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Text: I'm joined by our President and CEO, Joe Raver; and our Senior Vice President and CFO, Kristina Cerniglia.
These statements are not guarantees of future performance and our actual results could differ materially.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the continued dedication of Hillenbrand's employees in managing the business through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We remain vigilant in our commitment to ensure the health and well-being of our employees and their families, to meet the needs of our customers, and to execute strategic initiatives that we believe will position Hillenbrand well now and into the future.
This past quarter we marked the one-year anniversary for the close of Milacron acquisition.
Over the past year, our teams have made rapid progress integrating the business and capturing synergies.
We also continue to adapt successfully to the challenges brought about by COVID-19.
We ended fiscal year 2020 in a strong position and in the first quarter of fiscal 2021, continued to build on that momentum, delivering strong results.
Each segment exceeded our top line expectations in Batesville and the Molding Technology Solutions segment also achieved meaningful margin expansion by driving the benefit of higher volume to the bottom-line.
In addition to our solid operating performance in the quarter, we made significant progress against our previously announced plan to exit the Flow Control businesses, Red Valve and ABEL, and we remain on track with our plan to divest TerraSource Global.
Overall, I'm pleased with our execution in the first quarter.
And while uncertainty regarding the pandemic remains, we are focused on navigating the environment to drive profitable growth in our large platform businesses, capture the full benefits of the Milacron acquisition, and strategically deploy cash flow to drive long-term shareholder value.
Before I get into the highlights of the quarter, let me spend just a few minutes on the execution of our strategy as outlined on Slide 5.
As we've consistently communicated, we are focused on executing four key strategic pillars as we work to build Hillenbrand into a world-class global industrial company.
The first is to strengthen and build business platforms, both organically and through M&A.
The Milacron acquisition represented a major step in the execution of the strategic pillar.
With Milacron, we added industry-leading and complementary hot runner and injection molding product lines to the Hillenbrand portfolio, further strengthening our customer offering, increasing our global scale, and enhancing our capabilities across the entire plastics value chain from base resin production all the way through recycling.
Given that we have materially improved our balance sheet over the past year, we expect to continue to increase growth investments, both organically and inorganically with a focus on strengthening and building our large business platforms in APS and MTS.
Our second strategic pillar is to manage Batesville for cash.
Batesville has a long history of manufacturing excellence in burial caskets with solid and predictable cash flow that we can invest to grow our industrial platforms.
Batesville's outstanding cash flow over the past several quarters, which we used to pay down debt, underscores the important role Batesville plays in our portfolio.
The third pillar of our strategy is to build a scalable foundation for growth using the Hillenbrand operating model.
The acquisition of Milacron is providing a unique opportunity for us to transform and scale many of our shares back-office functional business processes in areas such as IT, HR, health and welfare benefits and finance.
We believe that our efforts, to standardize processes and services and to leverage best practices across our operating companies globally, will drive meaningful efficiencies, improve effectiveness and quality and provide a scalable foundation for future growth.
We're also driving efficiencies and best practices in operations by leveraging our combined spend through the Global Supply Management Group and driving lean business practices, which really are the core of the Hillenbrand operating model to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost and working capital.
Our fourth and final pillar is to effectively deploy strong free cash flow.
We have a track record of maintaining a flexible balance sheet, so we can grow through strategic acquisitions and a history of quickly reducing leverage following acquisitions.
This past quarter, we reduced our leverage ratio by approximately 0.5 turn to 2.2 times net debt-to-EBITDA.
We are confident in our ability to continue to generate robust free cash flow, maintain a strong balance sheet and grow our company, both organically and inorganically while returning capital to shareholders.
Today, given our current leverage, we are lifting the temporary suspension of our share repurchase program and we will resume consideration of strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
As always, we will remain disciplined in our approach to deploying cash.
Now, let me turn to some highlights for the quarter.
Total company performance exceeded our expectations led by higher burial casket demand at Batesville associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and strong hot runner systems growth in the MTS segment, driven by medical and packaging demand.
Additionally, we drove productivity and synergies across all of our segments.
The 30% growth at Batesville in the quarter was well above our expectations.
While this significant increase in burial casket demand is both unfortunate and unprecedented, we were well positioned to handle this increase in volume at Batesville.
And the results for the quarter reflect that.
Over the past few years, the team has made significant progress in simplifying operations, reducing costs and improving the supply chain.
And that was evident in the way Batesville responded to the spike in demand and drove the benefits of operating leverage to the bottom line.
The mental and physical challenges associated with the pandemic over the past year have been significant, and I continue to be proud of the Batesville team for their resilience and their ability to execute at a high level in such a demanding environment.
This is a company that is truly living its mission of helping families honor the lives of those they love.
In the Advanced Process Solutions segment, sales came in higher than we expected when we spoke to you last quarter.
