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f8ef524687ef5879ba32293e094a8ed3
OK. OK. Got it. And I guess, along those lines, just I appreciate the color on the volume you're getting on the sports channel side. Wondering if there are other kind of nontraditional channels that you are focused on where you see a big future opportunity that maybe you haven't tapped yet?
Yes. So I mentioned a little bit. So if you look at the different verticals, the -- and this is related to what everybody's referring to as screening/surveillance. So the bigger ones are travel and hospitality. There's obviously an enormous amount of funding available for school testing, which we are -- I still believe...
direct
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A
8d299ac14d3dbc9d31137a705dd0622f
OK. OK. That's helpful. And maybe just my last one. Just wondering on your broader kind of R&D efforts and pipeline with hGH kind of nearing the finish line, how are you thinking about kind of the internal assets you have? And if there are internal ones that you're excited about and going to start to prioritize or if k...
Well, there's -- this is Tony Cruz. The focus right now still is in finishing the growth hormone and also initiating a second indication in pediatrics in another indication or a basket of indications with Pfizer. So there is quite a bit of focus still on the growth hormone as it progresses and also potentially getting ...
intermediate
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B
ef9fd8b9ee7b8c74681fa1f59917fbbf
So a lot of the questions I had were answered, but I wanted to sort of pick up just in terms of prep work, both ahead of the PDUFA date, as well as commercial launch. Again, appreciating that a lot of that is in the hands of Pfizer. Is there anything in particular that you guys are involved with? Just any color you can...
No. As per the agreement, Pfizer is responsible for all commercialization activities. I mean, we do have regular meetings, discussing what they're doing. But in terms of our actively participating, we don't. Where we're participating is in continuing development and continuing to present data in different meetings to m...
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A
9702437c182a2a2518d97cd835da3d3a
Good afternoon and congrats on the quarter. My first question is that going forward, do you anticipate the breakdown for the COVID test between PCR and serological test changes, or pretty much, it stays relatively same sort of ratio?
Yeah. It's a good question. And quite honestly, I don't think anybody knows yet what will happen for the antibody testing or quantitative antibodies for both people who have the vaccine or the disease. A little bit of that will be dependent on the government or government's regulatory oversight in either here and inter...
fully_evasive
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C
4fe6193fd5ef6fd2b84d216d46a1315b
OK. Maybe two quick ones. In terms of -- you just mentioned that it seems that you are getting a higher price test being done that's why your revenue increases. Do you anticipate this trend going forward into next quarter, maybe further into the second half of this year in terms of getting a higher price test then?
Yeah. So, Yale, I don't think there's going to be another large step-up. The school and some of the surveillance testing that Jon was talking about, those come at a slightly lower price than where our average is coming in today. But I think it really does depend on a lot of the general public demand for testing and how...
intermediate
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B
3b721f8ab32c2c204cef86fb847984ab
OK. Maybe the last question that -- I think this is for Jon, that you mentioned there will be 10 more health plan to be consigned over the next, I guess, 60 days. Just overall, what's the coverage life in total for those plans? Thanks.
I don't have it in front of me -- if you're asking me for the number of lives, I'd have to get back to you to tell you what the impact will be. So we'd have to circle back to tell you exactly how -- yes. No, I don't know exactly how many lives that represents.
fully_evasive
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C
c1e5a69083ecd4f38f80cc83256dfe88
We're obviously seeing a surge in potash benchmarks recently including now around $600 per ton in the Midwest. But it seems a lot of global producers aren't transacting at these levels. How liquids do you think these benchmark prices are? And are you booking business with these levels in the fourth quarter?
That's a great question. I'll let Zach answer that. We've been very methodical in which -- in the timing of the orders that we take. We're seeing in our region, very strong demand, but I'll let Zach give some color to that. Yes, thanks for the question. I think as far as the first part around the liquidity of the curre...
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A
8360dd98169b2f20612d7fe73bc9f02b
And then in oilfield solutions revenue was obviously down year over year in the first half, but you've pointed to the potential for steady growth in the second half. It's -- I believe in anticipation of higher margin sales in the second half. What level of growth do you expect to see?
Yes. It's a good question. Certainly Q2 was down considerably from Q1 of 2020 as we really just held backwater and opportunistically scheduled that for the back half of the year. We expect to sell out of our acre feet of water on the South Ranch. Sorry, I can't give you a margin number, but yes, we will see significant...
intermediate
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B
26e43bdc2b0ddc19b33b5d8735ca5b3d
OK. Thanks. That's helpful. And then just the last one back on, I guess, potash and trio, obviously pricing is expected to rise in the third quarter. How do you expect margins to trend your cost also rise or do you expect margins to expand?
Yes. So we're in kind of middle back half of the evaporation season right now. Our cost structure should say pretty similar those tons are in inventory right now that we'll be selling and we're going to start up our production here at HB this week and our Utah facilities late August, early September. So the cost side i...
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A
7689f8c1fbdc3f8dbd883e79bd659e03
Hi guys, this is Will Tang on for Vincent. Thanks for taking my question. I'm wondering if you guys can comment on your potash inventories and how you're thinking about sales versus production as we go through the year and exit all season?
I'll let Matt address the inventory issue, but as you know, we're a relatively small producer, regional producer. So we've always had the ability to sellout our inventory. I'll let Matt address the current levels and how we've tried to manage our book, seeing the strength of the agricultural commodity markets. There is...
intermediate
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B
1e2c3d21c689cd7f10f5d5679e9760b2
Got it. And then one more question, if I may, I'm wondering if there's any concern with given how high potash prices are now that farmers might turn to mine the soil and move the applications this fall and next spring. I guess, in other words, do you guys foresee any like demand disruption happening related to the wors...
We all live through the price increases above $708 in 2009, and once the demand destruction that occurred when potash prices got up in the $800, $900 range. I don't think we're remotely near pricing where we're going to see demand destruction. I think when you look at farmer economics; they're doing extremely well righ...
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A
1df85aa8b3efec041e9544c22f61188a
Thanks and congratulations to Brian on promotion. You also added a energy board member during the quarter as well. Does Brian's background and the addition of energy knowhow to the board signal any kind of step change plans here in advancing the water and oilfield strategy?
