Hudson Technologies (NASDAQ:HDSN) Q2 2021 Earnings Call

0:00 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hudson Technologies Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, John Nesbitt. Sir, the floor is yours. Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to our conference call to discuss Hudson Technologies financial results for the second quarter of 2022. On the call today are Brian Coleman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Nat Krishnamurti, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now take a moment to read the Safe Harbor Statement. During the course of this conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements. All statements that address expectations, opinions, or predictions about the future are forward-looking statements. Although they reflect our current expectations and are based on our best view of the industry and of our businesses, as we see them today, they are not guarantees of future performance. Please understand that these statements involve a number of risks and assumptions, and since these elements can change and in certain cases are not within our control, we would ask that you consider and interpret them in that light. We urge you to review Hudson's most recent Form 10-K and other subsequent SEC filings for discussion of the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our business and our performance and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. With that, I will now turn the call over to Brian Coleman.

1:29 Go ahead, Brian. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to have delivered very strong second quarter results characterized by substantial revenue growth, significantly improved margins and improved profitability. During the quarter, we benefited from very strong demand coupled with favorable pricing trends across our portfolio of refrigerants. As we anticipated, we saw increased sales activity related to the continued reopening of our economy. Additionally, the return to business as usual coincided with the warm summer weather in the north and northeast, which has historically driven heightened demand in the marketplace as cooling systems come back online. From our vantage point today, we're seeing more normal levels for demand than we had seen last year.

2:20 From a pricing standpoint, during the second quarter, we saw improved pricing across most refrigerants we sell, and we believe prices will remain stable for the near term with the expectation of increases in 2022 season as the implementation of the AMAC phase-down begins. With that reference in mind, I'd like to take a minute to discuss our gross margin performance. The significantly improved gross margin in the second quarter is primarily attributable to the higher selling prices of certain refrigerants. As you know, we take a FIFO approach to inventory management. And during the second quarter, we were largely selling through inventory we had acquired at lower costs. Therefore, we saw a more favorable impact on our gross margin performance.

3:07 Moving forward, through the balance of the cooling season, we expect to see a return to more historical gross margin performance of the upper 20s to the lower 30% levels with particularly HFC refrigerant inventory at price points more in line with the current selling prices. Hudson is well positioned in the refrigerant supply chain at two key points, serving as a leading provider of all types of refrigerants. To give some context, we sell HFCs, which are currently the most commonly used refrigerant and represents the largest installed base of equipment, as well as legacy refrigerants like CFCs and HCFCs. and eventually we will serve as a supply source for next generation HFOs.

3:55 We are secure in our leadership position and with our capabilities and relationships, we remain optimistic about our prospects for the future. As we discussed before, our industry is on the cusp of exciting new regulatory changes and we remain focused on the opportunities before us as environmental and sustainability legislation is adopted. The AIM Act, which was passed in December of 2020, requires the phase-down of HFC production over the next 15 years with a cumulative 40% reduction in the baseline scheduled to take place in just two and a half years. With the large and growing installed base of HFC systems, reclamation will be critical to maintaining necessary HFC supply levels to ensure an orderly phase-down.

4:47 As a leading reclaimer, we believe this represents a significant long-term opportunity for Hudson to act as an HFC supplier while also supporting the transition away from the production of virgin HFCs. In September, the EPA will finalize the HFC allocations likely for the years 2022 and 23. Hudson believes it will receive allocations under this rulemaking. With the allocation rule, we'll have more visibility around how the industry will be positioned to meet demand as HSC production becomes more limited. Moreover, the EPA will have to administer other aspects of the AIM Act over the next several months, which should help fine tune the overall financial opportunity for our company.

5:38 Along with the establishment of an allocation framework, the AIM Act mandates the EPA to support the growth and development of the reclamation market. Hudson represents approximately 35% of all refrigerant reclamation activity in the U.S., and our capabilities as a reclaimer uniquely position us to support the phase-down of HSC refrigerants and as an effective resource in the circular economy of the refrigerant industry. We are energized by the opportunities we are seeing not only to grow our business, but also to provide our services to benefit the environment. We're pleased with our progress to date in the 2021 selling season and look forward to continuing to meet the demands of our customers as the end markets they serve return to normal operations.