This is despite lower year-over-year revenue due to continued delays on specific large polyolefin projects in our backlog.
The large project delays in the quarter were partly offset by faster delivery for smaller and mid-sized equipment.
We've had no cancellations of large projects from our backlog and demand for this type of project continues to be strong overall, particularly in China, which is offsetting lower North American demand for large polyolefin projects.
The strength we saw in the food and pharmaceutical end markets at the end of fiscal 2020, continued into the first quarter of this year.
Other industrial end markets continue to remain challenged.
In Molding Technology Solutions, sales and margins were strong with hot runner system sales up in all regions and injection molding strength in India.
We saw an uptick in several end markets, including medical packaging, consumer goods and electronics.
Sales within automotive were up modestly sequentially, but continued to be soft compared to historical levels.
Parts and service revenues were lower compared to the prior year.
Our MTS backlog increased 100% year-over-year on a pro forma basis, driven primarily by continued strength in orders for injection molding equipment.
Total company backlog increased over 32% year-over-year on a pro forma basis, to a new record of $1.4 billion a real sign of continued strong demand for our highly engineered solutions and applications expertise.
We continue to take the appropriate steps to convert our backlog to revenue, while following all necessary COVID-19 safety protocols and managing customer-induced schedule changes.
Overall, I believe we executed well in the quarter and the businesses are well positioned for the future.
As some of you may have seen in our recently released annual report, sustainability is an important topic and one that we've been working on for a number of years at Hillenbrand.
In 2018, we took a big step forward in our efforts by forming a cross-functional sustainability steering committee, that's been effective in guiding our actions in a more coordinated way across the entire enterprise.
In 2019, we conducted a materiality assessment to identify the sustainability-related topics most important to our stakeholders, including employees, customers and investors.
In that same year, we also signed on to the United Nations Global Compact, because we believe that incorporating sustainability in our business activities will improve all aspects of our company, including the impact we have on society and the environment.
And in the summer of 2020, we issued our first sustainability report, which shares some of the activities that we've undertaken.
One particularly impactful program is our global community engagement initiative that we call the One Campaign.
In the past years, the Hillenbrand One Campaign has focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, of quality education, reduced inequalities with a focus on diversity and inclusion and responsible consumption and production.
Leveraging the results of our recent materiality assessment has been instrumental in identifying the SDGs most important to our stakeholders and focusing our efforts in areas that can have the greatest impact to our company and society.
In 2021, the One Campaign is focused on the SDG good health and well-being.
In fact, currently, a number of our employees are volunteering to support a vaccination clinic in our local Batesville community.
Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the communities in which we operate and across the nation and world, this is an initiative we feel strongly about lending our time and talents too.
Throughout my section, I will be referencing pro forma results which exclude Red Valve in the APS segment and the Cimcool business which was divested on March 30, 2020, in the MTS segment.
It also assumes the Milacron acquisition closed on October 1, 2019.
We believe these pro forma results provide a better comparison of our ongoing operations and you will find a comparison of as-reported and pro forma results on Slide 19 of the earnings slide deck.
Turning to the quarter, our teams sustained their strong momentum, with continued revenue growth, significant margin expansion and solid free cash flow.
We finished the quarter with results that were better than we anticipated, particularly given uncertainties caused by the pandemic.
We delivered total revenue of $693 million, an increase of 22%.
Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, total revenue increased 19%.
On a pro forma basis revenue increased 6%, driven by strong burial casket demand at Batesville and hot runner systems sales in MTS.
Adjusted EBITDA of $138 million increased 50% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.9%, increased 370 basis points.
On a pro forma basis adjusted EBITDA of $137 million, increased 51% and adjusted EBITDA margin was 20%.
With the benefit of additional volume along with the actions, we've taken to contain costs across all segments we expanded our adjusted EBITDA margin, 600 basis points over the prior year on a pro forma basis.
We reported GAAP net income of $76 million or $1.01 per share, an increase of $1.06 over prior year, primarily driven by a decrease in acquisition and integration costs related to Milacron, the gain on the sale of Red Valve and higher volume within Batesville.
Adjusted net income of $72 million resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $0.96, an increase of 28%, mainly driven by strong Batesville and MTS performance.
The adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 28.5%, an increase of 650 basis points from the prior year.
The increase is primarily due to the prior year tax benefit recognized for the reduction in India's statutory tax rate.
And, an increase in the deferred taxes associated with foreign un-remitted earnings this quarter.
Hillenbrand generated cash flow from operations of $66 million, an increase of $48 million compared to the prior year.
This increase was primarily due to lower acquisition and integration costs associated with Milacron and the strong cash generated by MTS from advanced payments on strong orders.
Capital expenditures were approximately $6 million in the quarter, slightly lower than anticipated.
