泰利福醫療 (TFX) 2014 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1 2014 Teleflex Incorporated earnings conference call. My name is Steve and I'll be your Operator for today.

(Operator Instructions)

Now I would like to turn the call over to Jake Elguicze, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Teleflex Incorporated first-quarter 2014 earnings conference call. The press release and slides to accompany this call are available on our website at www.teleflex.com. And as a reminder this call will be available on our website and a replay will be available by dialing 888-286-8010, or for international calls 617-801-6888, passcode 11286884.

Participating on today's call are Benson Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Thomas Powell, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Benson and Tom will make brief prepared remarks and then we'll open up the call to questions.

Before we begin I'd like to remind you some of the matters discussed in the conference call will contain forward-looking statements regarding future events, as outlined on slide 4. We wish to caution you that such statements are in fact forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual events or results may differ materially. The factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially include, but are not limited to, factors made in our press release today as well as our filing with the SEC, including our Form 10-K which can be accessed on our website.

With that I'd like to now turn the call over to Benson.

Thanks, Jake. And good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you once again. And similar to other calls, I'll begin with an overview of the Company's results and discuss some highlights.

To begin with, I am happy to advise you that both first-quarter revenue and first-quarter adjusted earnings per share exceeded our expectations. Revenue in the first quarter totaled $438.5 million. This represents an increase of 6.5% versus the prior year on an as-reported basis, and 6% versus the prior year on a constant currency basis. The better than expected as-reported revenue performance in the quarter versus our initial expectations resulted from foreign exchange favorability, as well as from the over performance of both our recently completed Mayo and Vidacare acquisitions.

As you may recall, when we last provided an update in February we indicated that we expected core volumes could be soft in the first quarter as a result of uncertainty associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, as well as certain other circumstances unique to Teleflex. As such, Teleflex planned its 2014 revenue cadence in a more cautious manner than in 2013.

With the first quarter now behind us, I am pleased to say that this appears to have been a prudent thing to do, as the combined impact of volume, new product introductions and pricing was in line with our initial expectations. When comparing first quarter to results, for the prior year period our constant currency revenue growth was largely due to the contributions of Vidacare and Mayo, as well as the introduction of new products to the market and an improvement in the average selling prices of products as compared to the prior-year period. We do expect our non-Vidacare volume to continue to ramp up during the remaining three quarters.

Turning to adjusted earnings per share, first-quarter 2014 adjusted EPS was $1.22. That compares to first-quarter 2013 adjusted earnings per share of $1.06, or an increase of 15.1% versus the prior year period. And while Tom will cover this in more detail during his prepared remarks, the improvement in year-over-year adjusted earnings resulted from higher revenues at higher gross margins, as well as lower adjusted tax rate when compared to the first quarter of 2013. This was somewhat offset by higher year-over-year operating expenses.

In summary, Teleflex's performance in the first quarter supports our belief that the Company remains on target to achieve our previously provided 2014 constant currency revenue growth and adjusted earnings per share guidance ranges.

Next, I would like to discuss first-quarter pricing, GPO and IDN contracts, and new product introductions in more detail. During the first quarter, the average selling prices of our products once again expanded when compared against the prior year. This past quarter, the improvement in the average selling prices of products contributed approximately 108 basis points of revenue growth. The price increases that the Company achieved in the first quarter were evenly divide and came from a combination of distributor-to-direct conversions and core product price increases.

From a segment perspective, we saw price increases highest in Asia, primarily due to distributor conversions. This was followed by improvements in pricing we were able to generate in Europe and in North America with respect to our anesthesia, respiratory and surgical segments. These price increases were somewhat offset by a decline in the average selling prices of some of our OEM product offerings.

Moving to new product introductions, during the first quarter, new products contributed approximately 78 basis points of revenue growth. The contribution from new product revenue during the quarter was in line with our original expectations, but we do expect contributions from new product revenue to uptick during the remaining three quarters.

Turning to new products by segment, new product revenue growth was largest in our vascular segment thanks to our ArrowADVANTAGE5 PICC product that is now pre-loaded for our VPS device. This was followed by new product contributions coming from our anesthesia and respiratory segment due to our ISO-Gard Mask with ClearAir Technology. Finally, the Company had additional new product revenue growth stemming from Europe, thanks to the additional PICC product offerings, and from North American surgical segment due to an additional Weck EFx product sales.

Shifting gears, the first quarter of 2014 saw a continued expansion of contractual agreements between Teleflex and our GPO and IDN partners. In fact, during this past quarter, Teleflex won a total of 17 agreements. Five of those awards were new and included product categories like pain management, intra-aortic balloon pumps and catheters, arterial catheters, and our VasoNova product offering.

Next I would like to talk to you in more detail about Vidacare. We have been extremely pleased with the customer reception we have received to date with respect to both the EZ-IO and the OnControl product offerings.

Integration activities remain on schedule. And during its first full quarter as part of Teleflex, Vidacare contributed approximately $20.2 million of revenue. This was slightly higher than our initial expectations, and was in part due to sales to the military, which can be difficult to predict.

In total, Vidacare contributed approximately 4.9% to Teleflex's constant currency revenue growth in the quarter. Maybe even more importantly, on an as-reported basis, Vidacare revenue grew approximately 24% versus the first three months of 2013. And while Vidacare's revenue growth shows up as acquisition related growth in 2014, if we were to maintain these types of growth rates next year it would mean slightly more than 1% of additional core revenue growth for Teleflex in 2015. We are committed to growing the Vidacare business and are taking steps this year to invest in additional clinical training and cadaver lab workshops to drive that further revenue growth.

