dentalcorp Holdings Ltd
TSX:DNTL
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dentalcorp Holdings Ltd
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Good morning, and welcome to the dentalcorp Second Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Nate Tchaplia, Chief Financial Officer of dentalcorp. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator, and good morning to everybody. Welcome to the dentalcorp Second Quarter Results Conference Call. Before we start, we would like to remind you that all amounts discussed on this call are denominated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Please note that the statements made during this call may include forward-looking statements and information and future-oriented financial information regarding dentalcorp and its business and disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results that are based on information currently available to management, which indicate management's expectation of future growth, results of operations, business performance, business prospects and opportunities. Such statements are made as of the date hereof, and dentalcorp assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect events, disclosures or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities laws. Such statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance or results. A number of these risks and uncertainties could cause results to differ materially from the results discussed today. Given these risks and uncertainties, one should not place undue reliance on these statements and information. Please refer to the forward-looking statements and information and future-oriented financial information section of our public filings without limitation, our MD&A and our earnings press release issued today for additional information.For those of you who have dialed in on the call, the company has prepared a series of slides to complement our prepared remarks. These slides are available on the Investor Relations section of our website in the Events section on the right-hand side of the page.I'd now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Graham Rosenberg, for opening remarks. Graham?
Thank you, Nate, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to be with you today to review recent developments at dentalcorp as well as our financial and operating results for the 3- and 6-month periods ended June 30, 2021. For today's call, I'm going to share a number of those developments with you, and I'll hand the call back over to Nate, who will discuss our financial results in detail for the reporting period. After which, I will provide forward-looking remarks about how our business is trending.As a reminder about the business and as you can see on Slide 3, dentalcorp is focused on becoming the country's largest provider of essential cash-pay consumer health care with the goal to become Canada's most trusted health care network. We intend to make that vision a reality by delivering the best patient experience and clinical outcomes through our network of leading professionals empowered by our unique technology, know-how and scale.Turning to Slide 4. dentalcorp is the clear market leader with the only national platform in the $18 billion Canadian dental industry. Dentistry is a highly recurring discretion -- nondiscretionary cash pay service insulated from economic cycles and disintermediation by technology. And we believe that we are well positioned to continue our growth by leveraging our repeatable practice acquisition program and our proprietary digital assets and playbooks.Moving on to Slide 5. You will see a number of key metrics that support our continued confidence in our business. We've achieved double-digit growth every year in our history. More recently, dentalcorp has generated more than $1 billion of pro forma revenue, which is a significant milestone and $207 million of pro forma adjusted EBITDA both for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2021, all of this underpinned by strong returns on invested capital, high margins, low CapEx and working capital requirements. All of this has been made possible by our strong and diverse network of 1,300-plus dentists, 1,600-plus dental hygienists and close to 4,500 supporting team members. These high-quality professionals support more than 1.6 million active patients and generate more than 4 million annual patient visits.Turning to Slide 6. We are confident that our multi-layered growth strategy charts a course for a very bright future for dentalcorp. We intend to grow the business organically through continued M&A by driving greater efficiencies at a corporate and practice level and on a longer-term basis through expansion into other verticals, which will advance the health, well-being and vitality of our 1.6 million patients nationwide and Canadians more broadly. On Slide 7, you can see our strategy's positive impact on our second quarter 2021 results, which came in ahead of our expectations. The company generated second quarter 2021 revenue of $261 million and adjusted EBITDA of $49 million compared to $53 million of revenue and negative $0.1 million of adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of last year. And we generated second quarter 2021 adjusted EBITDA margins of 19% compared to negative 0.2% in the second quarter of 2020.Furthermore, our same practice sales growth for the second quarter of 2021 increased by 345% compared to the second quarter of 2020 and demonstrated, again, the resiliency of our business. More importantly, we grew by more than 5% compared to the second quarter of 2019 pre-COVID levels when excluding the provinces that experienced the most significant restrictions in the quarter.Overall, while our second quarter 2021 results were higher compared to the same period last year, due partly to coverage restrictions in 2020, they surpassed our internal forecasts and, as Nate will discuss in a few moments, put us in a very strong position going forward. And while it's only been about 2.5 months since we completed our successful IPO, dentalcorp has already made significant progress on the M&A front. In the second quarter, we acquired 20 dental practices for a total consideration of $77.6 million, which are budgeted to contribute $12 million of annual EBITDA. As of June 30, 2021, the company owned 431 dental practices in Canada compared to 374 practices in June last year. Suffice it to say, our M&A results have exceeded our expectations for the first half of 2021, and looking ahead, our pipeline continues to be robust with more than 140 opportunities currently in more advanced stages of discussions. We've also continued to be active subsequent to the quarter end, as evidenced by the exclusive partnership with Loblaw Companies Limited that we recently announced, along with our acquisition of 3 dental practices. I will now pass the call over to Nate, who will walk us through the details of our financial results. And then I'll share some closing perspectives before we wrap up and turn it over for questions. Nate?
