Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Daniel Moore: Very helpful. Maybe one more, one and a half more, and I’ll jump out. But clearly the Taos litigation, despite that the announced bankruptcy remains front and center, in some investors’ minds. So, is there anything you can tell us about where we are in the process, what the next steps would be? And, maybe just taking a step back, why taking the route of bankruptcy, in your mind should ring fence the liability and protect them TX when — if you look at comparable cases. And I know, there’s no apples-to-apples, but, maybe whether it be asbestos or others, it hadn’t, accomplish that sort of full ring fencing from the parent. So, any update, there would be really helpful, appreciate it?

Doug Dietrich: Yeah, well, as you mentioned, each of these processes are different, they have different dynamics. We looked at different scenarios, we’ve made sure we really understood what was happening in the landscape. As I mentioned, in my comments, just the caseload that BMI was being pulled into kind of this tort we feel, just kind of overwhelmed the business. And so we felt that look, the best way path forward for BMI for MTI and again, all stakeholders, including shareholders was to seek the bankruptcy protection. And that puts it in a very well defined structured and transparent process. There are a number of dynamics that are going to have to be worked through. So, it’s really hard to give you at this point in time a timeframe or, or how that will play out.

It’s just right at the beginning of it. I think the next major milestone will be to selling of the assets the BMI assets. And using that to fund the trust. And once we’re through that, we’ll probably have a better idea of kind of how this is going to play out and the timeframe. But right now, it’s a bit premature to give you how it will play out. But it is designed to make sure that we ring fence and protect the company and take the steps to protect MTI through the process. And that’s what we’ve done.

Daniel Moore: All right. Lastly, as you mentioned, the 2025 yeah, the longer-term targets, a couple of times in the prepared remarks. So, is it fair to say that removal of talc doesn’t have any impact on the targets in your mind?

Doug Dietrich: No, I think, BMI was a $50 million business, so it will have an impact. And we’re going to probably have to call out the difference in year-over-year comparison to next year with the profit and the sales out. So, we’ll do that, but no, I don’t think that changes things, I think the growth, the potential growth that we have in front of us across the board, will offset that. And I don’t think on the scale of being a target of running at an average of 5% growth over the next five years, kind of a $2.6, $2.7 billion revenue target $50 million is going to make a big difference. So, we will be giving you some comparisons for the next couple of quarters. So, you haven’t bridged right. But no, I don’t think that’s going to change meaningfully our target growth.

Daniel Moore: Fair enough. Thanks for the color again, I’ll jump back with any follow ups.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And we go next to the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Mike Harrison: Hi, good morning. Congratulations on a strong quarter. I had a question on the household business. So, one of the main players in that pet care space, had a cyber-attack last quarter, it led to some significant product shortages. We understand that dynamic has led many pet owners to switch to a different brand. Can you talk at all about what impact that event may be having on your pet care business? And have you seen any acceleration in consumers switching to private label brands?