Knight Therapeutics Inc. (GUD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome. You are joining Knight Therapeutics' Annual General Meeting. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn today's meeting over to Jonathan Goodman, Chairman of the meeting.

Welcome to Knight Therapeutics' Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Once again, this year, we have chosen to hold the meeting via live audio webcast. We believe this format encourages broader participation from shareholders regardless of their geographic location, and provides all shareholders with an equal opportunity to engage in the meeting. We remain committed to encourage promoting shareholder participation and facilitating the exercise by all shareholders of their right to vote, attend and participate in the meeting. Also with me on the call is Samira Sakhia, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and [ Emily O'Donohue ], our external counsel. Samira will act as Secretary of today's meeting. Steve Gilbert and Karine Laberge of Computershare Investor Services will be acting as scrutineers for this meeting. Our agenda today is straightforward. First, we will conduct the formal part of the meeting. Following the formal part of the meeting, Samira will make a few remarks. Finally, we will do our best to answer any questions you may have. Questions, objections, proposals and comments may be provided by registered shareholders or their duly appointed proxy holders through the question box identified by the message icon on the top right portion of your screen. To respond, our external counsel will read the question aloud, and either I or Samira will respond. Please note that we will only be taking questions today from shareholders of Knight. I now call the meeting to order and ask the secretary to confirm delivery of notice of this meeting and to report on the number of shares present by webcast or by proxy.

Mr. Chair, notice of this meeting was mailed to the shareholders on or before April 10, 2025. The scrutineers have advised me that we have at least 2 shareholders represented at this meeting, either via the webcast or by proxy, representing 62,336,121 shares. The shares represented at this meeting carry, in aggregate, 62.64% of the total outstanding shares eligible to vote at this meeting.

Thank you, Samira. Therefore, I declare that in accordance with Knight's bylaws, sufficient shareholders are present, either via webcast or by proxy, to constitute a duly convened Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Knight Therapeutics Inc. We will conduct the voting on all matters to be considered at this meeting by ballot through the facilities of this webcast. The ballot will be open for voting on all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to casting your vote. There will be an opportunity to ask questions on each resolution in turn. In addition, due to the nature of this forum, I will call each motion, and the secretary will respond to -- will second the motions. The voting is now open. [Voting]

All registered holders and duly appointed proxy holders may cast your votes now through the webcast platform by clicking your desired selection. In order to vote on all matters coming before this meeting, please use the Vote button on the right side of the screen on the webcast platform. Once discussion on all items of business has concluded, I will give you time to enter your votes and then declare voting closed on all resolutions. The results of the votes will be published following the meeting in accordance with the rules of the TSX. I will now table the minutes of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Knight Therapeutics held on May 8, 2024. I'm a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics, and I move that the secretary be dispensed from reading the minutes of the May 8, 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting.

Mr. Chair, I am a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics, and I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. The motion is passed. I will now table the consolidated financial statements of the corporation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, and the report therein of Ernst & Young LLP, auditors of the corporation. I'm a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics and I move that the secretary be dispensed from reading the auditor's report.

Mr. Chair, I am a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics Inc., and I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. The motion is passed. I will now introduce the directors of Knight proposed for reelection for the ensuing year. The directors of Knight Therapeutics proposed for reelection are Jonathan Ross Goodman, James Gale, Samira Sakhia, Robert Lande, Michael Tremblay, Nicolás Sujoy and Janice Murray. As I mentioned earlier, to facilitate the logistics of the meeting, I'll present the motions for the items of business proposed by management, and Samira will second. I'm a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics, and I move that the following persons be nominated as directors of Knight Therapeutics for the ensuing year: Jonathan Goodman, Jim Gale, Samira Sakhia, Robert Lande, Michael Tremblay, Nicolás Sujoy and Janice Murray. I will now ask Samira to second the motion.

Mr. Chair, I am a shareholder of Knight Therapeutics Inc., and I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. Are there any comments, questions or additional nominations? As a reminder, comments, questions or additional nominations can be provided by shareholders through the Q&A button on the top right portion of the webcast platform.

Mr. Chair, we don't have any questions or comments on this item of business.

Please proceed to cast your votes if you have not already done so. We'll move to the next item of business. I will now present a motion to appoint auditors for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors. I move that Ernst & Young LLP be appointed as auditors for the 2025 fiscal year and that the Board of Directors be authorized to fix their remuneration. I will now ask Samira to second the motion.

I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. Are there any comments or questions? As a reminder, comments, questions or additional nominations can be provided by shareholders through the Q&A button on the top right portion of the webcast platform.

Mr. Chair, we don't have any questions or comments on this item of business.

The next item of business is the approval of unallocated rights under the corporation's employee and director share purchase plan for the ensuing 3 years. The full description of the renewal as well as the full text of the resolution is set out on Page 49 of the management information circular. In order to be effective, this ordinary resolution must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders at the meeting. I move that the secretary be dispensed from reading the full text of the resolution to approve the renewal. I will now ask Samira to second the motion.

I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. Are there any comments questions before we vote on the approval of unallocated rights under the corporation's employee and director share purchase plan? As a reminder, comments or questions may be provided through the question box identified by the message icon on the top right portion of your screen.

Mr. Chair, we don't have any questions or comments on this item of business.

There are no further questions or comments, I move that we vote on the resolution to approve the unallocated rights under the corporation's employee and director share purchase plan.