Absolutely. This is Bob. And John, thank you for the question. And I'll let Brian take his victory lap here in a minute. We're really proud of the addition of Lori Lancaster and really want to stress her financial expertise in the oil and gas energy space. So it's not just the energy experience, but the financial exper...
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A
b43fa3cf4d65d06861624034f37c5a08
And then on the land sale in Texas, does that mean that all water growth is going to be recycled water or would you be expecting to just grow the disposal wells elsewhere and you'll grow both disposed water as well as recycled water?
We clearly grow it, probably not through SWDs. We'll talk about that in the upcoming quarters. But we clearly have plans to grow our ability to handle disposal opportunities.
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B
caaed214e2229cd0951b463f27802c5b
And also why the land sale in Texas has been?
Well, it was adjacent. I guess we just have better opportunities when we look at the disposal market. So it was 320 acres adjacent to our 60,000 acres that we have bigger plans for. And so if -- if you look at Southeast New Mexico, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, there are people that are trading pieces so that their jigsa...
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A
9c5dcae74892df00085514b5f1cf8322
Hi, thanks for taking my question. If you could just step back and on the oil services business and give us a picture of what the infrastructure and the business might look like in 2022 versus 2021 in the sense of, we've been talking about full-cycle water management to source water delivery, recycling, blending, dispo...
That's a great question. Throughout the entire Southeast New Mexico portion, we now have the ability to deliver source water. Whether it's fresh water or brine or brackish water to operate or shut entirety of Southeast New Mexico. We've got three full recycle units ready to go up and running and are currently under neg...
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A
e02c9ee671d8d7a32ec2f595372dd79a
Yes, it did. Yes, that's very helpful. Thank you. In terms of the -- how you're funding this a lot of the funding is I imagine the expense, but is -- is -- some of this funding going to flow through capex on the cash flow statement? And if so, what majority of them will look like in 2022.
The great news is a lot of the capital has been spent. So if you look at our pipeline infrastructure, if you look at the recycled units, a big chunk of the capital has been spent. And so we're talking about bite sized pieces that are easily paid for with cash flow or small drawdowns on a revolver. So we've -- as I try ...
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B
b95ca41bf3652882b21ddbabbd2ee693
OK, great. And is there any update on the litigation front as well as the -- there was a commentary in the 10-Q about a customer deposit on alleged default on a sales contract. I don't know if that's just a rent on to your disclosure, but any take you can provide on either one would be useful.
We're just -- we're eagerly awaiting the results from Judge Wechsler in the adjudication trial. We can only assume he's taking his time to write a thoughtful opinion. I wish we had an update for you. We're eagerly awaiting that as well. We've got several significant water permits that are in the process of being adjudi...
intermediate
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B
6348c541d8b7ac0ceaf0754b33675540
That's great and nice comment. And then the litigation -- the alleged default of the south contract is that also assumed in your commentary.
Yes. I got -- the words say what they say and I'll just leave it at that.
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A
927aaa13e79a7e2d6c99aa3f6ef55776
Kind of following -- Yes. Kind of following up on the last question, you have been asking about it for a long time. So I guess no reason to get shy at this point, but the answer on capital structure and capital allocation plans for a while has been that it's kind of just too premature to talk about meaning to execute f...
Jason, it's a great question. I would say if anything, that we are more inclined to some sort of a special dividend, if you will, we're looking at it, we're very aware of it. We would love nothing more than to return capital to shareholders as largest shareholder. I'm very much aligned with you. We're glad to be where ...
intermediate
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B
7b171ad4a3e39534365921189837bc20
OK, awesome. And just last one please, the land sale, just a quick follow-up on that. I'm assuming if you sold the 50% interest in the 652 acre, what -- did it actually get carved out on 326 or it's just the loving Texas that you bought?
The piece of that the 640 was partitioned into two 320 that we owned a 100% and the other company owned a 100%. And so what, as I said, it was a nice return and we virtually doubled our money in 2018. It was literally just a 320 track land right next to our 60,000 acre track land that made more sense to a trade puzzle ...
direct
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A
8894c5c09fd6b43d4a48eabedb06d375
I wanted to ask about the aged whiskey transactions that failed to materialize in the fourth quarter. Can you give us a little bit more color on the nature of those transactions and in terms of how many customers there were, why they were not transacted and what types of customers they might have been, whether it be sm...
Yes. Thanks, Alex. A couple of points I'd like to clarify there. First of all, 2019 was our first year of selling four-year-old products. So we're really starting on a new venture there. Obviously, we learned some things along the way. When we -- at the end of the third quarter, we've stated very confidently that we th...
intermediate
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B
d7572bdad871a36d1708400cd20eb73d
It sounds like, if I heard you correctly, that new distillate sales were also down in the fourth quarter, but it's your expectation that that segment will return to growth in 2020, if I heard that all correctly. Can you give us a sense of just why the new fill sales would have been down in the fourth quarter? And what ...
One of the larger impacts on our new distillate sales during 2019 was certain customers working through excess inventory. And as we've said before, even some of these contracts -- these customers who had contracts had always been ordering above their contractual requirement and they simply drop down to their contractua...
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A
4aeaa2cb4bcd862d9931affe9ef53b9d
I want to go back to the new distillate. I'm just trying to understand, one, why it took until December before you realized, that the company realized that things were following it? Because we heard numerous different kind of explanations of why new distillate was down throughout the year now and the filing in the four...
Yes. And Bill, this is Brandon. The December realization was really all around aged. And as Gus already spoke through, that's when a lot of the transactions either took place or failed to transact. Even on the call in Q3, when asked about new distillate in Q4, our response at the time was we expect total brown to be up...
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A
d8348dd895a1f0cac5c3331c8fb3c04e
But just to be clear. You were confident this time last year that it would grow. And so based on conversations and commitments, and that didn't happen. So is there anything different from this time last year?
Yes. I think this time last year, we were very confident. And as the year went through, we began to realize the impact of those customers working through the excess inventory. We also, over the last part of the year and certainly through January with our analysis, got a better handle on the -- as opposed to the overall...
