Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Alex Amezquita: Yes. So the first quarter free cash flow is going to look unseasonably low. There are some timing impacts on that. So for example, some big cash flow items, a bonus that we paid in Q2 to distributor as part of their compensation program. We did that in Q2 last year, we did it in Q1 this year. That’s a $70 million item. And there’s a handful of other smaller costs that we saw in Q1 that’s disproportionately bringing our first quarter free cash flow down. Overall, we expect for 2023 our operating cash flow to still be in excess of where we were in 2022. The variable then on free cash flow would just be how we execute against the Herbalife ONE and the CapEx we put against that whether or not we’ll be above or below our free cash flow. So, long story short, OCF higher than 2022. And one of the variables that we still have is on the execution of H1 on where the free cash flow will actually land for the year.

William Reuter: Got it. And then just lastly for me. In terms of the debt that was repaid in the quarter, I have not seen that. It may be in the supplemental slides. But what debt did you target? Was it just the credit facility the revolver?

Alex Amezquita: That’s correct. We had $60 million drawn on the revolver, and then there’s a balance of about $7 million of just your standard term loan amorts.

William Reuter: Got it. Okay. And that’s all for me. Thank you.

Alex Amezquita: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Please standby for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Hale Holden with Barclays. Your line is open.

Hale Holden: Thanks for taking my call. I had two quick ones. Alex, am I supposed to understand the $20 million of additional kind of event spending in the first quarter, was just a timing shift from 2Q last year to 1Q this year, and so that’s why SG&A looks a little elevated from I guess where we might have thought it would have been?

Alex Amezquita: That’s right. Well, $10 million of the $20 million. So $10 million relate to an event primarily the event held in Los Angeles that we call Honors. Last year it was in the second quarter, this year it’s in the first quarter. So, $10 million of it is just timing and then, $10 million of it is more activity engagement around events as a method of promotional spend and engagement spend.

Hale Holden: Got it. And so, the other question I had was on the leverage covenant increase that you got. If we’re going to get back to revenue growth, is this a function of additional investment over the next six to nine months to kind of get the flywheel going faster that should be a drag to margins, or is it just simply an LTM timing from highs from last year that you’re just trying to make sure that you have room for?

Alex Amezquita: More of the latter. It’s just simply as we move through the year, there may be some LTM flexibility that we would want as we go forward. By the way, removing the covenants to places that would still — particularly, where it lands at four times, I mean still consistent with the covenant of an investment-grade covenant. So, it’s really just actually getting — what I would say kind of getting our credit facility with covenants that probably should have been more representative of what we should have been in the first quarter.

Hale Holden: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Anna Lizzul with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. This is Yasmine on for Anna. Thanks for the question. So, given that Asia-Pacific outperformed the rest of your geographies on regional volume point metrics, are there any learnings you can take from that region and apply to regions where you see steeper declines?