As a result of the excellent reception, we are redirecting existing sales and marketing resources towards the sales of Vidacare products. This reallocation of resources may allow us to exceed our expectations for Vidacare; however it may also cause some reduction in revenue in other product areas. Given the high acceptance rate of the Vidacare products, as well as the high gross margin profile, we believe that this shift in resources is the right strategic move.

In addition to investing in more clinical training and cadaver lab workshops both domestically and abroad, the Company also recently received a 510(k) approval for a Vidacare product that we believe will also contribute to future revenue growth. In March the FDA announced a 510(k) clearance for the restated indications for use with the EZ-IO vascular access system. The EZ-IO 25-millimeter needle set is now indicated for patients 3 kilograms or over.

This is something that the Company did in response to feedback we received from clinicians. And initial feedback is positive, and many clinicians feel that the restated indication will help streamline care and expand EZ-IO usage.

Next, I would like to update you on the status of the Mayo distributor acquisition. As a reminder, Teleflex acquired Mayo Healthcare in February of this year. Mayo provides high-quality products, education services, technical services, and customer support to healthcare institutions throughout Australia.

This is an accretive transaction for Teleflex, funded through the use of foreign cash. And represented the major distributor-to-direct conversion that we referred to in our previously provided 2014 financial guidance.

During the first quarter of 2014, Mayo contributed approximately 99 basis points to Teleflex's constant currency revenue growth. This revenue growth came in the form of additional volume and price increases. I am pleased to say that the integration activities associated with this acquisition remain on track. And I'd like to welcome the Mayo employees to the Teleflex family.

And, finally, before I turn the call over to Tom, I would like to take a few moments to speak to you about a restructuring plan that we announced this morning. These types of announcements are never easy. And every member of the Teleflex senior management team takes these types of decisions very seriously.

As we have previously communicated, over the past several months we have been evaluating opportunities to improve our operating leverage over a multi-year period. The plan we announced today was developed in response to continuing pressures that companies like Teleflex face in the healthcare industry and is designed to improve our competitive position.

The plan is focused on the consolidation of operations and will result in a reduction in workforce at certain of the Company's facilities. It will include the relocation of manufacturing operations from certain higher-cost locations to existing lower-cost Teleflex locations. We expect actions to commence in the second quarter of this year and we expect these actions will be substantially complete by the end of 2017. We currently expect to begin realizing savings under the plan in 2015.

As I stated a few moments ago, we tried to be thoughtful when making this decision. And it is our intention to speak with affected employees shortly.

I want to point out that we expect the plan, combined with improvements we expect to realize from other initiatives, will enable us to cross over the 55% adjusted gross margin target level by the time we exit 2015. However, it does not represent the total opportunity we have to improve our margins and we are continuing to evaluate additional future opportunities for margin expansion. And this may result in the Company taking additional steps in the future. Having our 55% goal well in sight, we expect to be communicating in the near future about our new, long-term margin goals that we believe are achievable by 2018.

I realize this may be an unsettling time for Teleflex employees. I want to thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. And you have my commitment that we will treat you in a fair manner as we proceed in the upcoming months and years.

Finally, before I turn the call over to Tom, I want to point out that the Company recently promoted Liam Kelly to the position of Executive Vice President and President of the Americas. Most recently, Liam had the position of Executive Vice President and President of International. Liam helped generate excellent results while President of International, and I look forward to the improvement he will help bring to the Americas, as well.

With that, I'd like to now turn the call over to Tom for him to provide you with a more detailed review of our first-quarter financial performance, some events that occurred post completion of the first quarter, and our 2014 outlook. Tom?

Thanks, Benson. And good morning, everyone. As the headline, Teleflex had a solid first quarter. Revenue slightly exceeded our expectations, adjusted gross margins and adjusted operating margins both showed improvement from year-ago levels, and adjusted earnings per share increased over 15% from the prior-year first quarter.

For the quarter revenues were $438.5 million which represents an increase of 6% on a constant currency basis. When taking into consideration the impact of foreign exchange, revenues for the first quarter increased 6.5% versus the first quarter of 2013. The growth in constant currency revenue is largely attributed to the acquisitions of Vidacare and Mayo Healthcare, our Australian distributor. In addition, new products added 78 basis points of growth, and core product pricing contributed 56 basis points of growth.

Total pricing, including the margin recaptured via the Mayo distributor-to-direct conversion, totaled 108 basis points for the quarter. Volume for the quarter decreased 147 basis points and can be attributed to one fewer shipping day in EMEA, a top respiratory comparable, and a couple of one-off Teleflex-specific issues that occurred during the quarter. For the quarter we estimate normalized revenues to be in a range of about 3.5% to 4%. And we arrive at that estimate by excluding the base Vidacare revenue and making adjustments for the shipping day and other one-off items.

Turning now to gross profit, for the first quarter, adjusted gross profit was $221.2 million versus $201.1 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted gross margin increased 161 basis points to 50.4%. The increase in adjusted gross margin was primarily due to the Vidacare acquisition and increased pricing. Further gross margin gains were limited by soft sales of surgical products and select manufacturing costs, including costs associated with a decision to delay the planned closing of a manufacturing facility.

Turning next to adjusted operating margin, for the first quarter, the adjusted operating margin increased 113 basis points to 18.9%. The year-over-year improvement was the outcome of the gross margin gain coupled with slightly lower R&D spending. Somewhat tempering the gains in operating margin were additional SG&A expenses associated with the Vidacare and Mayo businesses, whose SG&A expense runs considerably higher than that of Teleflex.