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A
2e391ca0248fa826c745b86a3ca0aea3
The other thing you said in the release is you don't believe your competitive position has changed. And so I'm just trying to understand, if -- as you've said in the past, you're the lowest cost player because you have the scale advantage and you have such quality. Then why aren't you winning more than your fair share ...
Yes. Great question. And I'm glad you were specific about that because, again, we don't -- it's not we're losing customers, we're not winning as many new customers as we would like. And we are putting our focus, increasing our focus toward gaining volume share. I don't think we were -- we may have been a little bit lat...
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B
7f77b90f8443a8f8708b434e3ef2507c
And then on the aged side, so I just want to clarify, is there an expectation of any fully aged sales in your 2020 guidance? And if so, how do I get confident that that will happen?
Yes. Yes. Again, in 2019, there were sales of fully aged, too. So I think it's important to people to understand that we have sold four-year-old. We will four-year-old and we will continue to sell four-year-old going forward. Obviously, we have 2015 leftover. In the third quarter, we said if all these sales come throug...
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A
7b762bb7b94aefecd41a6f25d39cd15b
And then I might have missed it. Did you put away aged inventory in the fourth quarter? And are there plans to put away a meaningful amount in 2020?
Yes. So because -- remember, that inventory number is a net number, right, what we put away versus what we sold. And the simple fact that we didn't sell as much as we had forecasted for, for the fourth quarter meant we ended up with a higher net put away. So that was -- that net put away, that increase in the fourth qu...
direct
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A
afa2b5ad4934c3ccd9a7ce992fdcbd69
Last one for me. So I'm just trying to understand. I mean we went through the past year, and you even said customers were kind of playing off of your guidance and trend and negotiating tools. You have the valuation of the stock where it is right now and you have no debt. Why does it make sense to be a public company, t...
I think that really goes back to uses of capital. And we believe in our long-term strategy. The phases of growth that we have laid out starting in 2015 have all played out pretty much as anticipated, except for this last phase of growth with aged where we thought it was going to give us both more growth and a longer bu...
intermediate
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B
69ceca9768d0b3ee7f9d1c2375b651e5
It's still 60 days, right, from the December 17 filing for when you would hear at PDUFA, right? And so we're sitting here on February 18, is there something like COVID-related or anything in terms of timelines we should be thinking about here for the PDUFA? And then second question is, you mentioned the medical meeting...
Thanks, Anupam, for the question. I'll take the first question first. So just to remind everyone, the timelines for review from the FDA. So as this is a 505(b)(2) product, we have a standard 10-month review cycle, and the FDA is required to provide feedback to us in writing by day 74. So just as a reminder, we filed ou...
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B
084b8389d7929f19f03fae05fde2b16d
I guess using the TrueTear experience as a lens of sorts, do you anticipate any read-through from that from payers on an intranasal delivery of your product? And -- so I guess in the same vein, have you had more detailed discussions on coverage yet and the positioning and the treatment paradigm? And if you can't provid...
Yeah. Thanks, Tara. I will address the question around the payers. From a TrueTear perspective, TrueTear was a medical device that was not reimbursed from a traditional payer perspective, since this is a proctology agent, we do expect the standard commercial insurance, as well as Medicare down the line to list on formu...
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B
61fa9ea3e7afc4fe4948fb0d203b8181
I was wondering, maybe, John, you could talk a little bit about some of the lessons learned from the Xiidra launch. I know you have some innovate understanding of what went right, what went wrong. And a little bit of maybe a background around the pricing issues that Xiidra and Restasis had. It seems they kind of got lo...
Yeah. Ken, I'll address these questions. Let's start with kind of the marketplace in general. One of the things that we did learn from the Xiidra launch was that the market is very promotionally sensitive, both from a field force perspective as well as an investment in direct-to-consumer. We've seen the market grow as ...
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A
805a38f8dd9b132c0926e1d15d99892e
Perhaps you could help us think about the unmet need in neurotrophic keratopathy and the rationale for OC-01 in this indication. And then more specifically, on the OLYMPIA study, just curious about any takeaways from the broader OC-01 experience and dry eye that might speak to the ability of OC-01 to improved corneal s...
Yeah. Great. Thanks, Patrick. Those are great questions. So as we think about neurotrophic keratopathy, one of the things that I think is important is to understand the disease state. When we think about patients with this disease, think about it almost as a patient who's diabetic that has peripheral neuropathy only it...
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A
90ffd59bcce6fff43ff9c89bb2c7b31e
Can we expect a sequential increase in grades over the course of the year or will you be sort of at the level you're at in Q2 and then more rapid sort of hockey stick into the back half of the year?
Yes, you're absolutely right. The grade will increase. And like we've mentioned a few times, the second half, it's about 60% of our production coming in the second half. So, you'll see grade going up slowly in Q2 and then more importantly in Q3 and in Q4.
direct
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A
f0c697b6db580903afdd552a21db3b16
With respect to Jacobina, I noticed you guys are talking about phase through and -- sorry, phase 1 and continuing to maintain the current recovery rates at higher throughput. But it seems to me like you've already achieved that. It was 96.8 and, what was it, 68.2 was the throughput level. So, I'm just a little confused...
No, it will be. It's just that we're going to go to phase 2, then the equipment will be already installed, but it's also at the same time to recover more by gravity, Anita. So, we just want to -- the recoveries will stay basically -- it's just that more gold will report to gravity instead to go to the leaching circuit....
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A
c7899fcbf271036ddcb39661459bfe6f
Moving to Canadian Malartic. So, the grades are coming in at 1.18. And that -- is that predominantly because you're at the bottom now of the Canadian Malartic pit, not really necessarily that you're in -- it's the Barnat grades that are coming through. And the second thing on that was -- and Mike will love this, the st...
Okay. I'll answer the first part and I will let Yohann answer the stripping. But on the grade, it's both. So, as we go down deeper in the main Canadian Malartic pit, the grade is getting better as there's less stope that were mined from underground, but also the grade in Barnat is getting higher as we go down to the pi...
