Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 8 of 10

Anthony Petrone: And then a quick follow-up two I’ll throw in there and I’ll get back in queue. One just on UroLift when we think about it through 2025. Obviously, we saw some shifts in patient behavior. At what point do you think things sort of normalize here? Is there a path to normalization let’s say at the end of this year early next year. I’m talking about US patient behavior. And then maybe just your updated views on the M&A landscape sort of what level of discussions is Teleflex having and just maybe your high-level views on M&A? Thanks.

Liam Kelly: Yes. Sure, Anthony. So I expect the overall environment for urology patients and staffing to continue to improve as we go through 2023. When it’s going to be 100% normal Anthony, it’s difficult for me to actually pinpoint that right now in all fairness. But I do anticipate to continue to improve. And why do I say that? The staffing levels in hospitals began to improve in Q4. I expect that to continue into Q1 this year. And once staffing levels start to improve in hospitals it will ultimately then begin to improve in ASCs and ultimately in offices thereafter. And I think the patient flow as I said earlier there’s still 12 million men suffering from BPH. If you walk into a urologist office and there’s 100 men in the urology waiting room, 40 of them are there because they got BPH roughly.

So it’s still the number one reason why a man goes to the urologist. So the size of the market is a significant driver to my belief that it will return to normal as we go through the LRP at some stage. With regard to M&A, clearly, we have the most important thing that you need. We have a very strong balance sheet. For M&A, we’re about 1.75 times levered at the end of the fourth quarter. We are active out there looking at opportunities. We have a lot of lines in the water. We’re fishing hard Anthony. Very difficult for me to say and we’re going to get a fish on the hook and into the boat. But there are targets out there that we are interested in. There are targets out there that we are actively pursuing. And we do believe that we are an attractive acquirer and there are assets that we feel would fit very well in the Teleflex family.

Operator: Our next question comes from Craig Bijou with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Craig, please go ahead.

Craig Bijou: Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking questions. One let me just start with UroLift. And I did want to ask I know Japan was better than expected. Was Japan in the quarter — was the 89 versus the 86 that was implied by your guidance was that Japan, or I guess if you could just kind comment on what drove the few million beat. Was that US or on the international side?

Liam Kelly : So we saw improvement in both sides of the Atlantic. I keep getting back to the point that the international markets at this stage are not substantive enough to carry the can for the overall UroLift growth. And we would not have been able to beat by $3.3 million Craig the US delivering a good proportion of that. I am encouraged though as I said earlier on what we’re doing in regards to the expansion overseas. Japan has gone exceptionally well. We did our first cases in China. We’re starting to roll out in India and other geographies. I won’t go through them all again, but we are encouraged by what we see with regards to that rollout.

Craig Bijou : Got it. Thanks, Liam. And then on your comments on the durable core and appreciate that — how that’s kind of moved up in terms of the LRP growth. Maybe, I mean what are some of the products the categories that are really driving that and that you see driving that LRP growth for the next several years?

Page 8 of 10