Moving next to our adjusted tax rate. For the first quarter of 2014, the adjusted tax rate was 24.5%, which represents a 340 basis point improvement when compared to the first quarter of 2013. In past calls we have discussed several tax planning initiatives that will allow us to reduce our full-year 2014 adjusted tax rate to a range of 22.5% to 23.5%. Those planning actions are now largely complete and, as a result, we are well positioned to achieve that full-year tax rate target.

On the bottom line, first-quarter adjusted earnings per share increased 15.1% to $1.22. If you were to exclude the incremental dilution associated with the warrants, first-quarter adjusted earnings per share would have increased by 18.9%. And this represents excellent P&L leverage on reported revenue growth of 6.5%.

Before I move on to a discussion of segment revenue results, I'd like to cover the recent changes we have made to our segment reporting. Beginning this quarter, we have increased the level of disclosure on our former Americas segment by expanding that segment into vascular, surgical, anesthesia/respiratory and other.

Additionally, we made changes to the allocation methodology of R&D costs and certain manufacturing expenses and variances in order to improve the accountability amongst the businesses. This change reflects how we will be managing the business going forward, and all prior periods have been restated for comparability.

As an outcome the Company now has six reportable segments. Those segments are -- Vascular North America, Anesthesia/Respiratory North America, Surgical North America, EMEA, Asia and OEM. Certain operating segments have been aggregated and are included in other. Now let's turn to a review of the segment revenue results.

Vascular North America revenue in the first quarter increased 10.8% to $62.5 million. The increase in vascular North America revenue was largely due to the addition of Vidacare, new products and price increases.

Anesthesia/Respiratory North America revenue decreased 5.6% to $54.7 million. The decline in Anesthesia/Respiratory North America revenue was largely the result of lower procedural trends during the first quarter and unfavorable comps versus the prior-year quarter. We expect the negative impact of the unfavorable comps to continue through the second quarter and then improve in the second half of the year. Partially offsetting the decline in Anesthesia/Respiratory North America volume was an increase in the sales of new products and select price increases.

Surgical North America revenue in the first quarter decreased 3% to $35.2 million. The decline in surgical North America revenue was due to lower sales of existing products. Similar to Anesthesia/Respiratory, it is our belief the reduced volume was primarily the result of lower procedural trends during the first quarter versus the prior-year first quarter. Partially offsetting this decline was an increase in the average selling prices of products and new product introductions.

Moving to EMEA, revenue in the first quarter was up 2.5% totaling $150.2 million. The increase in EMEA revenue was due to Vidacare product sales, price increases and the introduction of new products to the market. Partially offsetting these growth areas was a decline in the existing product volumes due to fewer shipping days.

Revenue in Asia increased 20.3% to $49.6 million during the first quarter. The increase in Asia revenue was due to the Vidacare and Mayo Healthcare acquisitions, price increases, and higher sales volumes of existing products. During the first quarter the Company experienced particular strength in China, Japan, and India.

Turning to OEM, revenue in the first quarter increased 5.3% to $33.2 million. The increase in OEM revenue was due to higher sales volume of existing products, in particular sutures, and the introduction of new products into the market. As you may recall, OEM was a business that we expected to show a turnaround in 2014, and that's what we're seeing.

And, lastly, our other product revenue for the quarter was up 20.9% totaling $53.1 million. The increase in other revenue was due to Vidacare sales that fall under our specialty business call point, as well as double digit sales growth in Latin America. During the quarter, the Company experienced particular strength in Argentina, Chile and Mexico.

Next, I'd like to provide you with an update on select activity that occurred post the completion of the first quarter. Subsequent to quarter end, Teleflex integrated Vidacare into its legal entity structure. In connection with its integration we restructured our foreign holdings, which enabled us to efficiently repatriate $230 million of cash from our operations outside of the United States.

The repatriated cash was then used to fund a $235 million repayment of outstanding principal amount of borrowings under a revolving credit facility. As a result, we now project lower borrowings and lower interest expense than was initially contemplated in our original 2014 financial outlook.

Next, I would like to provide you with some additional details surrounding the restructuring plan that we announced this morning. As Benson stated in his prepared remarks, the restructuring plan is designed to reduce costs, improve operating efficiencies, and enhance the Company's long-term competitive position.

We estimate that the Company will incur aggregate pre-tax charges in connection with these activities of approximately $42 million to $53 million, of which approximately $32 million to $40 million will result in future cash outlays. These charges are comprised of a combination of termination benefits, facility closure and exit costs, accelerated depreciation charges and other costs directly related to the plan, including project management, legal, and other regulatory costs.

During the course of 2014, the Company estimates that it will incur approximately $22 million to $23 million of the aforementioned pre-tax charges, of which approximately $9 million to $11 million will result in 2014 cash outlays. These charges will be added back when calculated adjusted earnings per share.

In addition to these restructuring costs, the Company will also need to make additional capital expenditures. We estimate that the aggregate capital expenditures will be approximately $24 million to $30 million, of which approximately $10 million to $15 million will occur in 2014.

And as a result of the actions we've announced this morning, we expect to achieve annualized savings of approximately $28 million to $35 million once the plan is fully implemented. And currently expect to realize planned-related savings beginning in 2015. The Company will also incur pretax expenses that will not be added back when calculating adjusted earnings per share of approximately $5 million to $6 million in 2014.

Next, I would like to provide you with an update regarding our full-year 2014 financial outlook. Today we are reaffirming our previously provided 2014 financial outlook. For 2014, we continue to expect constant currency revenue growth between 7% and 9%.

Consistent with our initial expectations, approximately 75% of our projected 2014 constant currency revenue growth will be sourced from a combination of the recently closed Vidacare acquisition and distributor-to-direct conversions. New product introductions are expected to make up the majority of the remaining 25% of the revenue growth, with only modest expectations for volume gains and core product price increases.

