Alcon Inc. (NYSE:ALC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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David Endicott: I was trying to get most of that. I’m not sure I got all of it. So let me make an attempt at it and then please jump in here and correct me if I didn’t get the question right. On China, I wouldn’t try to put a lot into the six to eight per se for next year. I think directionally, we’ve kind of given you some help on how to size it, but we really don’t know what the rate of pickup is going to be. We’ll have a better sense by the end of the year, what it looks like for ’25 and maybe we’ll be able to guide a little better the following year for ’25 when we get a full-year impact. I would say it is accretive, obviously, because it’s AT-IOLs and that’s a high margin, that’s one of our highest margin products. So whatever that revenue is, it’s very, very positive on a margin basis. And relative I’m not sure what the other part of that question was. Did I get that question right?

David Adlington: An equipment.

David Endicott: Yes, I mean the equipment directionally really isn’t going to impact anything until ’25. So I think in the rest of this year, I mean, you think you should expect a pretty steady year-over-year relatively flat. It could be up, it could be down a little bit, but I would think about the year as relatively flat on the equipment front. We could be surprised and I’ve been surprised before, we called it a little bit soft this year, we were wrong. But we’ve been a little bit surprised that how successful we’ve been taking share. I think as we introduce our own upgrade, we’re likely to see some stalling of equipment. So that’s kind of the theory that we have right now for why we should see most of the year relatively stable in equipment.

David Adlington: That’s great. Thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our final question is from the line of [indiscernible] with HSBC. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, thanks for squeezing me in and congrats on the results. And one question on China and one on the mix, please. In China, VBP as we understand, there’ll be a monofocal and that’s part of it. I would believe that you’re more on the advanced part, but exactly which category do you think you would be taking a larger share? And would you then down the line consider any production onshore? And my second question relates to the mix. You had quite high equipment sales that came above estimates. And with UNITY, it will probably come higher. Will this have downward impact, downward weight on the margins on the surgical side?

David Endicott: So on China, on the VBP, we won all but the monofocal business. So I think there were eight categories. I think we’ve got seven of the eight and where we were there in the primary position. But they’re all advanced technology lenses, it’s Toric’s, it’s Multifocals, it’s Bifocals, it’s extended depth of focus lens. So those are all our highest margin products. And so, yes that will that’s a positive. We are not looking at production at this moment. We’re not looking at production in China. We have very strong production facilities in the U.S. and in Ireland for our AT-IOLs. And the scale that we have there is really important in terms of keeping our costs down. In terms of mix, the equipment will always have a downward mix for us, because it is lower margin relative to the rest of our lines.

But I wouldn’t expect that to really hit this year. It would really be a 2025 impact to the extent that we convert to selling the new equipment. But the new equipment itself is not lower margin than our old equipment. It’s just a matter of what the total equipment mix to the rest of our businesses. So keep that in mind. Our new equipment will be above the same margin as our old equipment.

Unidentified Analyst: Perfect. Thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we’ve reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I’ll turn the call over to Dan Cravens for closing remarks.

Daniel Cravens: Thanks everybody for joining us this morning. If you have any other questions from the analyst community, certainly reach out to Allen Trang and myself or reach out to our Comm people for media. Thanks again for joining. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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