Thank you, Graham. I'm turning over to Slide 8. Revenue for the 3-month period ended June 30, 2021, was $261 million compared to $53 million for the 3-month period ended June 30, 2020, representing an increase of $208 million or 390%. The quarter-over-quarter increase is attributable to more stringent pandemic restrictions in 2020, our strong second quarter of acquisitive growth; organic growth, including a positive contribution from our orthodontics insourcing program and same-store sales growth of 345% compared with the second quarter of 2020; and 5% growth over 2019 when removing the provinces that experienced the most significant restrictions in the quarter.As you can see, we reported second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $49 million compared to negative $0.1 million in the second quarter of 2020, and we reported second quarter adjusted EBITDA margins of 19%, up from negative 0.2% in the second quarter of 2020. Both revenue and adjusted EBITDA exceeded our expectations and reflect a more normalized environment for our industry compared to the same period last year when only emergency services were permitted.Turning to Slide 9. You can see our net leverage and liquidity as at June 30, 2021, on a net debt basis, was approximately 3.7x. We ended the second quarter of 2021 and with liquidity of $662 million comprised of $262 million in cash and $400 million in debt capacity under our $1.3 billion senior debt facility, of which only $900 million was drawn at quarter end. Looking ahead, we believe we have ample liquidity to support our acquisitive growth goals while maintaining a strong balance sheet.Overall, we're very pleased with our second quarter 2021 results. Our revenue and adjusted EBITDA exceeded our expectations. Our M&A platform continues to deliver strong results, and we have the capital and the team in place to execute our future plans.With that, I'll turn the call back over to Graham to provide some closing remarks.
Thanks, Nate. This is a very exciting time for dentalcorp. To sum up and as you can see on Slide 10, we believe our second quarter results further validate the strength and sustainability of our business model. Due to the anticipated but not guaranteed easing of pandemic restrictions at provincial and regulatory levels and the ongoing execution of our strategy more broadly, including our focus on organic growth, M&A and the achievement of increased operating productivity, we anticipate continued strong performance of our business going forward.We've also effectively leveraged our platform for expansion as demonstrated by our announcement subsequent to quarter end that we entered into a strategic partnership with Loblaw Companies Limited. And our pipeline remains robust with 600 opportunities in total and 140 of those opportunities in more advanced stages of discussion.Since dentalcorp was founded 10 years ago, we have grown to become the #1 dental services company in Canada. We operate in a very large market, $18 billion, and currently have a 3% market share. We are very excited about the long runway in front of us, and we believe we are just getting started.Not only do we have a huge market to penetrate, we have invested in numerous technologies, tools and playbooks that we believe are unique to our scale, and it will only get better as we grow and become more meaningful. This relates to all our constituencies, including our providers, our partners and our patients.Looking ahead, we believe we can invest and drive the business due to our scale, which is unique, and can create barriers. We feel that this is a virtuous circle where our strategy is paying off and has the potential to get better.And finally, and most importantly, I'd like to thank our team at dentalcorp for all of your contributions so far this year. We are one of Canada's best managed companies, and we have tremendous talent and experience inside of our ranks. And our team has collectively created a winning culture that will contribute to our growth and performance going forward. Thank you to all.Thanks for taking the time, and we'll now open up the call to questions. Operator?
