Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Edward Dowling: Thanks. What we’ve done is overlaid a risk assessment approach to capital allocation in the company. And we don’t have capital, we don’t have the balance sheet to do everything everybody would want to do. And so we’ve got to be able to say no to certain things. And so we needed a way to assess that and put the capital to where it’s best served for the health of our business. I would say in terms of the – your specific question with regard to Goderich, all of those things are being considered and how you may or may not allocate the capital for the mill relocation and things like that, that we’ve talked about in the past. And we’re running these numbers as part of our planning process right now. Once we have answers to that, it’ll become more self apparent. I would invite you to come, if you’re not on the list, come up to Goderich in June and we’ll be able to talk more about that. Lorin, do you want to add anything to the capital allocation?

Lorin Crenshaw: I would just say I’m thrilled with this new prioritization framework where we’re looking very deeply at MRO capital and I think it’s going to elevate the rigor and the discourse around what’s truly required to run the business. And so I’m thrilled with the framework and I think it’s going to step up our game there.

Edward Dowling: One final comment I would make is that, this has a big cultural effect in the business. I’m a big believer in culture in the business, and this is driving a culture of understanding the business better and discipline within differently the things that we’ve done in the past. I think you’ll see improvements from that over the future.

David Silver: Okay. Thank you. And my next question regards the amended credit agreement, the 8-K was out on March 27, I believe. But I was trying to read through the amendments and then relate it to maybe the expected free cash flow positive negative for the next year or so. But I’m sure you ran in many scenarios, but assuming that the next 12 months are exactly the same as the last 12 months in terms of Salt volumes and pricing, SOP volumes and pricing and whatnot. Does that amended credit agreement provide sufficient flexibility that you wouldn’t be bumping up against those particular covenants? I think you mentioned a 6x, maybe maximum, but the devil is always in the details. So assuming we had another sub-par winter and whatnot. Is there sufficient headroom in that amended credit agreement such that you wouldn’t be violating any of the covenants? Thank you.

Lorin Crenshaw: David, I appreciate that question. And I would say we’re thrilled with the package that we were able to negotiate and also thankful for a unanimous support from our banks. And to Ed’s point earlier, we structured these covenants, not assuming normal winter weather out of an abundance of caution, and to give us greater degrees of freedom. And so these covenants are set not using a normal winter, but something other than a normal winter precisely so that we have the degrees of freedom to de-lever and to manage prudently with adequate headroom. And so as you see those covenants, some people have asked, why are the covenant levels – where they are? They’re higher than perhaps some might have expected. And it is because we set them in a conservative fashion to accommodate a warmer winter.

David Silver: Sorry, sorry. People are calling, sorry about that. No, thank you very much. I will get back in queue. I do have at least one other question. But thank you. I appreciate the detail.

Operator: Your next question will come from the line of Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Joel Jackson: Good morning, everyone. You spoke a little earlier, that’s a little premature about bid season. Can we talk about as we transition from this past winter’s contracts to some of the things we’re seeing in the new season? Talk about what percentage of – it was one of the mild winters ever, right? So you had a lot of customers that were under the minimums who decides to take their minimums. How do those discussions work? We know that states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, I believe have decided to take their minimums and also negotiate, I believe rollovers of maybe 3% or 4% gross price increases this year. So you talk about what we’re seeing for what is out there in the public on minimum commitments here, the rollovers and how that might inform things going forward? Thank you.

Ben Nichols: Yes. Joel, good morning. Thanks for the question. This is Ben. I would tell you – I’m not going to speak to any state specifically. But I would tell you in aggregate, we are moving minimums relative to what we previously reported and what you would expect with our prior bid results. As it relates to rollovers and other negotiations, again, I’m not going to call out specific states or regions that we’re doing work against. But we’re pursuing all levers to drive the value and the strategy that we’ve previously spoken to. I would anticipate by the next quarter we’ll be able to provide a little more color on where the bid season is tracking to help you guys model and understand where that market is moving.

Joel Jackson: Okay. Let’s stay with this. So you presented slides in the last few quarters of what a normal winter range would be for 2024 for highway deicing. On average it’s about 9.6 million or 9.7 million tons. Demands for 2024, if everything had been normal weather, which it wasn’t, should we expect for fiscal 2025, 9.6, 9.7 would be the normal range or would that be lower? Because the government customers are going to be starting fiscal 2025 flush with Salt they took because of their minimums, they had to pay up for minimums. That’s what I’m trying to get at. Should we expect fiscal 2025 normal winter sales range to be lower than what it would’ve been in fiscal 2024 because of what we’re describing?

Lorin Crenshaw: First before Ben adds, I’d say, of course, we’ll provide perspective in November. It’s a little premature to talk with specificity about our volumes. Nothing has happened in the past year, changes the fundamental earnings power of our business. But perhaps Ben, you can share conceptually around puts and takes on our bidding strategy and our book of business.

Ben Nichols: Yes. I wouldn’t add much there, Lorin. Joel, that’s going to be a function of how tender size is and what the states tell us they need, and then those contractual obligations. So again, we’ll know more as we get through this bid process and how that impacts. What would call early fill and early movement? But it would be premature for me to speak on it.