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B
bd71cdc131d2c04f6b0648cace16fcb7
My last question was with regards to the MARA care and maintenance costs. Could I expect that to continue through the rest of the year and until, I guess, MARA starts up?
Yes, we will continue -- good morning, Anita. We will continue through the year. And yes, it's not through the start-up, but once the project gets into construction, the care and maintenance get absorbed by the construction overall cost.
direct
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A
b54dbe45121d35b1f7c76366f5b9cc0c
Can you just give, Jason, maybe a bit more color in terms of what you expect with regards to the heightened taxes in Q2. Any way you can kind of quantify for us?
Yes, sure, Mike. Yes, I think we actually guided -- I think we guide on taxes pretty much every year. We did again this year. I think it was -- bookends of $180 million to $200 million, probably expect that toward the lower end is actually where we're seeing that come in. I think we had $20 million of cash taxes paid i...
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A
90faa127b740d50cfd751512eedd9e00
Speaking on Minera Florida, which you had a really good March in Jacobina as well, should we kind of expect that carryover at those kind of rates or that's just -- you kind of had a really strong kind of finish to the quarter and we should really just kind of rely on the overall current guidance that you gave for the y...
Good morning, Mike. So, yes, we maintained the guidance for both. But, sure, both mines achieved better than plan in Q1. So, they should continue to do quite well in Q2. As everybody probably know, we weighted our first half at 47% of our production and the second half at 53%. So, if you look at Q2, Q2 will be a better...
direct
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A
f83e49a12ee80a007070e3fde590dbaf
You are hearing ever increasing chatter around inflationary pressures, especially on steel prices. But we're still not seeing really management teams talk about inflationary pressures in terms of cash costs. Can you give some color there? Are you seeing any kind of pressure in terms of labor costs or your consumables b...
Pretty modest. Jason, any color? Yes. Mike, we, for all of our activities, are pretty much locked up for the course of this year. Similarly, we put foreign exchange hedges in this year, covers off the better part of three -- call it two-thirds to three quarters of our local opex, so it gives just that certainty on a li...
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A
5169149316966ccc4e48be92d75be6b2
Jason, I'm just following up on what Mike was talking about, inflationary pressures in the cost structure. And you mentioned you are not seeing anything at this point. Can you just remind me, in your cost structure, what percentage is labor, what percentage is fuel and what percentage is consumables?
Tanya, I'll start with fuel first. It's up 5% across the Board and then the other two categories, call it, 30%, 35% plus or minus, something like that.
direct
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A
dd6d436762135028ad112a8b3e5401a2
Again, just circling back on higher gold price and with COVID impacts around the world, are you hearing anything from the jurisdictions that you operate in with respect to changes in taxation and/or royalties, Brazil, Chile, Argentina? Anything at all where you operate?
Well, there's discussion -- good morning, Tanya, first. So, there's discussion in the countries as you've probably seen in Chile. In Argentina, it seems that actually it might go the other way for us. So, that can be good in the future or for the future project we have in the country. In Brazil, it's pretty quiet now t...
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A
c57397c6679154f39410e8c51503f312
On Jacobina phase 2, can you just confirm that the capex is still expected to be below $57 million? I think that's the number you had provided before.
Good morning, Fahad. Yes, absolutely right. The capital for phase 2 will be below $57 million.
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A
7aadb4034578fd0ffafea5a8711df633
On Cerro Moro, so it sounds there's more normalized activity, but the workforce -- there's still some workforce availability and constraints there. Can you just maybe walk us through -- what would change if, for example, you got back to 100% of the workforce? Like, what would change? Would it be the cost? Would it be a...
Yes, we're running at about 80%, 85% of the manpower. We're running the mill at full capacity, like we mentioned. The mine is getting back. So, it's basically access to more area on the development on the ground that will -- so that will improve flexibility for us in the future when we'll be able to be at full capacity...
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04a8507d5859211157ae60a92a00cad3
So I don't mean to be reductive, but if I call Loews a multiline investment conglomerate, I hope you won't be too disappointed.
We are unabashedly a conglomerate. So no, we're no upset with that.
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A
1fdf50892dcc0abaf2b9cb64d7bf9ea4
So one of your -- not really competitor, but one of your peers who is a very established company said recently that he would expect to warn his shareholders over the long run that he doesn't think he can much outperform the S&P 500. And is that a function of -- you don't have to speak about his company, but when you th...
So I know Loews really well. I don't know the S&P 500 as well as I know Loews. So I can't opine to you whether Loews is going to outperform or underperform the S&P 500. What I know is that the opportunity set that we have in front of us at Loews, given our cash flow, given our 5 individual businesses and given our shar...
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B
c499a4233888cc81338410d9fb36301e
OK. By extension, look, you're also -- you do generate a lot of free cash. And you can use that to buy back your own stock or you can use that to become an expert in another company and buy that company. Do you believe that ultimately the valuation discount of Loews is so great that the benchmark necessary to put new m...
So there's one other factor that you didn't mention. And that is probably $1 trillion of unused equity at private equity firms. And those firms can easily lever up by 100%. So that means that there is probably $2 trillion of dry powder sitting in those firms. And as a result, we see very high prices for businesses tha...
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A
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And then I guess I might misquote you, Jim. But a few times you've had a eureka moment where you could say "This little money buys this much stuff." I don't think that's exactly how you said it. Do you expect to have one of those again? Or has market efficiency gotten to the point where the idea that you're going to fi...
Yes. So that was that -- you're quoting the Jim Tisch $5 million cash that I developed in about 1982 standing on the deck of a supertanker, where I looked to the front, I looked to the rear, I looked to both sides, I scratched my head, and I said, "You need me to get all this for $5 million?" And in fact, I thought tha...
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All right. And one final question that may dovetail. You mentioned getting out of hotels that no longer fit the strategy of Loews Hotels and acquiring more properties that do. Can you enunciate in a concise way what the strategy is right now?
Sure. We have learned a lot from our experience in Orlando, where we are operating 6 hotels at above-market room rates and above-market occupancy. And those hotels have earned very significant rates of return for us and our partners at Universal. And so we've translated that experience into our strategy for our hotel b...
