Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Marco Dal Lago: You are right, the order partner, we experience a change from the pandemic period to the now and that is more similar to the pre pandemic pattern. We have only small piece of contract related to the engineering that is going beyond end of 2024. But is related more to the nature of the contracts rather than the fact that customer are ordering 18 months in advance as it happened during the pandemic.

Franco Moro: But David, also to say that it doesn’t mean that our visibility in the future demand is shortened than in the past. Because at the meantime, we are developing a forecast and multi-year agreement with customers that maintain or renounce our visibility for the future. Is the pace to flow a committed order, the forecast into the order book that is changing, but the visibility is still big and also higher and deeper than in the past.

David Windley: Understood. Thank you for those answers. Appreciate it.

Lisa Miles: Thanks, Dave. Sabrina, next question please.

Operator: The next question is from Patrick Donnelly of Citi. Please go ahead.

Patrick Donnelly: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions. Franco, maybe one for you. As the quarter progressed, did you see any change in behavior from biopharma customers? Just given broad peer commentary around more cautious spend, maybe tighter inventory management from that customer base. Just curious what you saw and if things changed at all as the quarter went, September, October, whatever it may be, it would be helpful just to kind of talk through the progression there.

Franco Moro: I have to — well understood your question, please correct me if I’m not giving the right answer. But in term of the behavioral customer about orders in biologics, we see the tendency to secure the supply chain not only for the short term, but also for the long run. So we are engaged with the customers, important customers in planning our capacity according to their future needs. So the impact on Biologics because of the inventory built during pandemic is very minor. Because you may recall that COVID-19 situation was overweighted in bias and Biologics is mostly looking at cartridges and syringes because also of the utilization of Drug Delivery devices. So the situation is normal in term of the behavioral customer to commit to orders, but [indiscernible] really high attention to secure the supply chain for the long run.

Patrick Donnelly: Okay. So you didn’t really see a change as the quarter progressed with biopharma customers maybe being a little more cautious. It was kind of status quo each month of the quarter.

Franco Moro: I don’t see big changes in this direction. The only message I can deliver is that, the need to get ready to meet customer demands in the coming year is a good reason to work together with customer, and they are very keen to have agreement with us for not only the short term but also much longer run.

Patrick Donnelly: Okay. And then, Marco, maybe just as we think about you know both the ramp-up of plants, that engineering revenue that you talked about, the push out coming back in 4Q. Maybe just how do we think about the margin profile in 4Q and the right jumping-off point for 2024, just given the moving pieces here? Thank you.

Marco Dal Lago: Well, we are, let’s say, confirming our margin for BDS segment. We see the robust shift into a high-value solution happening and we expect to increase our gross profit margin compared to last year in BDS segment on an adjusted basis excluding the non-recurring costs associated to the startup. In engineering, we see a slight decline in the year compared to the previous one in gross profit margin. But as discussed with David, the other action we are putting in place is a cost management, especially in sales and marketing, G&A that is playing favorably for the end of the year. So that’s the reason why we are reiterating our guidance for 2023. We expect also to adjusted EBITDA and the EBITDA for the year.

Patrick Donnelly: Okay, thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Larry Solow of CJS Securities. Please go ahead.