6:26 We're encouraged by the opportunities we're seeing in the marketplace, and we look forward to leveraging our capabilities to enhance our leadership role as a refrigerant provider and reclaimer as the HFC phase-down begins. Now I'll turn the call over to Nat to review the financials. Go ahead, Nat. Thank you, Brian. For the second quarter ended June 30th, 2021, Hudson recorded revenues of $60.5 million, an increase of 27% compared to $47.7 million in the comparable 2020 period. The growth is related to increased volume as well as increased selling prices for certain refrigerants during the quarter. Gross margin was 36% for the second quarter of 2021 compared to 27% in the second quarter of 2020. The improved gross margin is primarily attributable to higher selling prices in the quarter, which, in the context of our FIFO approach to inventory, favorably impacted our margin performance.

7:26 As Brian mentioned, we expect to see a return to more historical gross margin performance as we close out the selling season with inventory that was purchased at a higher price. SG&A for the second quarter of 2021 was $6.8 million, consistent with SG&A in the second quarter of 2020 and decreased as a percentage of revenue to 11.1% as compared to 14.2% of sales in the same quarter last year. We recorded operating income of $14.4 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to operating income of $5.2 million in the second quarter of 2020. Interest expense for the second quarter of 2021 was $2.9 million compared to $3.1 million reported during the second quarter of 2020. mainly due to principal payments made on the term loan.

8:18 The company recorded net income of $11.3 million or 26 cents per basic and 24 cents per diluted share in the second quarter of 2021 compared to net income of $2.4 million or six cents per basic and diluted share in the same period of 2020. At June 30th, 2021, we had approximately $41 million of total availability. consisting of our cash balance and revolver availability. We have strong liquidity and our term loan and revolving loan credit facilities provide us with a solid financial platform and flexibility as we look forward. Our leverage ratio at June 30th, 2021 was 4.18 as compared to 5.84 and 11.22 as of December 31st, 2020 and 2019 respectively. This improvement is a result of both increased earnings and de-levering the balance sheet. As discussed on the last call, we have initiated the process to refinance our debt and expect to be complete during the fourth quarter of this year. I will now turn the call back over to Brian.

9:27 Thank you, Nat. As we close out the 2021 selling season, we're excited about the opportunities ahead and are focused on growing our leadership position in the refrigerant and reclamation industry. Operator, we'll now open the call to questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please indicate so now by pressing Star 1 on your touch-tone phone. Pressing Star 2 will remove you from the queue should your question be answered. And lastly, while posing your question, please pick up your handset if listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold while we poll for questions. And the first question is coming from Ryan Sigdal from Craig Harlem. Ryan, your line is live. Good afternoon, guys. Congrats on the strong results.

10:12 Thank you, Ryan. First, I want to start on reclamation. Given the significant increases in R22 pricing, therefore ability likely to pay more for the dirty gas, does that help to improve the feedstock supply? Not really, Ryan. We've expressed frustration in the recovery rates of R22 for a number of years now. We certainly did expect reclamation to have grown at levels much higher than where we are today. And the last reported data only shows about 8 million pounds being reclaimed annually. So the economic factor hasn't really stimulated increases or changes in behavior.

11:01 Now, I think an important distinction about the HFC phase-out, though, is that In the HSC phase-out, as the AIM Act is currently constructed, as legislated, so it's the law now, the EPA is mandated to find ways to help grow the reclamation market. So what we are expecting is through various means, and these are the further rulemaking that the EPA will be dealing with in the future, the EPA is going to seek ways to help encourage, increase, the overall recovery rates, which really leads to the increases in reclamation volumes. Another factor I think that's probably important and why HFCs are different than the prior phase-out is, for example, in the state of California, there's a lot of reporting requirements regarding recovery rates and so forth at the contractor level.