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cf04ab6d8862e51642d9323f23f89bfb
Hi, thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on all the progress and the new hires. Joe, congrats on the start here. Maybe just as a start from a high level. Can you just maybe -- you started to touch on this in the prepared comments, but talk to us about what attracted you to CorMedix and how you think your prior...
Sure. Thanks, Jason, and I appreciate the question. So look, when I think about what I bring to CorMedix, right? I think I bring a long track record of building and managing commercial organizations across different therapeutic categories and different geographies as well as deep expertise in business development and s...
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4c1eac528c2a4f9d441586ddf2be4eab
Great. That's helpful. And then just on reimbursement, you talked about both the TDAPA program as well as petitioning to have the products excluded from the bundle. Are these mutually exclusive processes or is there any crosstalk between the two? And then just following on from that, can you speak to how you think Defe...
OK, thanks. So let me say unequivocally, first. This is going to be a dual strategy that we pursue simultaneously, right. So TDAPA is absolutely an adequate pathway to drive reimbursement and build value for Defencath. But in pursuing separate reimbursement and pursuing a J-code, we saw the potential to create, let's s...
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a47ba0c1bc6b8ea8667071ee75d2752e
Yes. Good evening. This is Les on for Joon. Thanks for taking my questions. I will start off with on the EU wind down. Can you just talk about the costs associated with that? How long it might take? And then the impact it the CMO that has currently been producing the product there in EU., is that going to be a closure ...
OK, yes. Thanks for the question, Les. Let me clarify that the CMO that was being utilized for production of the product as a medical device is completely different from the CMO we would utilize to commercialize for the United States. So there is absolutely no overlap between the manufacturing for Neutrolin and that fo...
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9f0a273bd6d7874b1bc0c620f0ab59b7
Great. Makes sense. Thank you. And then just a follow-up to that, on the CMO selection side. It appears that you have identified and a number of manufacturers in the U.S. Can you just talk about the progress there on your due diligence process? And when can we, I guess, perhaps hear some announcement on that front?
Yeah, I think we are going to probably be in a position to update on the next call. We have got a couple of work streams that are still ongoing, and we are working through those. But the project is moving forward really well, and we will be able to provide an update in a couple of months.
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8acb383f5254d8b3c0dcd6f3eca2e71b
Great. And I guess I will squeeze one more in. With your current guidance of cash through first half of '23, with the new hires and bringing in a scientific advisory board, has that impacted any of your cash guidance? Thank you.
I am going to defer that to Matt. Go ahead, Matt. Thanks, Joe. Yes. No problem, Joe. So yes, no, it is included. Look, our cash guidance assumes the assumption of increasing spend related to preparing for the potential commercial launch of Defencath, as we have said before. And so we have anticipated for things to incr...
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9ed8d67b88a62a51d9384e282b4d142e
Hi. This is Rohit on for Serge. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk us a little bit about how you see the market opportunity for Defencath? And what do you think is the main competition based on what hospitals are currently using? And then what kind of preparations are you guys making in terms of launch in term...
OK, thanks for the question, Rohit. So obviously, we see a market opportunity in two segments, right, both on the outpatient and inpatient side. And I think the outpatient side is clearly well known, largely controlled by the large dialysis operators. On the inpatient side, it's a little bit different of a market oppor...
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97e5ea851e294c2279891ecf63e2099f
Can you provide any updates on plans for additional indications like pediatrics, TPN, oncology?
OK. Thanks Dan. I guess first, we need to separate, I would say, pediatrics from what we will call new indications, right. So we have an obligation to FDA to pursue a pediatric study with the initial indication that we commence once we have a final FDA approval of the NDA. So that is a separate clinical trial that will...
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c7d83782bebc28063ac32f2c41642065
What do you see as launch timing relative to your potential approval?
Yeah, thanks. That's a good question, Dan. So there is a couple of rate-limiting factors when we are thinking about launch timing relative to approval. First, on the reimbursement side, from an outpatient standpoint, whether we end up ultimately going to taper out or getting separate reimbursement, both of those proces...
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d1abf3bfab4ca9297120f18f66a52eaf
I guess my first question is really just tied to sort of where the current pricing trends you're seeing there and then willingness on your part or the customer's part to start locking up some of those volumes and what could be the duration of that?
John, so in the early first quarter, we saw what we call our FOB equivalent to mine gate pricing kind of low to mid-20s. And now we're -- as we exit and into the second quarter, we're well into the 30s now. And those pricing -- our pricing -- we're able to increase our pricing regularly here right now. The market is st...
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0b74eed07a03b24f24545b35087a325d
And then just a final one for me is I think you noted eight SmartPath systems. If everything went perfectly throughout the balance of this year, where do you think you could exit '22?
Yes. I think on the smart systems, and we're currently at 8, I think we could probably increase our utilization 10% to 20% in terms of additional units starting kind of in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
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f3e0302ac5c3d4b5dcf0ecb7845c4fb9
So two things for me. I think the first would be when I think about the quarter and I sort of think about your profitability or contribution margin per tonne, the -- I mean, it looked like it was up a little bit on an apples-to-apples basis sequentially. But I would think, given the pricing, it would be up more. And I'...
Yes. In terms of the quarter, again, as we highlighted, we -- because of weather and some operational issues, January and February were impacted by that, and then pricing as well didn't really start to pick up until later in the quarter in March. So we were kind of impacted negatively on an operating expense basis earl...
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9297a9ef865de94a480f39015655a4b0
When we think about your volume potential, given the acquisitions, and I know given some of the constraints on the rails, etc., like -- and your -- obviously, your volume guidance for the second quarter is very healthy, right? You had a great March. In this type of market, I mean, it seems like you'll do four million-i...
So I would just say that with what we're doing right now, and we've actually had to really gear up the plant with both employees and additionally, with logistics, we feel like there's more demand right now than we have supply as we scale up the plants. But we see there's a pretty good runway ahead. I don't know, Lee, i...
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230d161f730b8c2209c739e4a71408f9
The one was on the balance sheet. The -- obviously, and a lot of our service companies have seen this in the first quarter, your working capital, was it drained especially on the receivables side? How should we think about the sort of the different pieces of working capital and working capital as the year unfolds?