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Steph Wissink with Jefferies.
I have a couple if we could. The first is just on your assumption as you [ phase ] through the back half of the year just given what we're seeing with variants moving through markets. How are you thinking about ongoing traffic to your centers? And what you're seeing in terms of bookings backlog? Any sense of variability as we see some of the headlines start to emerge?
It's Guy Amini here, President. Thank you for that question. When we look at the forward booking data that we have before us, we feel pretty confident about how things are looking today. Obviously, as Graham mentioned, the Delta variant does propose -- or does pose a bit of a wild card in that. But as it stands today, we feel confident in the continued rebound and feel confident in -- as restrictions continue to ease the provinces and as schools return to in-person teaching, volumes will continue to pick up. There's nothing in the horizon today that suggests that will change. Obviously, the importance is to remain agile as it relates to Delta variant, but our forward booking data through to the end of the quarter seems positive.
That's super helpful. And then I wanted to just unpack the Loblaw partnership a little bit. If you could just share with us a little bit more about how that partnership came to be, what benefits you expect to realize from it and how does it evolve over time.
Certainly. So it came to be from discussions between us and members of the team there and thinking about the importance of the scale that we present and the opportunities at both organizations given the national scope that we offer to the Canadian health care consumer. It just sort of made sense for us to find ways to work together in furtherance of that mutual agenda.We're pretty excited about it. That said, there remains some development work that we need to put in to get the partnership up and running and available for consumers to start booking. So we should expect capability in that regard due to Q4 and from there, continue to build on that partnership from not just offering booking capability for patients but beyond that, opportunities for us to engage with patients and leverage the loyalty programs that Loblaw does offer to allow us to provide that opportunity to our patients as a benefit.So we do expect to continue to build on that. We should start seeing a go-live date with incremental benefit from that in Q4, if not, in Q1, and then beyond that, again, we'll continue to build on the partnership through 2022 and continue to leverage what a partnership like ours can provide to the Canadian health care consumer.
All right. That's great. Last one, Graham or Nate, maybe for you would be on the pipeline of opportunities. I think you mentioned 600, 140 in advanced stages. Is that -- are you feeling pretty confident about the pipeline? Maybe how should we think about contribution to back half and even as you think about 2022, your continued contribution from inorganic through the pipeline of activity?
Yes. So thanks for the question. The pipeline continues to be robust. As far as our acquisitive plans through 2021, we continue to expect to meet or exceed expectations slightly. We continue to operate, of course, in a restricted environment as far as in-person engagements. We're happy with our results to date and are confident that will continue through the balance of the year.
Your next question comes from Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets.
Congrats on getting the first quarter under your belt. I just had a question on the 20 acquired practices that you announced with the quarter. Could you just give a little bit of color on kind of geography, whether these are tuck-in satellites, standalones? And then maybe if you're able to give some color around the revenue profile for these practices.
Yes. So as far as geography, they were acquired across the country, and we continue to lean on our national business development team to source acquisitions in every major market across the country. From an acquisition perspective, these acquisitions were all primary partnerships as well as satellite acquisitions. And as far as revenue profile on that, we won't be commenting on that.
Okay. No problem. When I run the numbers on the multiple, looked like the acquisition multiple is somewhere in the 6.5x range, which was a bit lower than we were looking for. So I was just curious if there's anything that would have driven that -- those multiples a little bit lower. Or was that just business as usual?
Yes. So the reason for that lower valuation is the reported acquired EBITDA was on an IFRS basis, whereas the EBITDA that we discussed previously was on a private GAAP basis. So that would be the reconciling item.
Oh, I see. Okay. That's great. And then maybe just something a little bit more high level. But in the press release, you kind of talked about evaluating opportunities to leverage your infrastructure to deliver more value-added services. Can you just talk a little bit about kind of what you mean with that statement? Is that something within the existing model? Or are you sort of talking about things outside of the dental practice network?
