Koppers Reports First Quarter 2024 Results

Completed Acquisition of Brown Wood Preserving Company

First Quarter Sales of $497.6 Million vs. $513.4 Million in Prior Year Quarter

First Quarter Diluted EPS of $0.59 vs. $1.19 in Prior Year Quarter

Adjusted EPS of $0.62 vs. $1.12 in Prior Year Quarter

Koppers Holdings Inc., an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds, reported net income attributable to Koppers for the first quarter of 2024 of $13.0 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, compared to $25.5 million, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the prior year quarter.

Adjusted net income attributable to Koppers and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were $13.6 million and $0.62 per share for the first quarter of 2024, compared to $24.0 million and $1.12 per share in the prior year quarter.

Consolidated net sales of $497.6 million decreased by $15.8 million, or 3.1 percent, compared with $513.4 million in the prior year. Excluding a $2.5 million unfavorable impact from foreign currency changes, sales decreased by $13.3 million, or 2.6 percent.

The Railroad and Utility Products and Services (RUPS) business generated record first-quarter sales and higher year-over-year profitability as a result of higher crosstie volumes, pricing increases and improved plant utilization, which combined to more than offset higher expenses.

The Performance Chemicals (PC) segment delivered a strong first quarter in sales and profitability, driven by volume increases, primarily for copper-based preservatives in the Americas.

The Carbon Materials and Chemicals (CMC) segment experienced reduced market demand, with sales and profitability unfavorably impacted by price and volume decreases, as well as lower plant utilization in North America primarily due to an outage in January.

Chief Executive Officer Leroy Ball said, “As projected, PC and RUPS showed year-over-year improvement in profitability, which was unfortunately negated by slumping CMC markets.  Weather-related plant outages and higher costs early in the quarter ultimately became too much to overcome as end markets performed mostly as expected.  Additionally, various unfavorable factors affected our rail maintenance-of-way businesses and created an additional unexpected earnings drag.  A mixed market outlook and specific short-term customer challenges are causing us to be cautious about the remainder of 2024.  Our team will continue to focus on the things that we can control, particularly actions related to cost reduction and free cash flow.”

First Quarter Financial Performance

• RUPS delivered record first-quarter sales of $225.1 million, an increase of $12.0 million, or 5.6 percent, compared to $213.1 million in the prior year quarter. Excluding an unfavorable impact from foreign currency changes of $0.6 million, sales increased by $12.6 million, or 5.9 percent, from the prior year quarter. The sales growth was largely due to $9.6 million of volume increases for crossties and a net $8.1 million of pricing increases across multiple markets, particularly for crossties and domestic utility poles. These increases were partly offset by lower activity in maintenance-of-way businesses and a 4.2 percent volume decrease in domestic utility poles due to temporary customer overstock and budget realignment. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $17.7 million, or 7.9 percent, compared with $15.8 million, or 7.4 percent, in the prior year quarter. Profitability improved year-over-year due primarily to net sales price increases and $3.7 million from improved plant utilization, which combined to more than offset $10.6 million of higher operating, raw material and selling, general and administrative expenses.
• PC generated first-quarter sales of $150.1 million, an increase of $3.2 million, or 2.2 percent, compared to sales of $146.9 million in the prior year quarter. Excluding an unfavorable foreign currency impact of $0.2 million, sales increased by $3.4 million, or 2.3 percent, from the prior year quarter. The year-over-year sales growth was the result of volume increases of $6.8 million, including a 6.1 percent volume increase in the Americas, primarily for copper-based preservatives. These increases were partly offset by $3.3 million of lower prices in the Americas and Australasia. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $29.8 million, or 19.9 percent, compared with $26.3 million, or 17.9 percent, in the prior year quarter. Compared to the prior year, profitability was higher primarily as a result of higher volumes. Lower sales prices were offset by decreases in raw material costs.
• CMC reported first-quarter sales of $122.4 million, a decrease of $31.0 million, or 20.2 percent, compared to sales of $153.4 million in the prior year quarter. Excluding an unfavorable impact from foreign currency changes of $1.7 million, sales decreased by $29.3 million, or 19.1 percent, from the prior year quarter. The sales decline was driven by reduced market demand, with $28.6 million of lower sales prices across most products, including carbon pitch, where prices were down 24.6 percent globally, along with $11.5 million of lower volumes of carbon pitch and carbon black feedstock. The decreases were partly offset by volume increases for phthalic anhydride. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $4.0 million, or 3.3 percent, compared with $19.4 million, or 12.6 percent, in the prior year quarter. The year-over-year decline in profitability reflected price and volume decreases along with lower North American plant utilization, primarily due to a weather-related plant outage in January, partly offset by an $18.6 million reduction in raw material costs, particularly in Europe and North America.
• Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2024 were $26.3 million compared with $30.4 million for the prior year period. Net of insurance proceeds and cash provided from asset sales, capital expenditures were $25.8 million for the current year period compared with $28.5 million for the prior year period.