Well, the way working cap -- I mean, right now, we had a big buildup in receivables in March. That should -- we are expecting continued increasing sales in the second quarter. So actually, our receivable balance should be increasing but won't increase at the same rate. So we should get some cash conversion from that. T...
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bdf4c075cfcfad8ac5339ebb080f625c
And then just one final. I know this is a probably a little further out. When we think about some of the efforts you're making on the industrial side, when would that sort of start to really impact kind of volumes and contribution margins per tonne, etc.? Is that sort of a '23-plus event? Or could it be before that?
Yes. I think right now, what we've seen is the industrial sand cycle has pretty much a long sale cycle. So you've got to really build in and kind of build up the relationships. And then from that, you can really start driving those volumes and revenues. We did actually have a positive impact industrial sales in the fir...
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382df01e25b8fe9196ac64def2328bd4
Just digging in on commercial truck and the expectations around the decremental margins for the year. This fourth quarter, decrementals came in as promised, solidly at 10%. It does sound like you plan to almost double your electrification spend. So just wondering, the cadence of the year? And maybe just the timing on t...
Yes, James, it's Carl. Yes, I think as it relates to electrification, I think as you look at the planned spending on that, it's relatively ratable each quarter as you kind of go forward in 2020. And then in the commercial truck segment, if you look at kind of where the margin performance and some of the tailwinds we ha...
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535b59f0411ebcc7a9d2d70a6b22b011
Got it. And then thinking about your other segment, the decrementals in this fourth quarter were pretty elevated. Just wondering what might be onetime related or what's the favorable offset into next year related to the AxleTech synergy pull-through? And just your thoughts, again, on decrementals for that segment as we...
Yes. James, if you look at the performance and margin, actually, it's all really attributable to AxleTech. So if you were to strip out the AxleTech revenue, margin performance would have been very similar on a year-over-year basis within the quarter. So as we said in the prepared remarks, we think AxleTech, we're right...
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af1931bd754a01e9164f2d305f0f3d57
And what was the AxleTech contribution -- revenue contribution in the quarter?
It was right around $30 million.
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c42274e1b1c11205ba4cf985aae281d5
Going to the guidance quickly. If I look at the revenue guidance, end markets are guided for a little more conservative potentially than third-party estimates, which I think is fine. I guess I was looking at the -- any potential for revenue outperformance in 2020. And I know sort of a key tenant of the M22 plan was som...
Well, I think -- thanks for the question, Jason. This is Jay. I think, first of all, we're seeing the full-year benefit of AxleTech revenue, which, again, we included in our new revenue targets. So you're seeing that benefit flow through. I think the -- we are expecting some significant downturns around the globe. And...
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500fa6610349ea5f67f4f4db8323d7ce
OK. That's helpful. And then just secondly, as we think about steel costs next year, which I know was guided to be a tailwind and is sort of within that first bucket you mentioned, offset by lower layer capacity costs, steel costs. Just wondering if you could help us -- if we assume the indices and the prices stay flat...
I think on steel, most of that will be in the first half as we expect kind of the tailwinds from that. It's probably -- as we've assessed it, it's probably high single-digit millions is what our expectations is for the tailwind in 2020 as you compare to '19.
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4dfce5c482f803f48a5f585f540368bb
Can you just talk about -- now that Warrick's closed, what do the contract structures for can look like? Are they multiyear? Are we coming up on any renegotiations where the market is getting a little tighter?
Sure. What we found is that most of these are multiyear contracts that are in place. During the diligent process and as we have closed on Warrick, we've actually been in the middle and have completed some contract renewals and some extensions in place. We still have some outstanding that will be renewed over the next c...
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448cd529042702d707f2f19ff1ca817d
Got it. And then it sounds like you guys are still going through where the capital investments might go into Warrick. But what about the existing $80 million or so if aerospace has still got a -- it seems like there's a lot of capacity there. Where is the current capex kind of going into?
Sure. So if you look at the existing businesses we have and it remains true, typically, we've said the sustaining capex and/or growth projects are roughly 75% of depreciation for the business. And then when you really -- when you roll in the Warrick, we're looking at an additional roughly $20 million, $25 million of su...
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aa622c3849f3f5d5aa553572a413e82d
And then just going to the semiconductor demand in industrial, there's obviously some large capex announcements out of the semiconductor manufacturers. How long of a cycle do you think that demand for Kaiser's plate will last with regards to that semiconductor buildup?
It's sometimes tough to predict how long these last, Josh. But I can tell you we're in our second year in this go-around of extremely strong demand. As you see, as more and more things require chips and we too are excited about the recent announcements for domestic manufacturing being supported here in North America, w...
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b17644586993ec9528444f14b1ac1f2d
In the fiscal 1Q, can you discuss the possible magnitude of the inventory holding losses that you'd expect in Steel Processing?
Yes. Other than to say that we do expect them and we don't think it will be materially different than it was in Q4, the swing is really going to be the challenge and that we had roughly $14 million of gain in Q1 of fiscal '19. Prices went down another $40 yesterday, we're not steel price prognosticators, but folks have...
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9745faf878dcd874a87124ec431032bf
Okay. Thanks for that color there. And then just looking at cylinders, volumes specifically consumer products, so it was a little bit weaker than maybe I had anticipated here. Looking at the sequential move, can you just discuss some of the demand trends that you're seeing maybe in the fiscal 1Q here? And the cadence o...
Yes. I mean cylinders there's obviously a lot going on in those volume numbers, the biggest driver there of the swings is typically the consumer product side, the 16 ounce camping cylinder et cetera, and so I think when you get a little bit of softness in that marketplace that drops the volumes. But I would say overall...
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d086eb3bb7cfcb6432ffd219b8d7ce05
Okay. And would you be able to highlight the markets that were may be lagging or contracting a little bit within consumer?
A few of our industrial gas markets, a little bit soft. The other thing that Joe touched on is when you have declining steel prices folks that are buying on the spot market will delay their purchases, hoping to obviously get lower prices as a result of that. So we get a little bit of that in cylinders as well.