We also paid down $157 million of debt and returned $16 million to our shareholders, in the form of cash dividends.
We recognized $6 million of incremental synergies in the quarter.
And we expect to deliver $20 million to $25 million of synergies this year.
We remain on track to achieve the three-year $75 million total run rate synergies, related to the Milacron acquisition.
Moving to segment performance Batesville's revenue of $165 million, increased 30% year-over-year, driven by higher volume, as a result of increased deaths associated with COVID-19 and higher average selling price, partially offset by an estimated increase in the rate at which families opted for cremation.
With the commitment of our Batesville employees, our manufacturing capabilities and distribution footprint, we were able to respond to the elevated volume to meet our customers' needs.
Batesville's first quarter execution was outstanding.
And the benefits of the Hillenbrand operating model are evident in the results.
Strong operating leverage and productivity initiatives, contributed to exceptional margin performance.
Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.7%, improved 1,360 basis points over the prior year and more than offset inflation in the quarter.
Turning to Advanced Process Solutions, APS revenue of $291 million decreased 5%.
On a pro forma basis, revenue of $283 million also decreased 5%.
Excluding the impact of currency, revenue decreased to 9%.
The revenue decline was primarily driven by a decrease in large polyolefin system sales, due to customer-driven delays on certain projects, and lower parts and service revenue driven by delays associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We continue to see field service and aftermarket softness exacerbated, by COVID-19 travel restrictions.
But the aftermarket business has begun to stabilize, and we've continued to innovate to provide service remotely.
Longer term, we continue to see opportunity for growth in this area, as the installed base for our large systems, continues to grow.
Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.7% was down 10 basis points, and down 30 basis points on a pro forma basis.
The decrease was due to lower volume and adverse mix from a couple of lower margin strategically important plastics projects, partly offset by cost containment actions and productivity improvements.
Order backlog excluding Red Valve reached a new record high of $1.1 billion at the end of the first quarter, an increase of 21% year-over-year on a pro forma basis.
Excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange, backlog increased to 12%.
Sequentially backlog increased to 10% on a pro forma basis from the previous record high.
We continue to see solid demand in the pipeline for new large plastics projects during the quarter primarily from Asia.
These projects are expected to contribute to revenue over the next several quarters including about 28% of the backlog expected to convert to revenue beyond the next 12 months.
MTS revenue of $237 million increased 78% and 7% on a pro forma basis in comparison to the prior year.
Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, revenue increased 5%.
Sales of hot runner systems increased double digits on continued solid demand in medical and packaging end markets and sales of injection molding and extrusion equipment were roughly flat year-over-year, but improved 20% on a sequential basis.
India in particular continues to rebound on strong demand across all end markets particularly medical and consumer goods.
Adjusted EBITDA of $48 million increased 84% and 47% on a pro forma basis with adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.4% increasing 560 basis points compared to the prior year on a pro forma basis.
The improvement was driven by higher volume, productivity initiatives including cost synergies and favorable mix of higher margin hot runner systems.
We're encouraged with these results and remain focused on leveraging the Hillenbrand operating model to drive sustainable operational improvements.
Order backlog of $292 million increased 100% compared to the prior year on a pro forma basis and 20% sequentially, primarily driven by an increase in injection molding equipment orders.
Activity was strongest in the medical, consumer goods, packaging and electronics end markets.
We saw a slight uptick in automotive orders in the quarter and remain cautiously optimistic about future demand.
Turning to the balance sheet; net debt at the end of the quarter was $1.1 billion and the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio fell by half a turn sequentially to 2.2 times.
As of the quarter end, we had liquidity of approximately $1.1 billion including $266 million in cash on hand and the remainder available under our revolver.
In the quarter, cash proceeds from the sale of Red Valve were $59 million.
We paid down $157 million of debt including prepayment of our term loan due in 2022 with cash on hand and revolver borrowings.
We have no near-term debt maturities and we'll continue to leverage the Hillenbrand operating model to drive greater efficiency across the business.
We continue to focus our efforts on improving working capital efficiencies particularly in the MTS segment.
Turning to capital deployment, we are pleased with our aggressive deleveraging progress, which gives the company greater flexibility to grow both organically and inorganically.
While our focus will still be to pay down debt, we are now more comfortably within our leverage guardrails.
We will continue to focus on reinvesting in the business with strategic investments and high-return opportunities.
And as Joe mentioned earlier, we will reinstate our share repurchase program as well as begin to consider strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
Amid continued uncertainty we are providing guidance only for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 under the assumption that we'll continue to see gradual stability in the global economy without any new broad-based COVID related disruptions.
We expect Hillenbrand's total second quarter revenue to increase year-over-year in a range of 12% to 16%.
We expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $126 million to $137 million and adjusted earnings per share in the range of $0.85 to $0.95 for the second quarter, an increase of 29% on a year-over-year basis at the midpoint of the range.
Starting with Batesville; in the second quarter, we expect revenue to increase 20% to 25% year-over-year based on a continued trend of elevated burial casket volumes due to the pandemic.
We expect strong margin performance in the second quarter, driven by operating leverage and continued efforts to drive productivity.
However, we are experiencing higher commodity inflation and transportation cost, including premiums paid to expedite shipments.
We're targeting adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% to 30%, an increase of 590 to 690 basis points over the prior year.
In Advanced Process Solutions, which includes mid and long-cycle capital systems equipment and aftermarket parts and service, we expect second quarter revenue in a range of flat to down 4% year-over-year, primarily due to customer-driven delays with the timing of long-cycle, large polyolefin projects.
Partly offsetting that is the demand momentum we have seen in a couple of areas for our mid-cycle capital equipment within plastics and food end markets and stabilization in parts and service.
We expect adjusted EBITDA margin of 17.5% to 18% to be modestly lower from a year-over-year perspective, down 60 to 110 basis points, as the headwind from lower volume, project mix and certain targeted investments is partially offset by our continued cost containment and productivity initiatives.
Turning to Molding Technology Solutions, which includes mid-cycle injection molding equipment, short-cycle hot runner systems and aftermarket parts and service, we expect strong second quarter revenue growth in a range of 37% to 40% over prior year as demand continues to be strong in both hot runner and injection molding product lines.
Last year, we had COVID-related shutdowns in China that we do not expect will repeat.
We are targeting adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.8% to 19.2%, an improvement of about 320 to 360 basis points, as the benefit of higher volume and continued productivity improvements flow to the bottom line.
On a sequential basis, margins will be lower than the first quarter due to a mix impact from higher injection molding sales, which typically carry a lower margin.
Higher commodity inflation and transportation costs and targeted investments we are making to drive growth.
Now turning to our expectations for the full year.
In terms of the outlook for the Batesville segment in the second half, we are not providing specific guidance, given the uncertainty that remains due to the pandemic.
The impact of the newly identified strains of the coronavirus and the speed and effectiveness of the vaccination rollout continue to make longer-term demand for Batesville hard to predict.
In the second half of the year, we expect Batesville's revenue and margins to be lower on a year-over-year basis, due primarily to the impact of lower volume from fewer COVID-related deaths, along with higher commodity inflation.
In the Advanced Process Solutions segment, we are expecting revenue to increase low single digits on a pro forma basis for the full year.
We expect increased revenue in large plastics projects and stabilization of the aftermarket business during the second half of the fiscal year.
We also expect EBITDA margins to be slightly down year-over-year on a pro forma basis, due to unfavorable project mix and investments in the business.
Turning to the Molding Technologies segment.
For the year, we expect revenue to increase in the mid-teens year-over-year on a pro forma basis, driven by continued strength in end markets, such as medical, packaging and consumer goods and gradual improvement of automotive.
We expect moderate EBITDA margin improvement year-over-year on a full year basis, as additional volume leverage and productivity are partially offset by unfavorable mix and inflation.
We expect pressure on margins in the second half of the fiscal year versus prior year, due to unfavorable injection molding mix and additional investments in the business.
Overall for the portfolio, we recognize that there is still a high degree of volatility and uncertainty around the world.
Having said that, our team has demonstrated the ability to execute through challenging circumstances, and I have confidence in our ability to achieve these results and continue our momentum.
We executed well and delivered strong performance across the board in the quarter.
In particular, we achieved robust growth at Batesville an exceptional EBITDA margin in Batesville and MTS.
The acquired Milacron businesses are beginning to accelerate their performance and we remain bullish on the deal's long-term strategic and financial benefits.
We're on track to deliver $20 million to $25 million in year two synergies, and we remain confident in achieving year three run rate synergies of $75 million.
Continued strong free cash flow performance in the quarter has enabled us to delever at an accelerated pace despite the ongoing backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We further focused our portfolio by divesting Red Valve and signing an agreement to divest ABEL.
And finally, we ended the quarter with a record backlog and a robust project pipeline.
We believe we will remain well positioned to overcome any near-term macro challenges and are confident in our strategy to drive profitable growth over the long-term.

user
compname reports q1 gaap earnings per share $1.01.
q1 gaap earnings per share $1.01.
sees q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.85 to $0.95.
q1 adjusted earnings per share $0.96.
q1 revenue rose 22 percent to $693 million.
qtrly gaap earnings per share of $1.01.
fiscal q2 2021 total quarterly revenue expected to increase 12% to 16% year over year on a pro forma basis".
believe we are well positioned for remainder of fiscal year 2021 with a solid balance sheet and healthy backlog".

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