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EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT
EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT 2019 - Q2
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Operator

Mr. Francisco Gomes Neto, President and CEO; Mr. Nelson Salgado, Executive Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations; and Mr. Eduardo Couto, Director of Investor Relations. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Nelson Salgado. Please go ahead, sir..

Nelson Salgado

research, $21 million; development, $127 million; and $52 million in CapEx. Our investments this year remain concentrated on the E2 program as we enter into service with the 195-E2 and continue the development of the 175-E2. At Slide 16, we show our free cash flow.

Embraer reported a positive free cash flow of $2 million at the second quarter and a free cash flow consumption of $664 million year-to-date. As we have been saying, we expect a positive cash flow generation in the second half of the year because of the higher deliveries, especially in the fourth quarter.

Finally at Slide 17, we show our indebtedness profile. We ended the second quarter with a total cash position of $2.48 billion and a total debt position of $3.57 billion, implying a net debt of $1,090,000,000. Our debt maturity remains comfortable with an average of 5.1 years. With that, I conclude the presentation.

And I will pass to our new CEO, Francisco Gomes for closing remarks before we open for Q&A. Thank you. Francisco, please go ahead..

Francisco Gomes Neto President & Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Nelson, and good morning, everyone, from my side as well. It is a great pleasure to become a part of this highly skilled team in the year that Embraer is celebrating its 50th anniversary of challenges and achievements. In my first three months at Embraer, I have visited all of our sites around the world.

And I'm greatly impressed with the levels of engagement, ethics and teamwork that our Embraer team shares.

I am convinced that Embraer is very well positioned for a promising future through the combination of its state-of-the-art products, continued progress in becoming a more efficient company, the continued support of our customers and the consummation of the strategic partnership with Boeing.

We continue to work on several fronts to ensure that the strategic partnership between Embraer and Boeing is successfully concluded. And all of our employees, regardless of whether they will remain with Embraer or eventually work in Boeing Brasil - Commercial, are fully engaged with the necessary processes to complete this important transaction.

After what I have experienced in Embraer in this initial months, I'm convinced that the company will return to its growth path. With our team working in a lean manner with ethics, unity and oriented by results, we believe Embraer will recover and even surpass its current market value.

Our executive, defense and services businesses are stronger than ever after a long period of investment and combined with the [indiscernible] of innovative programs will bring value for our shareholders. I have no doubt that working hard will build a strong, solid and sustainable future for Embraer in the next decades..

Nelson Salgado

So thank you very much. And operator, now we move to the Q&A session..

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Cai von Rumohr, Cowen and Company..

Nelson Salgado

Cai, can you hear us?.

Jeffrey Molinari

Yes, this is Jeff on for Cai.

Can you hear me?.

Nelson Salgado

Yes, very clear..

Jeffrey Molinari

Okay. And welcome aboard, Francisco. I'd like to ask about the Boeing partnership, specifically how the separation activity is progressing.

And what is the current view on major milestones, dates and cost?.

Nelson Salgado

So thank you, Cai. The conclusion of the deal, there's two big fronts. One relates to the work with the regulatory authorities of several jurisdictions for [indiscernible] E-Jet approval. [indiscernible] on the front, we are not talking about specific regions, but we are moving according to what we planned.

The other big front is associated with all the [indiscernible] that we have to do to separate the Commercial Aviation business. And here, most of the activities are associated with the duplication of the IT systems, with the separation of the people that will go into the company, the preparation of infrastructure that we will need in 2020.

After the separation, for example, we will move a lot of people from the main site of Embraer today in Fort Lauderdale, which is the existing site, to Eugênio de Melo. That will be the main site of Embraer [indiscernible]. And for that, we need to accommodate people there.

We are also moving the final assembly line of the Praetor jets to Gavião Peixoto because today, it is done at São José dos Campos. So many different activities. But we are confident that we are moving ahead as planned to target the transition by the end of the year..

Jeffrey Molinari

Okay. That's helpful. And is there any update on the actual -- the cost, whether for the tax and the separation costs? I think it was previously supposed to be $1.2 billion combined [indiscernible].

Nelson Salgado

Of course, for now, we're not changing that number that we are expecting related to the separation activities themselves, which will add up to the first part of the year, $30 million, that we mentioned that are impacting our EBIT..