So we're looking at opportunities -- and we spoke about this during our IPO process. It's one of the early slides if anybody wants to go back to it -- of leveraging our infrastructure and our patient relationships to provide more value-added services, in-source opportunities, more opportunities into our real estate and our physical spaces and at the same time, take advantage of our technology and playbooks to drive growth. So with all that, there are areas of other private pay verticals like -- whether it be optical or dermatology and other verticals that we did highlight back at the time of our IPO, which continue to be opportunities, certainly not in the short term, for us to again leverage our scale and our patient relationships to garner more share of wallet in private pay health care services in Canada.
Okay. That's great. And then maybe just one final one for me if I could just on the gross margin. Can you talk a little bit about some color around what the positive drivers of the gross margin were in the quarter and potentially what some of the offsets were?
Yes. So as far as the gross margin, again, we continue to operate in a restricted environment, both from a dental regulatory perspective as well as provincial restrictions that vary across the country. With that said, the continued use of personal protective equipment by both volume and price still continues to remain elevated. We are seeing some recovery on that in the early parts of the quarter as well as from a staffing perspective given, again, cancellations in certain appointments. There's a certain element of inefficiency in the gross margin line.
Your next question comes from Doug Miehm with RBC.
I just wanted to follow up on the acquisitions that were completed in the quarter. You indicated that the $12 million is on a U.S. GAAP basis. Can you give us a number on an IFRS basis, please?
So on a -- so the number that was quoted was on an IFRS basis. The number on a U.S. GAAP basis would be $2 million [ level ].
Okay. And then as we look at that margin profile, you indicated that things were looking a little bit better into Q3. Is there any seasonality with respect to the margin on a normalized basis? Or should we just expect that to continue to climb as we get better utilization as COVID sort of falls away over the next couple of quarters?
Yes. So I think as far as a margin utilization and seasonality, there is an element of vacations that do take place during the Q2 and Q3 period, which would impact that margin.
And then Doug, on -- furthermore, as we're able to optimize capacity in a more meaningful way [ as opposed ] to pre-COVID levels, we should see our margins continue to accrete. At the moment worked also during Q2 with regulatory restrictions, which continue to persist into Q3. There are some capacity constraints with increased fallow times between visits and really take some capacity out of the system.
Your next question comes from Scott Fletcher with CIBC.
Wanted to get some more information on the rollout of orthodontics given that they seem to have contributed positively to growth in the quarter. I mean -- and just some information on how many practices you're expecting to roll it out for the rest of the year and how you're feeling about that.
It's Guy here. Thanks for the question. We continue to feel really, really strongly positive about it. We'll continue to ramp up our deployment of our ortho acceleration program across not just our existing GP network but as we continue to bolt on additional practices through our acquisition program. We do expect to hit north of 200 practices by the end of the calendar year, and we'll continue to have a consistent, if not, increased pace of deployment beyond that through 2022.We are seeing, again, continued uptick in case starts in practices newly put on the program. But more importantly, we're also seeing sort of monthly-over-monthly or quarter-over-quarter increase in productivity from existing practices that are now more proficient after having gone through the program. So we do expect to exceed what we had anticipated to be the number of incremental case starts generated through our GP network for the year.
And the second question was just around the use of the dentalcorp equity for practice acquisitions. Are we -- have you sort of already -- now that the public stocks sort of hit that percentage of consideration using equity that you're looking for on a run rate basis, can you sort of expect that to go forward?
Yes, absolutely. So as far as some of the acquisitions that we closed within the quarter, the equity split was on a legacy basis just given the timing. All acquisitions and new letters of intent have been signed post are at the equity cash split that we discussed, which is in the range of 80% in cash as well as 20% in dentalcorp equity.
Your next question comes from Patricia Baker with Scotiabank.
This is Ryan Madeley on for Patricia Baker. Just wanted to say congratulations on your first quarter and then circle back kind of to M&A. You kind of touched on it, but we were wondering if maybe you had a bit more color. So you closed 20 practices in Q2 and so far closed 3 in Q3, and you have 140 in the pipeline. But is there any like visibility or more color you can give or info on the cadence you're expecting for that 140 regards to Q3 or regards to Q4?
Yes. No, absolutely. So as far as our acquisitive plan for the balance of the year, we continue to be confident in meeting and exceeding our expectations that were set out.
