared to 12.1% for the same period of last year.

For the third quarter of 2015, net income decreased by 50% to $1.7 million or $0.08 per basic and diluted share, compared to $3.4 million or $0.18 per share for the same period of last year.

For the third quarter of 2015, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA decreased (sic - press release, "increased") by $0.8 million to $7.8 million from $7 million for the same period of last year.

Now shift to year-to-date financial results. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015 total revenue was down 4% to $100.2 million, as a result of government-mandated two-week suspension of production from August 20 to September 4, 2015 that more than offset strength in the first half of 2015.

Turning to slide 8 for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the CMP segment, including both regular CMP and lightweight CMP, generated revenue of $73.8 million (sic - see press release, "$73.2 million"), representing 73% of total revenue. $61.3 million of revenue was from our regular CMP product and $11.9 million was from lightweight CMP.

Volume for the CMP segment decreased by 1% to 197,582 tonnes, of which 165,959 tonnes were regular CMP and 31,623 tonnes were lightweight CMP. ASP for regular CMP increased by 2.2% to $369 per tonne, while ASP for lightweight CMP also increased by 2.5% to $376 per tonne.

Turning to slide 9, for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, our offset printing paper segment generated revenue of $26.6 million, representing 26.5% of total revenue. We shipped 38,545 tonnes offset printing paper for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, down 9.7% from the same period of last year. ASP of offset printing paper increased slightly by 0.7% to $689 per tonne.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, tissue paper segment generated sales of $0.3 million. Volume of tissue paper was 208 tonnes and ASP was $1,324 per tonne.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, digital photo paper shipments generated revenue of approximately $0.2 million or 0.2% of total revenue.

In October 2014, we shut down and disassembled our digital photo paper production facilities, our PM4 and PM5 production lines, for the relocation mandated by the local county government to a new workshop that we built across the street from our main production base, Xushui Paper Mill.

We completed the relocation and resumed commercial production of our digital photo paper in August 2015. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, we shipped 44 tonnes of digital photo paper, including 6 tonnes in second quarter and 38 tonnes in the third quarter, representing a 94.1% decrease versus the same period of last year.

ASP of digital photo paper segment was $4,026 per tonne, up 2.7% year over year.

Slide number 10 summarizes the changes in our revenue mix. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, cost of sale decreased by $8.8 million to $78.3 million. Gross profit increased by 27.2% to $21.9 million, and gross margin increased by 5.4 percentage points to 21.8%.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, selling, general and administrative expenses was $7.4 million, compared to $2.9 million for the same period of last year. The increase was primarily due to the increase in the depreciation costs associated with disassembling the digital photo paper production lines for relocation that was charged to SG&A, and with the new facility in the Wei County Industrial Park.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, income from operations increased by $0.7 million to $14.5 million. Operating margin was 14.5% compared to 13.2% for the same period of last year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, net income decreased by 1% to $9.4 million, or $0.46 per basic or diluted share, compared to $9.5 million or $0.5 per share for the same period of last year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, EBITDA increased by $5.4 million to $25.1 million from $19.8 million for the same period of last year.

Moving to slide 11, let's look at the balance sheet and liquidity. As of September 30, 2015, the Company had cash and cash equivalents, short-term debt, current capital lease obligations, long-term debt and non-current capital lease obligations of $4.4 million, $14.9 million, $6.3 million, $19.4 million and $6.7 million respectively. This compared to $3.9 million, $28.5 million, $12.3 million, $15.6 million and $4.1 million respectively at the end of 2014.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $10.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, compared to $35.8 million for the same period of the last year.

Net cash used in investing activity was $11.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, compared to $22.8 million for the same period of the last year.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $1.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, [compared to] net cash used in financing activities of $9.1 million for the same period of the last year.

Let me now turn the call back over to Mr. Liu to take you through the [progress] we are making in our key capital projects.

(interpreted) Thank you, Rachel. Slide 13 has our most recent photos related to the tissue paper expansion project. In April, we completed installation of tissue paper packing equipment, which functions independently from the base tissue paper production line, and launched commercial production of our own brand of tissue paper products using base tissue paper sourced from the third party.

On slide 14, you will find an update on the relocation of our digital photo paper production lines. Due to changes in the county government's zoning policy, we moved these production lines to a new location right across the street from Xushui Paper Mill, which we call the Xushui Mill Annex. We have completed the relocation and resumed commercial production in the beginning of August.

Now, I would like to turn the discussion over to the operator for any questions.

(Operator Instructions). [John Tumazos].

Roughly how many dollars of revenue do you think you did not have in the quarter because of the production curtailments due to the military parade or athletic games, if any? For example, it's possible that you had adequate inventories and the production decline just caused you to reduce inventory and have better working capital management.

Thank you, John, for your question. (spoken in Chinese)

(interpreted) John, the Company's production line was basically temporarily shut down for about two weeks, 15 days to be exact. During the normal course of the Company's business, the Company keeps about two days' of inventory level, so it's good enough to meet the sales requirement for two days' sales. So roughly, the Company lost about 13 days of production in terms of sales revenue, during the third quarter.

Thank you, that's a very clear explanation.

(spoken in Chinese)

Okay. John, go ahead, do you have other questions?

This is a more difficult thing for me to understand. I study other industries and other companies, and in August and September, the aluminum production did not fall. It's up 18% this year in China. And the steel production, which is more concentrated in the six north east provinces, and also affected by iron ore imports in Tianjin port, was about the same in August and September.

Why do you think the production cutbacks for the 70th holiday, or other reasons, were enforced on your Company, but not on other sectors? And maybe steel or coal burning for aluminum is dirtier than paper production.

John, let me repeat your question. Are you saying that [you are concerned] that some other factory's production is not affected by the temporary shutdown linked to the (multiple speakers)?

The Chinese Government statistics, International Aluminum Association statistics, World Steel Association statistics suggest that.

Okay, let me translate your question. (spoken in Chinese)

(interpreted) Hi, John. To answer your question, the mandatory shutdown, it only affects some certain industries neighboring Beijing City, within 200 kilometers distance from the city of Beijing, affecting certain areas Hebei, not an entire Hebei province. Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province.

Thank you.

(interpreted) And as far as we know, within the 200 kilometers of Beijing, I don't think there is any major steel manufacturer in town.

Thank you for the questions. Being no further questions, let me turn the call over to Mr. Liu for closing remarks.

(interpreted) Thank you operator, and thank you all for participating in the call today. In closing, we would like to reiterate our optimist for this next quarter. We will continue to focus on our base tissue paper productions, which we believe will help us further cost and expand our new production operations.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us. We strive to answer all investor enquiries, and invite you to address your questions to our Investor Relations contact at ir@orientpaperinc.com.

This concludes our call today, and we thank you all for listening in. Goodbye.

Portions of this transcript that are marked (interpreted) were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call. The interpreter was provided by the Company sponsoring this Event.