Emergent BioSolutions Inc., Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

Emergent BioSolutions Inc., (EBS)

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

August 6, 2009 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Robert G. Burrows - Vice President, Investor Relations

Fuad El-Hibri - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer

R. Don Elsey - Chief Financial Officer

Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi - President, Chief Operating Officer

W. James Jackson, Ph.D. - Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific ऑफिसर

अनाल्यस्ट्स

Eric Schmidt - Cowen & Company

David Moskowitz - Caris & Company

Mona Ashiya - J.P. Morgan

Sean Long – Kennedy Capital Management

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the Emergent BioSolutions Incorporated second quarter 2009 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Robert Burrows.

Robert Burrows

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Robert Burrows, Vice President of Investor Relations for Emergent. Thank you for joining us today as we discuss Emergent BioSolutions financial results for the second quarter and first six months of 2009. As is customary, our call today is open to all participants. In addition, the call is being recorded and is copyrighted by Emergent BioSolutions.

Joining me on the call this afternoon will be Fuad El-Hibri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Don Elsey, Chief Financial Officer. Additional members of our senior management team will be present on the call for purposes of the Q&A session.

Before we begin, however, I am compelled to remind everyone that during the all management may make projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events and the company’s prospects or future performance. These forward-looking statements reflect Emergent’s current perspective on existing trends and information. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements.

You are encouraged to review Emergent’s filings with the SEC on Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K for more information on the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ.

Emergent BioSolutions hands out bonuses

Bonus may be a bad word right now — but not for a biotech that is actually making money.

Alongside minimal pay raises, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. execs received bonuses in 2008 that increased anywhere from 5 percent to 43 percent from their 2007 bonuses. Fuad El-Hibri, chief executive officer and chairman of the Rockville company, got the lowest increase, but the highest bonus at $323,250. The highest increase was doled out to Kyle Keese, senior vice president of manufacturing operations, who took home a $96,460 bonus for 2008.

Though, at least one manager’s perk wasn’t quite so perky last year. Robert Kramer, who stepped down in January as head of Emergent’s manufacturing subsidiary and instead will manage a contract that the company hopes to nail with the federal government this year, got a 48 percent decrease in his bonus from 2007, bringing his 2008 figure to $78,815.

While Emergent is one of the few biotechs netting a profit, its numbers did dip slightly from 2007 to 2008 — by 2 percent of revenue and 10 percent of profits — because of fewer or delayed shipments of its anthrax vaccine to the federal government. But whereas other biotechs have been shaving down their work forces, Emergent added people in 2008, up to 587 people from 560 in 2007.