PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And beyond that, I just answered some of the enterprise growth initiatives that we talked about. Those things will start to — some of the have already started kicking in with that $150 million that I mentioned, but we’ll see continued momentum on those enterprise growth initiatives. Additionally, we got cash deployment. We haven’t talked about that — we certainly didn’t talk about it as we were rebuilding last year and paying down debt, but that will be another piece of the equation that wasn’t there last year.

Vince Morales: Yes. And Mike, just I think it’s important, a midpoint of 10%. Our operating results are going to be better than that. We do have some tax headwinds like most companies will have as some of the tax rates around the world move up. So, we guided to a higher year-over-year tax rate. So, operating results above 10%, offset modestly offset by this tax – a higher tax rate.

Operator: Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Dan Rizzo: Good morning. This is Dan Rizzo on for Laurence. Thank you for squeezing me in. Obviously, the focus is on China for a good reason, but I was just wondering what India in terms of sales versus China? And if there’s any time in the coming years where India will be competing in terms of importance versus China?

John Bruno: Hi, Dan, this is John Bruno. I can take this. Most people know India has been one of the best economies in the world in 2023. We have a really good position there. We have a JV with Asia Paints. Our sales growth was circa 10% in 2023, and we expect continued good growth in 2024.

TimKnavish: Yes. Our partnership with Asian Paints in India is fantastic and continues to perform very well. And across the same segments that were really strong in the rest of the world, which are doing well over there, automotive OEM, automotive refinish, industrial coatings, protective coatings. So that partnership is really world-class and helps us take our global technology advantage solutions to someone and partner with someone that’s best-in-class within India. And so it’s a really good story for us, not only in 2023, but going forward.

Vince Morales: And again, going forward, as I alluded to earlier, again, there’s a multitude of industries that are establishing or expanding their footprint in India, electronics, automotive, some aerospace. So again, a multitude of global industries that are expanding their footprint.

Operator: Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Arun Viswanathan: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the strong results in 2023. So just a question on the guidance. So if I look at the sales guidance, it looks like you are hoping to get to low single-digit organic growth in 2024. Just wanted to confirm that, that would be also including low single-digit volumes, and if so, how do you see that kind of playing out cadence-wise through the quarters, if you’re guiding to flat volumes you get to maybe 2% to 3% in Q2 and then mid-single digits in the back half. And similarly, on the earnings growth bridge, your guidance kind of implies 1% growth EPS in Q1. So that would require low double digits in Q2 through Q4, maybe something in the order of 13%, is that the right way to think about it that really some of these onetime items in Q1 holds back your growth and you get more into the low single digits to mid-single digits on sales to Q2 to Q3, Q4 and maybe low double digits to mid-teens Q2 through Q4 EPS growth?

Thanks.

Vince Morales: I think the math you have, Arun, is definitely accurate. We talked a lot on the call already about factors that affect Q1, some comparable factors last year, et cetera. Again, we’re a seasonal business for us, Q2 and Q3 are very large quarters for our Deco architectural businesses. They’re very large, even larger for our traffic businesses. So again, we’ll see a pickup in those businesses seasonally, but we’re also expecting some different volume tenor than we had last year in those businesses. Tim went through, I think, a laundry list of items earlier that included the leverage on those higher volumes. We also would expect improved manufacturing that we’ve been working on, and we alluded to in our May CEO update that manufacturing should grow throughout the year. So again, I definitely agree that Q1 on a year-over-year basis, up modestly, but the back half of the year, we expect to grow in terms of a size.

Operator: Our next question comes from Aron Ceccarelli with Berenberg. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Aron Ceccarelli: Thanks and good morning. I would like to go back to the topic of raw materials cost for a second. Your guidance has been improving throughout 2023. You were guiding down high single-digit in Q3 to Q4. When I look at Q1 2023, your raw materials costs were still slightly inflationary. So why are you guiding just for mid-single-digit decline now? What has changed, if anything? Because when I look at gross margin, it expanded 450 basis points year-over-year in Q4. It looks to me this is accelerating. So what is driving this mid-single-digit guidance for Q1, please? Thank you.

Vince Morales: I think as we alluded to earlier, we do expect sequential improvement in the moderation of raw materials Q4 to Q1. And the mix of business for us as we build inventories. And we deplete inventories in Q4. We’re building inventories in Q1. So that has a factor. But again, for the full year, we still expect moderation further moderation of raw materials for the full year 2024 versus 2023.