Jeffrey Molinari

Understood. And then one more question if I can on a different subject here on the Executive Jets. It looks like the book-to-bill was quite strong. But it's difficult to tell exactly what it was, although it looks like it's about 1.

What was the book-to-bill in the quarter? And any color on what geographies were strongest and what type of buyers are most active?.

Nelson Salgado

[Indiscernible] has a strong book-to-bill in executive aviation. As we mentioned, the certification of the Praetor aircraft and first delivery of the Praetor 600 in Europe and the first delivery of the Praetor 500 already coming. These are having a very big response from the markets.

Our book-to-bill was actually around 8.5, but we are not able yet to provide details on where this growth come from..

Operator

The next question comes from Myles Walton, UBS..

Myles Walton

Welcome, Francisco. I was hoping maybe you could start around the cash flow of the business and kind of maybe your expectation is for free cash flow for the year and/or maybe where you think the balance sheet is on a pro forma basis on the deal closing if there's [indiscernible] any adjustment..

Nelson Salgado

So we are working towards the outlook that we gave you at the beginning of the year regarding 2019, which is to pay $1.6 billion in extraordinary dividends to shareholders and stack the Embraer with a net cash position around $1 billion.

For this year 2020, we expect the free cash flow to be breakeven -- sorry, for 2020, for next year, we expect cash flow to be breakeven. And as we reported in January, we projected revenues of $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion and EBIT margin from 2% to 5%..

Myles Walton

And so Nelson, sorry, did you say what the free cash flow was for 2019? I understand the cash position.

But I just wonder, is this year a free cash flow breakeven? Or will you be able to recover what's been consumed in the first half?.

Nelson Salgado

Yes. Generally, the second half is looking stronger at the end of [indiscernible]. That's typical in our cycle, both executive and commercial, they have a -- and defense, they have a stronger second part of the year in terms of cash generation. And we expect that these results for the first quarter especially will be recovered.

And with that, we remain in line with our guidance of a $1.6 billion dividend and stack Embraer with around $1 billion net cash position. We did not give expense guidance to 2019..

Myles Walton

And then in terms of the delivery of KC-390 to the Brazilian Air Force, what are the milestones ahead? Is there any required further testing? Or is it generally paperwork at this point just in terms of getting that delivered?.

Nelson Salgado

Actually, the first KC that we delivered to the Brazilian Air Force was the aircraft that we presented in the Paris Air Show. And as soon as it came back from the Paris Air Show, the delivery process for the Brazilian Air Force started. This is the first delivery of a brand-new type to its first customer.

So of course, it takes long so -- because there are lots of things that have to be verified by the customer. And we expect that the delivery will happen in the third quarter of 2019..

Operator

Our next question comes from Ronald Epstein, Bank of America Merrill Lynch..

Kristine Liwag

This is Kristine Liwag calling in for Ron. My first question is on Commercial Aviation. Can you walk us through the moving pieces in margin for that aircraft? In your press release, you mentioned that there are weakness because of shift and mix.

So can you discuss what's driving the margins lower for that segment?.

Nelson Salgado

Well, we, for some time, anticipated that this transition year, when we start ramping up the 190-E2 deliveries or the E2 deliveries [indiscernible], are products that traditionally has a worse gross margin, right? So I think this, as we grow the number of the E2 [indiscernible], that tends to drive margin down.

We are also delivering aircraft in the U.S., the E75. In contrast, we knew also that we'd have worse margins that we have previously indicated. So that's basically what is affecting the margin.

So it's a bit of higher cost on the E2 relatively to what we expected in the future because of the learning curve and more tight margins because of sales price on the E75..

Francisco Gomes Neto President & Chief Executive Officer

Yes. One important thing, Kristine, [indiscernible] that I may add, it's important to say that the margins we mentioned about commercial, they include the separation costs there. So if you remove the separation cost, the margins in commercial would be like 3 percentage points better.

So besides what Nelson mentioned that we're going to have [indiscernible], the decline is also related to the separation cost..

Nelson Salgado

Yes. They decline. Well, I was talking more about the gross margins..

Kristine Liwag

That's very helpful.

And when you think about the learning curve on the E2, at what unit delivery do you expect incremental E2 margins could be closer to parity to what your legacy E-Jet margins were?.

Nelson Salgado

Well, it's very difficult to say. We work very hard every day to try to anticipate the reduction of costs. But I would not take the risk of saying a consistent amount of aircraft, right? But it's very normal.