As a reminder, in 2014 we continue to expect approximately 100 basis points of total pricing. However, the majority of that pricing is projected to come from distributor-to-direct conversions. Pure product price increases are expected to be much more selective.

And now turning to adjusted gross margin. As a result of the restructuring plan announced this morning, we will incur expenses that were not contemplated in our 2014 financial guidance. Approximately $5 million to $6 million of such expenses will be treated as period expense and will be recorded in cost of goods. The balance of the expense will be recorded as restructuring or restructuring-related expense, and will be added back for purpose of calculating adjusted earnings.

Despite the unplanned cost, we continue to project adjusted gross margin to be in a range between 52% and 52.5% for the year. The projected 2014 gross margin represents an increase of approximately 240 to 290 basis points over 2013, and is largely the result of the addition of Vidacare, distributor-to-direct conversions, and manufacturing and operation efficiency programs.

Moving on to adjusted operating margin and earnings per share. For full-year 2014, we continue to expect adjusted operating margin, excluding intangible amortization expense, to increase by approximately 100 basis points to a range of 20% to 21%. Further gains in adjusted operating margin are being tempered by investments to support the distributor-to-direct strategy and the addition of Vidacare which carries a much higher relative level of SG&A.

Moving on to taxes, as we discussed earlier, we have now put in place several tax planning initiatives. As a result, we are on track to reduce our full-year 2014 adjusted tax rate to a range of 22.5% to 23.5%.

Turning next to interest expense and debt, given the repatriation of funds and the recent $235 million pay down of the resolver, we now expect to realize approximately $0.06 of earnings favorability from reduced interest expense. Additionally, it remains our intention to finance the Vidacare acquisition through the issuance of a longer-term instrument. As a result, it is our current expectation to have approximately $1.1 billion of debt outstanding during the balance of 2014 at an adjusted weighted average interest rate of approximately 5.3%.

Turning to shares outstanding, given the first-quarter appreciation in Teleflex's stock price, we are now assuming additional dilution from the warrants. This additional dilution is projected to reduce full year adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.05. And adjusted weighted average share count is now projected at slightly higher than 44 million shares.

And, finally, on the bottom line, we are reaffirming our previously provided 2014 adjusted earnings per share range of between $5.35 and $5.55 per share. As can be expected, we have experienced a couple of puts and takes since we first provided 2014 guidance.

We now expect to incur both additional period expense from the recently announced restructuring program and additional dilution from the warrants. However, we expect the combination of favorability in first-quarter earnings and the projected interest expense favorability to offset these issues one for one.

As a result, our positioning in the guidance range for the adjusted earnings per share remains unchanged from the last time we reaffirmed guidance. In other words, our projections have not moved up or down within the range. And while we do not provide quarterly financial guidance I will emphasize that we continue to project revenue and adjusted earnings per share to be greater in the second half of 2014 as compared to the first half, with particular strength in the fourth quarter. And there are a couple of reasons that I can point to for the stronger second half.

On the revenue front, we expect to complete one additional distributor-to-direct conversion during the fourth quarter. Additionally, Mayo Healthcare was acquired part way through the first quarter, which limited the revenue benefit. During the balance of the year we expect to see the full impact on revenue growth.

Next, in addition to one fewer EMEA shipping day in the first quarter, we will have one fewer shipping day in the second quarter for both EMEA and North America. We will then pick up these shipping days in the fourth quarter.

Further in the second half, we expect to overcome a tough prior comparable on our respiratory business. And, finally, new product momentum will continue to build as the year progresses.

On the earnings front we project second-half earnings to be stronger than the first half for the revenue reasons just mentioned, plus we have a number of manufacturing cost improvement programs whose benefit will largely be in the second half of the year. Additionally, for the balance of 2014, we expect our adjusted tax rate will be lower than the first quarter.

In closing, we have gotten off to a solid start relative to the first-quarter financial expectations. We continue to work towards the implementation of financial strategies that will enable Teleflex to deliver earnings momentum regardless of the revenue environment, and are excited by the opportunities.

That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions)

David Lewis of Morgan Stanley.

Good morning. I just want to start off with the restructuring, whether it's for Benson or for Tom. At first blush, the restructuring announcement represents about 200 basis points of margin expansion, maybe a little lower than we were expecting. So, two-part question. The first thing is, how do we get from your margins today based on this restructuring to get the 55% fourth-quarter margins? Is that conservatism in this outlook or is it simply you feel better about the underlying GMs of the core business?

We still expect to exit this year at between 52% and 52.5% of gross margin. Some of those things that are contributing to that will spill over into 2015 and provide an additional bump. And then there's a fairly substantial amount of the overall gross margin improvement that will actually hit by the end of 2015. So, the combination of those events gets us over that 55% target level.

And it was -- first of all, we certainly felt a sense of obligation to do what we could to get above that stated target level.

Improvement in other areas in our gross margin has allowed us to take a more conservative cadence to some of the additional manufacturing opportunities in front of us. So, it's a combination of some things going better, and I'll cite Vidacare as an example which contributes significantly to our gross margin improvement, that's allowing us to take a little bit more conservative view to the timing of some of these manufacturing moves. But a majority of what we've announced in the restructuring will hit us by the time we exit 2015.

And then the other message that seemed to be relatively clear on this call was this notion of perhaps this is a broader restructuring, and these numbers could prove conservative. So, it sounds like, to the extent we're going to see conservatism to the initial restructuring announcement, we're going to see that upside more in 2016 and beyond than 2015.

That's exactly the message we're trying to deliver and that's the point we're trying to make.

Great, thank you very much.