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e8e52d5f933a78fc69f6ba57c8b917c2
And you had some successful price initiatives, if I recall, from the prior quarter that were flowing through in this quarter. Can you talk about the sustainability there?
Yes. I, you know, there is pretty good momentum there. The transformation effort overall and cylinders is really starting to mature and gain momentum, and one of the big components of that is as we put pricing desks in place and we'd be become much more sophisticated in terms of our strategies there. So, I think what w...
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279118183f9e271032a23a652123efe4
Tell me a little bit about the cryogenic sale. Are you selling the plant to somebody that's going to compete with your other cryogenics tank operations?
We are not. Fundamentally when we invested in that business a number of years ago, things were different. We were at $100 and $110 a barrel of oil and I think the outlook for that business was different. I also think Turkey obviously what's going on there has made it difficult to operate. So, we will continue our opera...
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But you're still selling cryogenic cylinders -- tanks.
That is correct, yes.
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And the new owner is going to do it.
Yes, John. It's Joe. That business is very unique relative to other businesses as other geographies. So there won't be any competitive pressure.
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38cd1fc732464b4275df17f1d6c035bf
Since you've got is much money just dismantling the plant and selling, specialty steel it's high value scrap?
We believe this is the best outcome for us and everybody involved.
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I hope that your discount rate in non-US transactions is at least 5 times as much as your discount rate, in US transactions?
We certainly appreciate that and I would...
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36e9793934e14003627638ac18cd983d
My question is really on WAVE, to start. I think you said that volumes were a bit weak in the quarter versus last year. Just any visibility you guys have to order trends or seasonality. How do we think that that business bridges into the next quarter?
Sure, Phil, it's Joe. Last year during Q4, WAVE had announced a price increase that took effect in June, and so we would believe that people bought ahead of that price increase. And so we had a little bit of lumpiness and probably some of Q1 last year got brought into Q4, that market is in growing by default very rapid...
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fe74184cf901c635eba09d3a6abed594
Okay, nice. Andy I think you commented on M&A multiples. Any signs that were moving more toward -- a little bit toward normalcy? Or is this recent move higher in the -- on the stock market given everybody pumped out just again in holding their ground?
Yes. I would say it's steady as she goes, Phil. I mean the market is pretty good. The financing markets are readily available and so I think there is plenty of buyers out there. So I think that's supporting a pretty strong multiple environment. It doesn't mean, we're not looking and we aren't seeing things we like. It'...
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87c669b392143dee9dae940363061ad4
That makes sense. I think, I had one more question. One was on the oil and gas side for cylinders. Volumes picked up a bit, I think relative to what we were expecting, which is a good sign. Any color in terms of how that business looks moving forward? And whether or not you all were EBIT -- EBIT positive in the quarter...
Yes. Run rate at the end of the quarter was very good and trending in that direction, Phil, and they have -- it's a smaller business as you know, $100 million or so for us, but in their markets a fair amount of momentum still going to be subject to fluctuations in oil prices, but lots of good momentum in some innovatio...
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017bb8671049ced9c8468a12d60448f1
And when were you all profitable in the quarter, on an...
I mean it depends on allocations everything else, but the last couple of months.
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b7ffb27a15ccc1ffa858e6277c1e5118
Guys, understanding that you're not giving guidance, I wanted to focus on the installed base outlook. David, you noted that the premium market comprises roughly 70,000 units in North America, and it sounds like Starwall is performing well and Curve is right around the corner. Can you just kind of help us think about lo...
Thanks, Chad. So we'll start with sort of the second half of the question there, because I think on the first half we're not really offering any particular guidance on what we're aiming for our market share of that sort of premium base, that premium lease space. As a reminder, we're just getting started. I think as Kim...
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02768a6706c73d0a6259c01a93b3b689
And then the other side of that, just on the strategic pruning, I know you guys went through a lot of time with this during the past six to nine months. Does the elevated RPD levels that we're seeing right now given strong regional gaming trends, does that kind of change how you were thinking about maybe pruning more? ...
Yes, good question, and something we've obviously discussed. But we're pretty confident that the pruning process and what we've embarked on here Chad is the right thing to do. As far as the integrity base and what we've done there, we think it's been very effective. We are in the closing innings of that. We will contin...
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87be07429fe00467ed96f0d779af9ec4
David, as the industry starts to recover, can you maybe talk about the general pricing environment? I imagine there were some pricing and discounting pressure on the height of COVID, but where are we now?
So thanks, Barry, and thanks for being on mute, because we do that all the time. It wouldn't feel like anything near COVID if somebody wasn't on mute, right? So, I think pricing has not really changed a whole bunch from even 2019, 2020, 2021, obviously during 2020 that's like hey, we can sort of take that off the table...
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5ba42475156734aaa5326c65c579f9ad
I know margins can move on mix, but you guys and frankly, the whole industry I think have done a great job bringing [Phonetic] cost as a result of COVID. But as we look forward, were there meaningful items you can call out that are starting to come back or are going to need to come back?
Yeah, I would say if you look at the cost structure, I think it's fairly evident things like T&E have been seriously reduced as we come off of last year. But as you know, the Salesforce starts meeting with customers even more, so face-to-face and you got trade show start picking back up. You'll see some of that sales t...
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f441b62808ff4033de60e177aa582672
Anything you'd call out that you think is permanent that doesn't have to come back?
I mean, across the organization, we did do some headcount reductions. I think we were pretty load though about -- we reinvested some of those savings we took in certain areas back into R&D, so although may be permanent in one sense, we kind of just reallocated back that to the R&D. I was going [Phonetic] to say, if Dav...
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481b1439a16b7f72c679ef6076c04636
I wanted to just talk about something a bit more specific, which is the Kentucky historical racing machine market which seemingly is growing and getting some traction. What updated thoughts or initiatives might you have around participating there with some of your stronger content?
So, the HHR space -- we're solidly squarely in the middle of that with one of our partners that enable our games to be served up in those jurisdictions. Our HHR game content and performance has been phenomenal. We're still -- we're in Kentucky now. We do quite well down there. We will see orders throughout the balance ...