Do you have a follow-up? Your next question comes from -- did you have a follow-up?
Yes, sorry, the line just kind of dropped for a second for me. So I missed the end, but I was just wondering then if there were any maybe structural limitations on the number of acquisitions that could close in either a quarter or a year because you have 140 in the pipeline, which seems to be quite a few.
So the 140, just to embellish upon that a little bit, is our active and engaged discussions in more advanced stages. The 140 do not represent LOIs signed. So as far as our cadence of closing our acquisitions, again, we're confident in meeting our expectations and continuing at our historical pace. As far as any capacity to close and integrate, we don't currently have that capacity at the -- or we're not -- have any capacity limits at the current pace that we have. And again, if you look back at our historical performance into 2019 and prior, we've shown our ability to close a significant volume of deals.
Your next question comes from Daryl Young with TD Securities.
And congrats on the first quarter as a public company. First question is just around the mix of revenue in the quarter between hygiene and traditional dentistry. And I guess I'm just trying to flush out what the expectations are for same-store sales growth going forward if maybe the hygiene services were deferred during the lockdown and that sets up for a strong second half.
Thanks, Daryl. So I think the main factor and what we're quite pleased with is if we take away the provinces that experience the significant restrictions. Again, we experienced 5% same-store sales growth in Q2 2021 over that same period in 2019. So that is what we're looking to on a go-forward basis as we continue to recover, ultimately, to show the resiliency of the business and expect the recovery to historical rates to be maintained.
Okay. Great. And would that drive a margin mix at all going forward just in terms of the relative contributions?
As far as margin, again, we continue to maintain confidence in the recovery. We're pleased with the results that we have to date. And as the guidelines and restrictions both provincially and from a dental regulatory perspective subside, that recovery will continue to be maintained.
Okay. Great. And then just one last one. In terms of the hellodent platform, would there be opportunities or would you consider opening that up to third-party dentists or even expanding that functionality into other medical professions in the near term just as a value-add service to your existing patients?
It's Guy here. Thanks for the question. We're always looking to optimize the platform. We think there's a ton of upside as we continue to build out its capability. We are assessing all opportunities to leverage what it could offer not just to the Canadian health care consumer but also to the Canadian health care professional. We've had inquiries and sort of requests to be able to participate in the program outside of the network, which we think is a great validation of what we offer, and we're again currently assessing opportunities to continue to build on it.
Your final question comes from Michael Cherny with Bank of America.
This is [ Alan ] in for Mike. Graham, you mentioned that revenue per store was up 5% in 2019 and I guess, excluding the COVID impact and then sort of flattish with the COVID impact. Can you talk about what percent of practices had restrictions in the second quarter and sort of what you're seeing so far in the third quarter?
Pardon me. Your line may be on mute.
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you.
Guy here. Yes. No, sorry, we just had some like difficulties. And it's Guy here. Thanks for the question. Look, the reality is all practices across the provinces have restrictions to varying degrees, but I think when you look at the larger provinces that we're further along their progress on easing those restrictions. We saw that 5% same-store growth on the revenue side. So I think the key there is regardless of sort of where you're situated, in which province, as we continue to take advantage of the easing of restrictions, we'll continue to see the recovery as to where we expect it to go.
Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe to ask the pipeline question in a different way. You mentioned 140-plus opportunities in more advanced stages then and 600 total. Can you just talk about how that compares to the numbers in 2019 and 2020?
Yes. So from the time of the IPO, we are up on both the number of total conversations that are currently being followed up upon by our national business development team as well as conversations and discussions that are in more advanced stages. Again, we're pleased with the development of our pipeline, especially in a more restricted environment, whereby travel and in-person engagements are being restricted and the performance that we're having is meeting and exceeding expectations.
There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
Great. Thank you very much, operator, and thank you, everyone, for taking the time and for your questions. We look forward to reporting again to you on our Q3 results for September 30 sometime in November. Those dates will go up in the next couple of months. And hope you enjoy the rest of your summers. And we're available for questions, obviously, after this and through the balance of the week and beyond. So thank you again.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.