Ascent Industries Co. (NASDAQ:ACNT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: Yeah. Okay. So just one last thing I just want to mention, I know — that’s one thing I love about the Board that they’re heavily invested, right? So I think some of us shareholders — all of us would like to see — there’s three things I’d like to see going forward, just timely reporting of our quarterly reports. I would like to see a comprehensive plan articulated to investors, which I think today was a really, really good call for that. Also, I would like to see perhaps at some point a management team, which I could tell, Bryan and Ryan are in touch. And if you’re really in touch, then we should be able to get guidance at some point. Is that something that you think we could be given at some point, maybe next quarter or following quarter after that, or as you get more comfortable?

Ben Rosenzweig: I think from the Board’s perspective, David, the answer is there’s always going to be, I think, a path towards directional guidance given, right? With the knowledge that the volatility in the earnings has made it very difficult for investors to be able to get confidence in what the business can and should be doing at any moment in time. And so we want to obviously smooth out the volatility, which we’ve worked very hard to do, even as it’s been disruptive to the business, and be able to provide much more, I’ll say, solid directional guidance. I’m of the view that of a business this size, that providing much more quantitative guidance with specific numbers or even specific number ranges is never a fruitful exercise for a business this size.

But it’s our goal to be a lot more transparent in what we’re seeing and what we think we can do over any given time period. And we’re certainly going to move towards that over the coming quarters. And you’ll see that with Bryan and Ryan very much.

Unidentified Analyst: Good. Well, thank you, guys. I appreciate the time and good luck on the future.

Ben Rosenzweig: Great. Thanks, David.

Bryan Kitchen: Thanks, David.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Schwarz of MAZE Investments LLC. Your question, please, Matt.

Matthew Schwarz: Thanks for taking my question. Ben, you mentioned that there’s no near-term M&A plan, but you’re also discussed evaluating other strategies for capital deployment. So, I guess following up on the previous caller’s questions around share buybacks, because I know you’ve been out in the market doing it regularly, smaller amounts. But would you consider doing something more aggressive on that front, whether it’s a Dutch tender or something else, considering your views on future intrinsic value?

Ben Rosenzweig: Yeah, we would consider it.

Matthew Schwarz: Do you have any color on the type of firepower you would have to do something like that with the current balance sheet and the medium-term outlook?

Ben Rosenzweig: Well, that’s what we’re evaluating. I think the number one thing is to make sure that on an operational level, we feel very good about where we sit. At the end of the day, any sort of analysis is only as good as the inputs you put into it. So it’s garbage in, garbage out. But we want to make sure that the inputs are very solid so that whatever decisions we do make, we feel very confident about them. So we’re going to be fairly prescriptive in how we evaluate it. I mean, it’s certainly very much talked about at the Board level, and it’s something that I think I can contribute to. We all think we have very specific views about making sure the process is solid. But I think our goal is, whether it’s the next time we’re talking to you or shortly after that, to be able to be a little bit more specific in our confidence in the inputs that we’re getting as the landscape evolves and our ability to begin allocating capital.

Because I think having no debt is not necessarily the most optimal capital allocation if you think that your shares are trading below intrinsic value and you think you’re in a business that’s highly fragmented and has the opportunity to be value-add. So we think we’re well-positioned from an opportunity standpoint. But I think, as David alluded to also, we don’t want to be sitting here 12, 18 months from now not having allocated capital to anything because I think that would have been a missed opportunity.

Matthew Schwarz: Okay. And I’m sorry if I missed this earlier. I jumped on a little late. But I heard you talk about cutting some costs or recapitalizing some of the costs, segment-level SG&A on the Chemical side of the business. So is there any way to frame up — or maybe it’s just a bit too early to talk about what you view as the margin opportunity in the Chemical segment on a normalized basis?

Ryan Kavalauskas: I think it’s a little early still. And I’ll let Bryan speak a little bit to it. But we’re still kind of evaluating the ongoing potential, right? We know the margins are compressed right now. And I think there’s opportunities to buy better, to go out to market with better pricing. Those are some of the near-term actions. But I think it’s early to say we’re targeting x margin percentage at this segment. We just know it’s compressed right now. We have an idea of maybe a ballpark. But right now, I think the main focus is on we’ve got to get the right size our cost structure, invest strategically, buy better, and price better. Those are kind of some of the main themes we’re looking at. And I think Bryan can expand on that a little bit.