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c5d336c39f34cecf66191cb800b2381e
I wanted to start and ask on the international operations. You know, you talked to it a bit in the prepared remarks, still lag in the US, just where Mexico stands, I'd like to see a closure to restrictions type basis. But my question is that, David, as we look further out, as we sort of get a market opening back up, we...
Yeah, I hate to give you this answer, but I have no idea. I don't predict a huge pent-up demand in Mexico and in Latin America. I don't see that, the vaccine rollouts are slow. I think they're going to drag out for quite sometime. So I think it's going to come back on sort of in patches or in smaller geographies within...
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611b97560600af4687cebc686a40befc
Switching gears here over to your premium leased growth strategy. In particular, I wanted to talk about how you guys view Class II versus Class III markets for the product segment. I think in the past, you commented on something to the tune of 15% of Starwall units being placed in Class II market. Is this sort of consi...
So without getting into the specifics of what percent is in which jurisdiction, I don't have it in front of me right now. I'll just end up quoting a number incorrectly. I would say in Class II, we continue to be pretty strong. When I look at Starwall, and what I anticipate with curve premium, I anticipate that those pr...
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f32e4f542b49bde050579db45a74e98e
My first question is just -- if you could just provide us a little more granularity maybe on how project catalog has started. Have you found any surprises compared to your initial expectations? And specifically, do you think that you're seeing any cannibalization in the -- from the core marketplace, that would be great...
So the finding on catalog so far is definitely still early days, but what we're seeing is this is additive to the business. And certainly, it's underscoring the power of our marketplace strategy because even though this is early, what we're seeing is great signals that customers who are attracted to Upwork, based on se...
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b9c7cd6331ab12774bac194528596dd1
And my follow-up, just wanted to drill a little deeper on the great wallet retention spend metric. What do you attribute that to? Are clients expanding into more categories? Are they just raising the size of their projects? Any additional insight into that would be great.
Yeah, absolutely. We saw the really quick acceleration from the 102% to 106%. Which is the fastest, I think, in the last five years or so and probably even longer going back before then. And as we mentioned in the past, one of the dynamics with that metric is that it's fairly lagging in nature. So as the momentum that...
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4d98da9566e6a98fdc35fccdf5f3d4fe
I guess, first, can you just expand a little bit on the marketplace announcement today? What -- maybe it's -- is not totally clear to me, I guess, on how this will change the experience I guess, like a business who's using the platform. So if you could expand a little bit on kind of what kind of improvement do you expe...
Sure, Nick. So it's really clear from our Q1 results that our current strategy is winning, and we're not changing the strategy that we've been executing on since I became the CEO. But we are launching this work marketplace to really define our category and raise awareness around the breadth of our offering, which reall...
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aa0c1fe39a0cc1e51b60ac165b0a938f
And then on SEM and SEO, really great improvement to hear that each quarter. How much of this is a function of -- there's just more impressions, like people are searching the category more versus improved SEM bid strategies, bidding on the right keywords, things like that? Or is a little bit of both. I guess I'm trying...
Yeah. There's absolutely a benefit from both overall market conditions and significant benefit from bidding strategies, back end infrastructure, international expansion, moving into having a broader mobile strategy and the team have executed incredibly well of rolling all that stuff out at a moment in time where there'...
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8b64e499c71ad463c233dc94d5118e83
One, on investment in go-to-market. I'm wondering how you're changing that at all this year, especially toward the enterprise and whether you had any sales reorder quota changes. And then on the enterprise clients, just wondering about their behavior, how that has changed now that we're more than a year since the onset...
Sure. I'll start. With respect to the sales side and the enterprise side, as you mentioned, well maybe take a step back, you asked first about go-to-market. So we've seen an increase in sales and marketing spend in line with probably overall revenue growth rate, which was driven by more of an expansion in our marketing...
intermediate
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B
65a47a5f1c830986530f2b51f394ac97
Just a question on the advertising and marketing around the rebranding campaign. I think the release mentions some broadcast and video spots, along with other supporting channels. Are you sharing how much incremental investment you're anticipating to put behind this campaign to the extent that it's worth noting? And is...
Great. Thanks for the question. So we're not disclosing the amount right now. We are looking to growing our awareness of Upwork of our brand of the value proposition to our clients and freelancers is critical. We see a significant opportunity. And this is an important way to do that. We're not disclosing the specific ...
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B
c2ce9a1f7e8d4e788f485dd060ded35b
Are there -- is that a U.S.-focused -- will that be U.S.-focused spend, particularly around branding? Are there other kind of key markets you're thinking about? And then in hand with that, could you maybe update us on just how you're thinking about the international strategy, just a general update, but also in how you'...
Yeah. Our focus right now is on the U.S. because we still feel like we have a ton of runway in the U.S., and we're trying to unlock the U.S. market, but we're also doing some global and international advertising as well, predominantly places that are English-speaking is a big focus for us because today, that's where ou...
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B
f02d596e2048175b11654b6bceac55cf
I wanted to ask maybe a little bit more on just two things really. The growth that you're seeing in GSV, Jeff, can you just talk about revenue visibility as more clients come on, the 2020 cohort spends more and basically just repeat buying? I know you talked about that earlier on the call, but just any insights on visi...
Sure. Thanks, Ron. I'll start with the revenue visibility question. So as you know, our client spend retention has been historically around 100% and has been trending upwards, which indicates good visibility into what our future performance will be based upon prior cohort spends. And our forecasts are absolutely based ...
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A
6921d628a8dd30cb50e5c500faf0f5aa
Couple of questions. First, now that the the Sprint, T-Mobile merger seems like we're almost to the finish line. I wanted to ask, Ken, kind of -- what do you think of the industry structure with Dish coming in as a fourth 5G operator, cable companies with their MVNO strategy, AT&T with its FirstNet project, how do you ...
Well, that's a multi-part question to start today off on. Fascinating to see how the industry keeps broadening its appeal, right, it's addressable market. We started off voice, voice-data, voice data video, cable companies coming in. I see -- I think we're going to see continued evolution of this and I think that, how ...
intermediate
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