Just to add on to what Benson said, as we look to move from this year, say, we're exiting at the 52.5% rate, what's going to drive us towards that margin at the end of 2015 is some of those footprint savings we'll realize in 2015. As Benson mentioned we also have pretty strong growth for Vidacare. It's a very high margin business. That, coupled with international growth, which is growing faster and higher margin, will help drive us, as well.

We also have another distributor-to-direct conversion scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. We'll then realize that full-year benefit. And we're going to look for more of those opportunities in 2015, as well.

We also have quite a few cost improvement programs scheduled for this year. And as we look to move from where we are in gross margin today to where we're going to exit the year, those cost improvement programs are going to deliver a lot of movement. And what we're going to see in 2015 is the full-year benefit of those programs.

And, so, we'll continue to look for opportunities outside of footprint. We've got opportunities such as material substitution and other projects that we're looking at, as well. So, we've got a lot of action that's going to help us get there by the end of 2015. That includes part of the footprint, but then the footprint also delivers some pretty significant benefits in 2016 and 2017, as well.

Great, thanks for the color.

Dave Turkaly from JMP Securities.

Thanks. And just to follow-up there on the restructuring side. I'm glad to hear that we're not done in 2015, we can continue through 2018. But would you be willing to give us today with this plan a reminder of the footprint that you have, in terms of the facilities? And could you not specifically name which ones, but at least give us some color as to how many are impacted by what you announced today?

That, I think, gets us to a position that's beyond what we're able to communicate until we have conversations with our employees about the specific sites.

Okay, fair enough. And then as a follow-up, I can't help asking for some detail around this Intuitive Surgical announcement. I take it that will be part of your OEM. But if you could give us any color on what you see that -- how you see that contributing. I know it wasn't specifically mentioned as a driver ahead but any details there would be appreciated. Thanks.

Actually, that's a relationship that exists between our surgical division directly with Intuitive. It's not through our OEM group. They have been working, I think, quite successfully with Intuitive over the past several years.

Obviously, the internal projections that we have are based on Intuitive's assumption about what their new robot is going to do in the market. And we would feel more comfortable having Intuitive state those numbers publicly than us.

Thanks a lot.

Larry Keusch from Raymond James.

Thank you, good morning. I just want to come back on the restructuring and make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Again on the math, it looks like you're just below 200 basis points of operating margin expansion through the restructuring savings. And I had been under the impression that you guys were articulating restructuring benefits that were at least north of 250 basis points and maybe over 300 basis points. So, I'm just trying to reconcile what was said earlier and make sure I understand that versus what we're seeing today.

That's a good point. Let me clarify, to the extent that I can.

We have essentially made considerable progress from a goal to get to 55% to a plan to get there, which has given a lot more clarity to the specific details. If you look solely at the opportunity we believe we have in front of us in terms of footprint consolidation, it's in the range that we're talking about. But not all of that is included in the current phase that we have. And we are taking the whole look at footprint consolidation relatively cautiously because this not only needs to be done but it needs to be done right so they don't have supply chain interruptions, et cetera.

So, we have moderated our initial phase of this to the extent that we think is prudent and what we can get done based on other things happening in our gross margin, which will still get us over that 55% goal. And as I mentioned in my comments, expect to provide more clarity of what the quantification around the overall margin improvement number is going to look like by the time we get to 2018.

Okay. And just, again, so I understand, and then I have just one other question. So, what you're essentially saying is there could be other opportunities as we move out in time. And along with that, I just want to understand, the $35 million, the cost savings that you guys are talking about, is that contemplated to all drop to the bottom line or does that get reinvested?

No, that would be savings that would be dropping to the bottom line.

Okay. And just a thought on again the potential other opportunities for restructuring as you move forward?

Yes.

Okay perfect. Thanks very much, Benson.

Jason Wittes from Arian Capital.

Thank you very much. Just wanted to ask about organic growth this quarter. My math has it slightly flat to negative. I may be off on that. But, also, I think if I look at your guidance for the year it seems like you're backing off a little bit. And I think part of that has to do with your comments about reinvesting or pushing more investment towards Vidacare. Could you just help us out with the numbers and how you're thinking about that?

I'm not sure precisely that we're backing off. But, as I mentioned in my comments, we are really pleased with the customer reception that Vidacare is getting. And it's quickly occupying the space of our fastest-growing, highest gross margin product.

We want to make sure we capitalize that opportunity fully. This is nested in sales divisions that have other products to sell. But we think it's the right strategic move, certainly short term, to have the focus on that product, which means, and can result in some lesser selling time on some other products.

So, I think we're trying to paint the picture that while we expect some overperformance in Vidacare, this might come at the expense of some of our additional product lines. I would say it's hard to calibrate exactly what that might look like. We still have some, I think, conservatism built into our numbers based on continuing uncertainty around the Affordable Care Act.

All that notwithstanding, there's some unique Teleflex circumstances, in the respiratory therapy business, for example, that are going to have much more favorable comparisons in the second half. So, all those changes in terms of organic growth rate still lead us to believe that our non-Vidacare growth is going to be in the 3.8% to 4% number by the end of the year.

Okay, that's fair. I didn't mean to put words in your mouth there.

To put a little more color on it, if we look at the components of growth that we talked about for the year, and we broke it down into five different buckets, if you look at what we're getting from pricing, about 110 basis points, that's on the middle to upper end of the range we talked about for the year. M&A, excluding Vidacare, which would be Mayo, Ultimate and some others, is also trending within the range or on the positive side of the range. Vidacare, as mentioned, is trending favorably. So, as you look at those three, all trending favorably to above where we expected.

