Input Capital Corp. Announces FY2020 Q1 Results

REGINA, Feb. 11, 2020 /CNW/ - Input Capital Corp. ("Input", "Company", "we", "our") (TSX Venture: INP) (US: INPCF) has released its results for the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year. All figures are presented in Canadian dollars.

"Our continued focus is on the implementation of our strategic plan: we have stopped deploying capital into new streams, we have successfully reduced our operating expenses, we continue to serve our ongoing clients, and we continue to buy back shares at a significant discount to Book Value," said Doug Emsley, President & CEO. "It may sound repetitive, but everything we do is oriented by our focus on increasing Book Value per Share.

"As we do that, we will continue to strengthen our balance sheet and maximize our flexibility so that as many options as possible can be on the table going forward," said Emsley.

FY2020 Q1 HIGHLIGHTS

• Adjusted crop revenue* of $11.845 million on the delivery of 27,092 canola equivalent metric tonnes ("MT" or "tonnes") at an average price of $437.21 per MT;
  
  
• Adjusted net loss* of $3.180 million, or $0.05 per share. This is down from adjusted net income of $1.449 million, or $0.02 per share, over the same three-month period last year. The decline is primarily due to a realized loss on a mortgage, which is partially offset by an unrealized market value gain on our canola interests and a significant reduction in our corporate administration expenses. Without the realized mortgage loss, we would have generated a profit of $2.115 million before income taxes;
  
  
• During the quarter, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.01 per share, or $0.04 per share annualized;
  
  
• In December 2019, we announced the renewal of our Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB"), allowing the company to buy back up to 4,375,000 of its Class A common shares. During the quarter, we bought back 1,832,000 shares at an average price of $0.73 per share;
  
  
• Finished the fiscal year with:
• Cash and cash equivalents of $12.532 million;
• Total crop interests and other financial assets of $24.289 million;
• Loans and mortgages receivable of $48.548 million;
• Multi-year active streaming contracts with 120 farm operators;
• Total shareholders' equity of $76.996 million;
• $nil drawn on our long-standing revolving credit facility; and
• Long-term debt of $19.234 million.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR THE COMPARABLE PERIODS ARE SUMMARIZED BELOW: 

REVENUE & NET INCOME

For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, we generated adjusted crop revenue of $11.845 million on adjusted crop volume of 27,092 MT.

Adjusted crop revenue for the quarter represents a 45% decrease in quarterly volume over the comparable quarter one year ago, when we sold 49,621 MT of canola equivalent for adjusted crop revenue of $24.389 million. Crop margin for the quarter was $1.672 million, compared to $2.769 million in the same quarter last year. The decline in crop revenue in the quarter compared to last year is a result of two factors: a long and drawn out harvest this year delayed some deliveries from Q1 into Q2, and a significant number of marketing stream clients took us up on our offer to end their marketing stream contract early, greatly reducing the number of low margin tonnes we handled from the 2019 harvest. This is in line with our previously described expectation that total revenue and adjusted crop revenue would decline significantly as a result of this portfolio optimisation.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2019, we generated adjusted crop revenue of $30.335 million on adjusted crop volume of 65,957 MT.

Adjusted crop revenue for the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2019, represents a 15% decline in volume compared to the previous twelve-month period, when we sold 77,486 MT of canola equivalent for adjusted crop revenue of $37.886 million. This translates into a crop margin of $1.991 million for the most recent year compared to $3.584 million for the previous year. The decrease in volume is due to the change in the mix of our business in favour of mortgage streams, and a significant reduction in the number of marketing streams which remain in place. Mortgage streams require fewer canola tonnes to service them than do capital streams, and marketing streams represented a lot of tonnes and revenue, but very small margins.

CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT AND STREAMING CONTRACT PORTFOLIO

Quarter Ended December 31, 2019

We have not deployed new capital for several quarters and do not plan to do so unless we acquire a scalable source of mortgage financing.

Last year, we offered existing clients who have a marketing stream with us the opportunity to end their marketing stream contracts early due to market instability and uncertainty.  As a result of this offer, most of our outstanding marketing stream contracts were cancelled or bought back, significantly reducing our client count, as well as the number of tonnes in our canola reserves and our annual canola revenue. However, marketing streams have always generated very small margins for us, and this has not resulted in a material impact on our gross margin or our bottom-line earnings. We also gained some operational efficiencies by reducing the number of loads of canola to organize for marketing and payment processing during a short period of time.

As of December 31, 2019, our active streaming portfolio consisted of 120 geographically diversified streams, distributed as follows:

BALANCE SHEET

KEY BALANCE SHEET ITEMS ARE SUMMARIZED BELOW:

RENEWAL OF NORMAL COURSE ISSUER BID

In December 2019, we announced the renewal of our Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB"), allowing the company to buy back up to 4,375,000 of its Class A common shares. During the quarter, we bought back 1,832,000 shares at an average price of $0.73 per share. The new NCIB commenced on December 18, 2019 and continues until the earlier of December 17, 2020 and the date by which we have acquired the maximum shares which may be purchased under the Bid.

OUTLOOK

Canola prices have been soft over the last year due in large part to trade disruptions with China, Canada's traditionally largest canola customer, as well as general softness in the price of US soybeans, to which canola prices have a strong correlation. Net elevator prices are down about 10% from one year ago.

It is impossible to know when or to what degree canola prices will rise, or if these trade tensions will be resolved. While lower canola prices do have an impact on the profitability of our business, the effect is moderate, and we have a significant margin of safety. Every one of our contracts remains profitable at today's prevailing canola prices.  In fact, the price of canola could fall below the marginal cost of production of our farm clients, and our canola margins would remain positive.

Our operational focus is on profitably managing the contracts that we currently have with existing clients. We plan to continue to distribute capital to shareholders via the dividend and through NCIB activity at appropriate price levels, reduce our debt while maintaining solid liquidity, and focus on maximizing Book Value per Share.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

ABOUT INPUT

Input is an agriculture commodity streaming company with a focus on canola, the largest and most profitable crop in Canadian agriculture. The Company has developed several flexible and competitive forms of financing which help western Canadian canola farmers solve working capital, mortgage finance and canola marketing challenges and improve the financial position of their farms. Under a streaming contract, Input has provided capital in exchange for a stream of canola via multi-year fixed-volume canola purchase contracts. As of May 2019, Input has postponed capital deployment operations in light of canola trade uncertainties with China and the effect of this uncertainty on capital availability.

Forward Looking Statements

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Input and its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and views of future events of Input's management. In some cases the forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Input, including risks regarding the agricultural industry, economic factors and the equity markets generally and many other factors beyond the control of Input. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements or information. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Input undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

*Non-IFRS Measures

Input measures key performance metrics established by management as being key indicators of the Company's strength, using certain non-IFRS performance measures, including:

• Adjusted Crop Revenue, Adjusted Crop Volume and Adjusted Crop Margin;
• Adjusted Total Revenue;
• Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Net Income per share, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA per share, and;
• Book Value per share.

The Company uses these non-IFRS measures for its own internal purposes. These non-IFRS measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and these measures may be calculated differently by other companies. The presentation of these non-IFRS measures is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. The Company provides these non-IFRS measures to enable investors and analysts to understand the underlying operating and financial performance of the Company in the same way as it is frequently evaluated by Management. Management will periodically assess these non-IFRS measures and the components thereof to ensure their continued use is beneficial to the evaluation of the underlying operating and financial performance of the Company, and to confirm that these measures remain useful for comparison purposes to other royalty/streaming companies.  For more detailed information, please refer to Input's Management Discussion and Analysis available on the Company's website at investor.inputcapital.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE Input Capital Corp.