Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ann Gurkin: Okay. Great. And then in your, I guess, investor presentation, you did talk about under the prior presentation under other tobacco businesses, talked about opportunities to service customers, sheet tobacco, liquid nicotine. But you took out lab services in the new investor presentation. Is there anything to read into that? Is that a change in direction in terms of services offering customers?

Unidentified Company Representative: Yeah. In that case, specifically about the labs, we discontinue that service that we were providing was underperforming according to the targets that we have. But on the other areas, we continue seeing opportunities, especially in the sheet products that we have. We have projects ongoing as we speak here. And yeah, we continue to see opportunity, not just that, but in the services side as well. We also stated in quarters before that on our dark tobacco operations, we also taking a step further into servicing, the rapa sorting and bobbinizing some of the products for the cigar industry and mass cigar industry. So we see — we continue to see good opportunities there.

Ann Gurkin: And are you gaining market share in terms of tobacco leaf sales?

Unidentified Company Representative: Yes, according to our database, yes, we are gaining market share.

Ann Gurkin: Great. Congrats. And then also on this investor presentation, there’s a page talking about the increase in capital needs, fiscal 2023. And how do I think about that in fiscal 2024 and 2025? And if that number comes down, which I think it would, what is the potential use for that freed up cash?

Unidentified Company Representative: Well, Ann, as you all know, is it all depends on the size of the crops, pricing of the crops, currency of those crops. So, hopefully, you’re right. And we certainly see that working capital coming down a little bit going forward. When that frees up, we certainly have plenty of investments on both the tobacco side, as well as the ingredient side where we can use those funds to add value and create shareholder value.

Ann Gurkin: Okay. And then can you help me at all with SG&A expenses for fiscal 2025?

Unidentified Company Representative: As pointed out just now — again, I think we — this one was slightly elevated. I do have to say that 78 was slightly higher than we thought. But again, foreign currency comparisons compared to last year, last year was quite low. We have now some performance comp that propped that thing up a little bit. So again, going forward, we certainly will be higher than prior years just because of that R&D and those commercial costs that we are incurring.

Ann Gurkin: Okay. What is your appetite for M&A in the Ingredients platform?

Unidentified Company Representative: We will certainly be looking. We continue to look. The pipeline is active, but our leverage at the moment is up. So, until we bring that down a little bit more, we will remain on the sidelines unless something spectacular comes along.

Ann Gurkin: Okay. And then just in terms of management structure, you announced a change for Preston’s position and kind of what does his role entail? And then can you tell me who is treasurer of Universal now? I’m sorry, I’ve lost track.

Unidentified Company Representative: Our new treasurer’s name is Wusheng Ma [ph]. He goes by Wush. He joined us on January 1st, and we’re very happy that he has joined us.

Ann Gurkin: Great.

Unidentified Company Representative: And Preston is now transitioning to more of a management role.

Ann Gurkin: Okay. Okay. That’s great. That’s all I have. I appreciate your time very much. Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative: Thanks Ann.

Unidentified Company Representative: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Jennifer Rowe for closing remarks.

End of Q&A:

Jennifer Rowe: Thank you all for joining us today on our call.

Operator: Thank you, presenters. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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