As we started the year, volume in new products, it was our expectation that it would be on the lower end of the range, and that we would see new products building through the year as those new product introductions gained momentum. So, while we're a little bit south of our mid point of our guidance for the year, we expected that.

And same thing with volume. As we look at volume, that was below the full-year range. But, again, we expected that.

And the things that will help turn that around is, as we mentioned, shipping days. We've had one fewer shipping day in the first quarter and we expect to pick that up in the back half of the year. Benson mentioned the respiratory comps. We had a couple one-off issues that really will correct themselves in the second quarter, and otherwise.

And then, in addition, we've got some drivers that will help us in the back half of the year, including getting the full-year benefit of the Mayo acquisition, which happened midway through the first quarter, so you didn't get the full benefit of that growth. And then we're looking for one more distributor-to-direct conversion later in the year.

So, we've got a number of actions that should help that growth as the year progresses. Hopefully that helps with the additional color.

Great. Thank you. I understand that. And one just quick follow-up -- you've got a lot of questions about the restructuring plan announced. I think, just in terms of thinking about it, you guys have generally said you've had a long-term goal of 55% gross margins by the end of 2015. And I assume this is part of that.

In addition you've also said that you expect further leverage beyond that. Those are comments that you've made in the past. If we were to think about this restructuring plan, is the right way to think about it, this is really just a more formalization of those goals?

And then, secondly, as part of that, is most of that improvement going to come from gross margins or is there also some SG&A in there?

The first half of your question I'll take. And I think that's a pretty good way to phrase it. The only additional comment I would make to that is -- and we've said this many times also -- that we don't see 55% as the end goal for us. And we see pretty clear opportunities to get beyond that over the next several years beyond that, and we're committed to do that.

In terms of some SG&A expenses, depends on where the gross margin improvement is coming from. Vidacare, for example, carries some higher SG&A expenses in order for us to move that product line forward than what it is. Most of the gross margin improvement that comes directly from operations has pretty close to a 1 to 1 fall through ratio to our operating margins.

Great, thank you very much.

Matt Taylor from Barclays.

Good morning. I just want to make sure I'm clear, because there's been a couple different questions on the restructuring plan. In terms of your goals on the 55% and beyond, you're saying this is more of a formalization versus something that's really truly incremental. So, layering on the mid point $47 million in op margin savings is not necessarily the right way to think about it for the near term. That's question one.

And, then, question two is just, as you rationalize your footprint here, can you give us a sense and qualitatively as to where this puts you from a longer-term perspective. Meaning, is this phase one of multiple phases of basically moving to lower-cost jurisdictions? So, could we see another plan through 2021 that has the same kind of savings on top of this?

We are more likely to try and provide a bit of a shorter-term view in terms of where we expect margins, or what we expect margins to do in 2016, 2017, and 2018. That will encompass, I think, a fairly substantial amount of the margin improvement that comes from operations activities.

We might not realize all of the savings by the end of 2018. Sometimes the actual savings are pushed out somewhat by registration times and foreign governments, et cetera. So, we won't realize all those savings by 2018, but I think we can certainly provide some margin guidance in terms of where we expect to be there.

It's really not possible, though, for us to talk about the specifics around additional phases as similar to phase one. Until those are approved the Board of Directors we're not able to get into much detail about what that looks like. And that's the same boat we've been in for the past couple years with even discussing the phase one that's been approved now. We're trying to communicate that we think there's good savings potential out there beyond 2015.

Understood. And could you just clarify as to what you're really saying that's new today versus what you've communicated in the past?

Matt, this is Jake. I would say that I think, to your point, we had talked about opportunities to expand our gross and our operating margins. And we had talked about how a piece of that is going to come from facility footprint rationalization. And this would be essentially the formalization of a part of that operating margin and gross margin expansion.

Okay. And then just to follow up, you're a company that had talked about guidance for this year and been cautious on the first half because of ACA. Can you give us a little more color as to how volumes have been shaping up relative to your expectations, and whether you've seen any change from the beginning of the year until now in terms of how that may be impacting your business?

Our current thinking comes from some recent conversations we've had from some heads of some major healthcare systems that continue to report slower volume, slower procedural volume this year than last year. There is, I think, a degree of ambiguity about whether or not those are likely to turn around in the next few months or not. Their physician office visits continue to look negative compared to last year, but they're getting better. They are less negative than they were in the beginning of the year.

I would say, our own projections for 2014 don't include much in the way of improvement in procedural volumes. Most of our improvement is going to come from other things -- comparables, shipping days, et cetera. So, we have not counted heavily on procedural volumes improving in the US as part of our forecast process.

Okay, thank you very much.

Matthew Mishan from KeyBanc.

Thank you very much for taking my questions. Just a follow-up on the guidance, as well. In my mind, interest and shares outstanding seem to be a couple moving pieces, but they seem to offset each other. But the three moving pieces which you identify as conservatism with your guidance, I was hoping you could address it. The developed markets being flat, you talked about the US, but what about Europe?

Vidacare, seems like that's coming in ahead of your expectations now. And also, I think you have a currency assumption, a euro of 130. That's at 139 now. What are the offsets to some of that?

I'll turn it over to Tom, but you enumerated them pretty well.

Yes. As we look at currency, we are assuming that the euro/US dollar does trend down a little bit. And, so, we initially put together a plan of 130 for the year. We've now got that in at 132 balance of the year. So if, in fact, it does stay -- that exchange rate's been bouncing around 137 to now 139 now over the last couple of months -- if it were to stay at that rate we would have some upside there.

But then you touched on the puts and takes. We've got additional costs hitting our P&L from the restructuring program we just spoke about. That's $5 million to $6 million. We've got additional dilution from the warrants. And, again, that's subject to where the stock price goes.