11:57 And now that the OEMs are part of a rulemaking specific to the state of California, are being asked to include a certain percentage of reclaim in their factory charge units. I believe the industry is going to be more engaged on an overall basis to encourage recoveries. And when you think about in two and a half years, a 40% reduction off of the current cap relative to the HSC phase down, that's a very significant constraint on supply that likely reclaim will have to meet some portion of that overall need. That's helpful. Do you think there's anything that could stimulate R22 just to help get that feedstock and change behavior, or is it really shifting from R22 onto the HFC opportunity at this point?

12:54 I mean, we certainly are not giving up on the R22. And we certainly would love to increase the volumes of recovery on R22. And certainly, now that the price is over $20 a pound, we're making closer to $10 per pound, when years ago we were maybe making only $5 per pound. So again, it's always a gross profit dollar story per pound recovered and resold. So yes, we would love to see increases. Yes, we've tried to enter different parts of the channel. and we're looking to grow our overall R22 reclaim but we're basically suggesting from a modeling point of view stick with the current 8 million pound number and we know that there should be some further upside in the sale price of R22 as we continue with the phase out and being solely sourced with reclaim product and the stockpile should eventually be eliminated.

13:54 Got it. So stability and volumes on the reclamation prior to 2022, just not growth at this point? That's what we would say is best to model right now because we haven't really cracked the nut on finding ways to grow the overall recovery rate. Helpful. Then just on pricing, I don't think I caught it if you mentioned it, but what was pricing in the quarter and then also current pricing? So pricing is now over $20 a pound. We started within the quarter around closer to $15. So we saw growth of R22 through the quarter and continues to be at those levels. We still, over time, we can't say when, we still have that expectation that R22 could get to $30 a pound, possibly more, as we'd seen with the CFC phase-out.

14:43 So we still think there's price increases available to R22. And then on the Department of Defense DLA contract, it looks like it was amended, raised the maximum value recently here. Any update there on that amendment as well as how that contract is progressing? So, yes, we got the five-year renewal. We may have done a press release, I think, in late June for that announcement. The DLA does their press releases in the context of when the contracts renew, so that's why there was a delay. Again, it's still a large pot of money. It's not a pot of money that's restricted on an annual basis. So unfortunately, we peaked at close to about $25 million right now, I think, in annual revenue.

15:39 But again, we're trying to find ways to increase the spend through the DLA contract as opposed to the various agencies using their annual budget. For the first time, The DLA has added a program manager to this contract, so we think that is going to help us in terms of marketing and awareness to be able to grow the dollars through that contract. One more for me, and then I'll turn it over. You mentioned debt refinance. You started the process. Any more detail you can give there? And I said expectation by Q4, but where you're at in the process, given the fundamental improvement for the company as well as industry. What's your confidence there and where are you at in the process?

16:25 Thanks. Sure, no problem. This is Nat here. We're in preliminary stages right now as far as the process, from a process perspective. As I mentioned on the call, the leverage ratio is down significantly from the last couple of years, so that puts us in a really good position as we move forward and obviously with earnings growth as well. if it's in an even better position to move forward. We're expecting to close out probably sometime in Q4. So, again, like I said, preliminary stages, we're working with multiple parties to advance. Thanks. Congrats again on the nice results, and I'll turn it over. Thank you, Ryde. Thank you. Once again, if there are any remaining questions or comments, please indicate so now by pressing star 1 on your touchtone phone.

17:17 Okay, we have no remaining questions in queue. I'd now like to turn the floor back to management for closing remarks. Well, thank you, operator. I'd like to thank all of our employees for the continued support and dedication to our business, particularly in these difficult times. I want to, again, thank our long-time shareholders for your support and those that recently joined us for their support. Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's conference call, and we look forward to speaking with you after the third quarter results. And have a good night, everybody. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. Keep your lines. Have a wonderful day.