2024 Outlook

Koppers continues to expand and optimize its business and make further progress on the company’s strategic pillars toward its long-term financial goals. After considering global economic conditions, as well as the ongoing uncertainty associated with geopolitical and supply chain challenges, Koppers expects 2024 sales of approximately $2.25 billion, compared with $2.15 billion in 2023.  Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be approximately $265 million to $280 million in 2024, including the acquisition of Brown Wood Preserving which closed on April 1, 2024, compared with $256.4 million in 2023.

The effective tax rate for adjusted net income attributable to Koppers in 2024 is projected to be approximately 28 percent, slightly above the adjusted tax rate in 2023. Accordingly, 2024 adjusted EPS is forecasted to be in the range of $4.10 to $4.60 per share, compared with $4.36 per share in 2023.

Koppers expects operating cash flows of approximately $150 million in 2024, excluding any impact from pension termination.  The company is pursuing a termination of its U.S. qualified pension plan and is targeting this effort for completion in the first quarter 2025.  An estimated $25 million of funding will be required when this is completed, which will impact operating cash flow in 2025.

Koppers anticipates capital expenditures of approximately $80 million to $90 million in 2024, including capitalized interest, with approximately $23 million to $33 million allocated to discretionary projects.

Commenting on the forecast, Mr. Ball said, “Lower than originally forecast volumes for RUPS, driven by certain utility pole customers right sizing inventories and a temporary slowdown in project spend driven by the expectation of a higher interest rate environment persisting for a longer period of time, are expected to offset the contribution to this year’s results from the Brown Wood acquisition.  While CMC will show definite improvement the remainder of this year, it will be difficult to make up the first quarter gap that was created by its poor results without an upward turn in our end markets before year end.  With that said, we are actively working on several initiatives in CMC that will result in long-term improvement but much of that will not materialize until 2025 at the earliest.  On the plus side, our PC business overall is in good shape and expected to sustain its first quarter outperformance through the rest of this year.

“As always, our business has many moving parts that are constantly shifting in different directions, but I still remain confident in our ability to not only exceed our original 2025 adjusted EBITDA goal of $300 million but reach my last communicated range of $315 million to $325 million which includes the addition of Brown.”

Koppers does not provide reconciliations of guidance for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS to comparable GAAP measures, in reliance on the unreasonable efforts exception.  Koppers is unable, without unreasonable efforts, to forecast certain items required to develop meaningful comparable GAAP financial measures. These items include, but are not limited to, restructuring and impairment charges, acquisition-related costs, mark-to-market commodity hedging, and LIFO adjustments that are difficult to forecast for a GAAP estimate and may be significant.

For full first quarter results click here.

About Koppers

Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds.  Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries.  We serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, and Europe.  The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “KOP.”

Contact:

Ms. Jessica Franklin Black – Media Contact – BlackJF@koppers.com – (412) 227-2025

Source: Koppers Holdings, Inc.