But right now we're assuming, given the move up in the first quarter, that there's going to be an additional $0.05 of dilution associated with that. We did have a nice Q1 profit performance that exceeded our internal expectations. And combine that with the interest expense savings, all of those wash out to a breakeven. But then, again, depending on where currency plays out we could see some benefit there.

We'll also watch for additional tax planning opportunities, which we're always looking for opportunities to drive that rate lower. So, we think we've got a number of actions to continue to drive earnings this year. We're going to watch real closely on some of the execution items we've got.

To deliver the back half of the year we've got some execution ahead of us. We've got to drive a number of cost improvement programs in manufacturing. That will take our gross margins up fairly significantly. And we also have to get the volume growth out of new products that we're counting on.

So, as we think about those items outside of the four I enumerated in my prepared remarks, we've got pluses on currency, maybe some pluses on taxes, maybe some risks elsewhere. And, so, we think it's a pretty well-balanced financial forecast for the balance of the year.

And, Matt, you had a question about Europe. Europe actually performed very well this quarter. Their constant currency growth rate was in that 2.5% level. And that's despite, really, having a negative shipping day for Europe in there.

Asia grew well over 20%. And I think we mentioned in our prepared remarks that Latin America grew in the solid double-digit range. So I think all pretty strong performances there.

And then last question for me, should we read anything into you moving the cardiac group into other? And did that group benefit from the new award with Novation you talked about towards the end of last year?

The group is benefiting from the agreement with Novation, yes. It's just relative to their global size in comparison to our other business segments that led to us combining them together.

Okay, thank you.

Matthew O'Brien from William Blair.

Hi, guys. It's Kayla in for Matt. Thanks for taking our questions.

Just to piggyback off of the restructuring questions -- and I know you don't want to get into too much detail -- but we're just trying to get a sense for if longer term there's any reason structurally that Teleflex couldn't get closer to that 60% gross margin that some of your peers deliver today.

Let me rephrase the question to say that there are structural opportunities for us to take advantage of, I believe, that would get us closer to 60%. There are other things, I think, that we also need to do to help in that process. And I think our goal certainly is more in line with to look more like other medical device companies than what Teleflex had looked like historically.

I would say we're coming from 44%, we've made a lot of progress to date. And I think we have a clearer line of sight of where some of those opportunities now than we had even just a few years ago.

Great. And then one of your competitors recently discussed new product introductions to compete with VasoNova. We're just curious if you have any commentary there, or any changes in that competitive landscape that you're seeing. And just your confidence in your market position with that product.

We have not had any direct customer feedback about the comparative nature of how that system works. So, it's a little too soon to comment.

I would say we continued to see strong interest in the VasoNova technology. And it's not simply the system itself. It's the fact that there's an anti-microbial, anti-thrombogenic PICC that can be used with it. We're working to make those systems more compatible. And we continue to expect to make additional gains in that market over the next couple of years.

Great, thank you.

Korosh Saba from Stephens Inc.

Hi, guys. Just one more question on the restructuring. Just looking at this year and your ability to build a buffer inventory, whether that's going to happen, and how you see that impacting margins as we go throughout the year.

In connection with this move, we do anticipate the need to build a little bit of a buffer of inventory. So, that's going to happen through the next number of months and quarters. We don't estimate it to be a significant build up.

Part of this strategy involves some redundant manufacturing that reduces the need for all of the inventory carry to be through production. We don't see that having a major impact on margins for the year. If anything, we'll see some benefit as we more fully utilize our plants. But, again, this isn't a significant portion of our total inventory build for the year.

Okay, great. Thanks.

Richard Newitter of Leerink Partners.

Hi, guys. Thanks for squeezing me in here. Just wanted to ask -- you might have said it earlier -- did you say anything on pricing and what that was by region in your opening remarks?

I believe we did. We had essentially favorable pricing in Asia and in Europe. Asia was largely distributor-to-direct pricing improvements. We saw some favorable pricing in Europe. The Australia distributor obviously contributed to pricing.

But overall our non-distributor pricing, I think, came in right around 58 basis points. We're continuing to see a bit better performance in price increases on core products than we had expected a little bit, than we had expected going into the year.

That's correct. The big drivers of that pricing, obviously, are the distributor direct. And then the regions Benson mentioned, Asia, EMEA.

We had some strength in Latin America, LMA had a little bit of favorable pricing, as did surgical. OEM had a little bit negative pricing due to some competitive reasons. But the big driver, again, Asia, EMEA, and that being largely driven by distributor direct.

Great, thanks for that. And then, Benson, earlier, just on that question about potentially line of sight to more in line with med-tech or peer group 60% gross margin, can you give us a sense, if you were to take advantage and capitalize on the opportunities that would potentially get you there, is there a certain level of sales growth or organic sales growth you would need to achieve there? Or is that still delinked from a dependence on achieving sales growth acceleration?

We still believe that the current number that is out there about our likely core volume growth being in the 3% to 5% range is a good number to think about over the next couple of years. For the most part, the gross margin improvement opportunities that we have are not overly dependent on those revenue volumes. But revenue helps. So, to the extent that we're able to achieve the higher end of that goal, there's some added benefit that comes from that.

Okay. So, likely to get beyond the 55% targets that you have officially put out there and formalized today, some level of organic growth acceleration likely would be beyond what you've stated; it would likely be necessary to get you even above the 55% level.

No. What I'm trying to say is we certainly see opportunity to get above 55% that's not particularly revenue-driven. We also think there's an opportunity to get some improvement from revenue.