There is, generally in this learning curve in the first 50 to 80 aircraft, we have a faster reduction and then a slower reduction up to 150, 200 aircraft. So that's more or less the profile that we look..

Kristine Liwag

And in executive aviation, can you discuss the demand environment and also the pricing? Are you starting to see pricing improve in executive?.

Nelson Salgado

Well, the market is better generally speaking, not spectacularly, but it seems better. All these publications in executive aviation [indiscernible] index, we have a more positive environment coming from that.

And with the introduction of the Praetors, we believe we differentiated our offer in the segment even more with a much bigger range that any other competing aircraft [indiscernible] the Praetor 500 and also the Praetor 600.

And we expect that this positioning will allow us to practice a better price that we'll be working [indiscernible] the offer we are providing to the market..

Kristine Liwag

Great. And lastly for me, if I could squeeze one more.

For the Boeing deal, are there termination costs if the deal doesn't close?.

Nelson Salgado

There are. I don't know the details here. But depending on the reason for a potential [indiscernible], we have [indiscernible]. Important to emphasize that this is a scenario we don't even consider.

We are working very hard to get regulatory approval [indiscernible] and internally working very hard to make all the activities that we have to make and complete before the separation starting in the end of the year..

Operator

The next question comes from Josh Milberg, Morgan Stanley..

Joshua Milberg

Nelson, my first question is a follow-up on the question about your cash flow. In the first quarter call, you had highlighted that the $100 million of delayed payments from the Brazilian government. And that apparently did not reverse in the second quarter.

So I just wanted to see if you could give us a little bit of a better understanding on what's your basis for anticipating a normalization in the second half of this year. That's the first out..

Nelson Salgado

Yes. The budget problems that the Brazilian government has been facing, they are affecting our results. But we have great confidence that the Brazilian Air Force will manage to sort it out before the end of the year..

Joshua Milberg

Okay. That's helpful. And then my second question is on the KC. We recognize that the sales to Portugal did represent a big milestone for you guys. But we had thought that deliveries might have started a little earlier.

Could you guys comment on the timing -- that timing and on what penalties could apply if a future Portuguese government decided to cancel or delay the orders? And then if we also think about other potential KC orders from abroad, do you think that 2023 is a reasonable assumption for the earliest when those other orders might start delivering?.

Nelson Salgado

Well, I'm not sure I understood the question completely. Let's go part-by-part. Regarding the contract with Portugal, it is indeed a very important milestone because it's the first export customer for the product. And this is always a very important achievement for this product.

But the time for the delivery of the first aircraft is more driven by the need to develop the latest version of the aircraft.

So there is some product development associated to this contract, which may just delay the first -- not delay, but it will mean that the first delivery will not happen before 2023 and with the other deliveries happening up to 2027.

Because parallel to those deliveries, we knew we have already a [indiscernible] of around two aircraft per year by the Brazilian Air Force. So that's the delivery turn for the KC.

I think [indiscernible] aviation is that there is this product development so that we have aircraft that is ready to operate in the [indiscernible] environment, which, by the way, is very good because we will have opportunities to look customers that have the same needs after that..

Joshua Milberg

Okay. That was the exact explanation that I was looking for, just a better understanding of what was behind the 2023 timing.

But the other doubt I had raised was if you could just comment -- and maybe this is something that you don't disclose, but what the contract with the Portugal government stipulates with respect to eventual decisions to either cancel or delay the order..

Nelson Salgado

Well, every contract has provisions if obligations are not fulfilled by either party. But again, we're not contemplating that. We simply have a very strong contract. We have everything in line. We have the product development that we have to do and the first delivery in 2023..

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. The next question comes from Gabriel Cavalcante, CTM Investments..

Gabriel Cavalcante

And just about the dividends. We know that in the United States, dividends are taxed differently from what they are in Brazil. I just want to know if there's any type of initiative coming from Embraer, maybe working with somebody else to maybe put a different situation for the American investors that are receiving this dividend.

And it's just about if they're going to be taxed the same way they're taxed on regular dividends or there's something that are going to help these investors to get taxed differently..

Nelson Salgado

No. There is no different treatment for any investor. We will pay the dividends to everyone the same way..

Operator

This concludes today's question-and-answer session and concludes our Embraer's audio conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation. Have a good day..

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