And a lot of it comes actually from the mix. All of the new products that we're talking about that we've been introducing to the marketplace have much higher gross margins than our average product portfolio. So, to the extent that they take a larger portion of our revenue number, they are a big help. So, to that extent, there's revenue contribution that's going to come from the mix of new products entering into the scenario.

The number of things that potentially can contribute to gross margin improvement, actually it's a pretty good list. It's mix, it's acquisitions, it's a number of different variables. We've tried to take a conservative view, in terms of thinking where we can be at by 2018, and are looking forward to being able to share more details about what that goal looks like and what the elements are. But it's not particularly revenue dependent.

Got it. And then just lastly, on your Intuitive Surgical collaboration that you announced this morning, are there any particular procedures that the product is specifically used in?

It would really be any of the procedures that their new robot would be used in, Rich.

Okay, thanks a lot.

Anthony Petrone from Jefferies Group.

Thanks and good morning. Maybe a follow-up on Intuitive. Can you maybe provide a little bit more detail on that contract from the standpoint of Teleflex? Are you exclusive for [churrel cores] and ports on the XI? And what are the economics behind that alliance? Are those products going to be gross margin accretive to Teleflex? And then a few follow-ups.

Anthony, from a Teleflex standpoint, obviously they're a great partner to be with, and someone that we've worked with over the last few years. And they've been a tremendous benefit. I think, my understanding is that I believe that it is exclusive.

And from a margin standpoint, I think we've talked in the past, our surgical business tends to have some of the highest gross margins in all of Teleflex. So, continuing to generate opportunities like this with a partner like Intuitive can only help Teleflex.

That's helpful. And then turning to restructuring, maybe a different way to ask this is, this quarter the Company put up 18.8% adjusted operating margin. The longer-term goal is 25%. So, the restructuring announced today gets you close to 200 basis points of improvement. I'm just wondering, how do you close the gap from an operating standpoint?

How much of it is from additional restructuring? How much of it is from mix? And is this target contingent upon doing perhaps other deals? And then one last question after that. Thanks.

Our current operating margin goals that we have attach to our gross margin goals. We, obviously, have recently changed the way we're calculating our adjusted operating margins to exclude intangible assets. So I'm going to go back, I'm going to pre date that.

What we've suggested was is that a 55% gross margin should generate somewhere between a 21% and 22% adjusted operating margin. That number has moved up as we've recalibrated to include the intangible expense number.

But essentially, we're in that same place where we were in terms of what we think the pull through is going to be. And those numbers do not include assumptions from future acquisitions, other than some modest improvements in dealer-direct conversions. They don't include another LMA or don't include another Vidacare as part of our calculation to get there.

If you just think about the adjusted gross margin for the quarter coming in at 50.4%, and the operating margin at 18.9%, as you start to think about the move on the gross margin, that adds 5 points of margin, which we essentially assume will flow through to operating margin. And so that will take you up to the 24% range.

We're also expecting, as the business grows -- right now we're making some investments in the SG&A lines to support various growth initiatives, to support our distributor direct, to support investments in China sales force. And we expect those to taper off. And so we're going to expect to see leverage in our SG&A expenses as the years go on. And that will help us continue to drive that operating margin even higher.

So essentially the big move is the increase in gross profit falling through to the operating line.

That's helpful. And the last one for me is you did some repatriation of cash here in the quarter that allowed you to pay down some debt. So, maybe just an update on can you repatriate additional funds. And where is the Company as it stands from a covenant standpoint in being able to do deals similar to, say, Vidacare and LMA?

Thanks.

Certainly, as we looked at the integration of Vidacare, really what we are tempting to do is to integrate Vidacare from both a legal entity in an IP management perspective. And in connection with that, we identified a structure that was efficient in terms of our ability to manage and maximize the value of Vidacare. And some of the unique characteristics of both Vidacare and that integration led to this repatriation.

So, is the opportunity available in the future? Potentially, but there's some pretty unique circumstances associated with this. So, we would not count on that as something definitive, but will continue to look for those opportunities as they present themselves.

In terms of what the impact on the leverage is, this obviously takes down the amount of debt we've got outstanding. Jake, do you have the latest?

Yes. At the end of 2013, our leverage under our revolving credit facility was about 3.6 times. At the end of the first quarter it was closer to 3.5 times. If you pro forma the delevering, we're around that 2.8 times type mark. So, additional flexibility has been created as a result of the delevering.

(Operator Instructions)

Larry Keusch from Raymond James.

Yes, just a quick follow-up. I think, if I have my numbers right, when you initially acquired Vidacare you were talking about 2014 sales in the $68 million to $72 million range. You did just over $20 million in the first quarter. So, how do we think about -- I know you said things are running a bit ahead, but how do we think about that range of $68 million to $72 million now? Should we really be thinking about this annualized closer to $80 million for this year?

There were some military orders in the first quarter numbers, which we are excluding from our run rate and looking at those as a one-time item because they're very hard to predict. So we wouldn't encourage you just to take the first-quarter numbers and multiply it by 4.

That being said, we're pretty enthusiastic about the reception this product is getting. And we're going to, I think as I said in my comments, do more to push it. However, the caution there is that may come at the expense of some other slower-growth, lower gross margin products.

So, we would be careful about adding all that increased potential just on top of our revenue guidance. But I think the way we feel about it, dollar for dollar, we would rather sell a Vidacare dollar than we would rather sell most other things in our product line. So that is what is encouraging us to make the shift in resource allocations.

Okay, great. Thanks Benson.

There are no further questions. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Jake Elguicze for closing remarks.

Thanks, operator. Thanks, everyone who joined us for the call today. This concludes the Teleflex Incorporated first-quarter 2014 earnings conference call. Have a good day.