I second the motion.

Thank you, Samira. You've been very helpful. This being the last item of the formal business portion of the meeting, I will pause now to allow any registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders, who have not already done so, to cast their votes on this resolution or any other business brought before the meeting through the webcast platform by clicking their desired selection. [Voting]

Thank you. The voting is now closed. Based on proxies received and votes cast at the meeting, I declare each nominee for election as director elected as directors of Knight Therapeutics to hold office until the next annual meeting, until the next annual election of directors or until their successors are elected or appointed. Auditors for the ensuing year appointed, the directors authorized to fix remuneration of the auditors, and I declare each of the other motion carried. We will now move to the next portion of our meeting, where Samira will provide more information on the events of 2024.

Thank you, Jonathan. We're pleased to report that we have delivered another consecutive year of record high revenues since our inception. For 2024, we reported adjusted revenues of over $365 million and an adjusted EBITDA of approximately $58 million. We delivered a 3-year CAGR of 15% on both adjusted revenues and adjusted EBITDA. Our key promoted products grew by 16% over the prior year and delivered a 3-year CAGR of more than 30%. We made significant progress in advancing and expanding our pipeline with new products, multiple product submissions and approvals and 3 product launches. In March 2025, we announced that we entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire all of the assets of Paladin. This synergistic transaction, which reunites 2 companies with a long history, which is expected to close in the middle of the year. In addition, with Paladin's over $70 million of annual revenues, we will add critical mass and significantly increase the size of our Canadian business, while adding a portfolio of over 40 cash flow-generating pharmaceuticals that will fund our growth in both Canada and Latin America. I will now go over our IR presentation. As you know, Knight is a multinational pharmaceutical company focused on acquiring and in-licensing innovative pharmaceutical products for Canada and Latin America with over 100 products and over 20 partners. Since our founding, we have raised $685 million, deployed or committed to deploy $1 billion of capital. We acquired Biotoscana, a specialty pharmaceutical company with presence across Latin America, and we've announced an agreement to acquire Paladin in Canada for $100 million plus $20 million of inventory. We've reported last year adjusted revenues of $365 million, a growth of 6% compared to the prior year; adjusted EBITDA of $58 million, which was a decrease of 4% compared to the prior year, mostly behind investments in our new launches. Adjusted EBITDA of $0.58 per share, a decrease of 2% compared to the prior year. Over the last 5 years, we have entered into 14 agreements for 16 products and invested almost $300 million. Our current pipeline of products and newly launched products are expected to generate over $150 million of revenues. On top of that, we have invested over $250 million in the buyback of shares, and have acquired over 30% of our shares outstanding. Our growth strategies have remained the same since our founding, and actually, since we were at Paladin. Our -- what we do is we in-license late-stage pharmaceutical products. These are products that have passed Phase III. More often than not, they are approved in another jurisdiction and then we have regulatory certainty. We acquire mature or underpromoted products from big pharma. We develop near-term, low-risk, low-expense products. In Canada, that might be IP around some products. In Latin America, that is primarily our branded generics business. And always, we are open to bolt-on acquisitions of portfolios or companies that complement our current business, and Paladin is an exact fit in that category. Our footprint today, we are present in all country -- on all 11 countries where we have operations, we have boots on the ground. Our adjusted revenues by geography, as you can see, half our business is coming from Brazil. Canada is just under 10%. With the acquisition of Paladin, Canada will become a very strong #2. When you look at our headcount, the majority is coming in at -- in Argentina, but that's really behind our 3 manufacturing facilities as well as our R&D center that we have in Argentina. As I mentioned earlier, we announced the acquisition of Paladin earlier this year. That is an agreement to acquire the product rights for $100 million and an estimated $20 million for inventory. We may also have to pay contingent milestones of up to USD 15 million should certain sales milestones occur. We expect to close this transaction in the middle of this year. Paladin reported revenues of $70 million in connection with their products that are not up for discontinuation. The portfolio is over 40 products that we will be adding. The majority of them are owned, mature products with several in-licensed products as well. They have promoted portfolio that includes neurology and other specialty hospital products. Their most recent launch was XCOPRI, which is a treatment for epilepsy, and they have a pipeline product for plaque psoriasis with Wynzora. Many times investors ask us why a Canadian company went to Latin America. We have -- many years ago, we conducted an analysis as we were founded as a rest of world pharmaceutical company to look at markets across the world, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Asia Pacific. And what we identified was that LatAm was by far the largest and the fastest growing. And you can see this on this chart how significantly it has continued to grow. Our portfolio is made up of over 100 products, with the majority of our business coming from innovative products. We continue to feel that branded generics can continue to support our business as they allow us to support payers as they look to pay for more innovative, more expensive products. Branded generics give them an option to reduce expenses. Our focus is in oncology and hematology, where we have a large portfolio and a continually growing portfolio; as well as infectious disease behind -- mostly behind AmBisome in Brazil and Cresemba across Latin America, 2 very great treatments for complex invasive fungal infections. So really a hospital-based business. We're also expanding our neurology portfolio, which started with Exelon. We've added JORNAY PM, Qelbree, Crexont. And we have some products in gastroenterology, as well as our women's health portfolio with -- which launched in Canada early last year. As I mentioned before, we have a great pipeline of products in our key therapeutic areas, mostly behind oncology and hematology, where we have new innovative products as well as several branded generics, as well as in our other specialty products with our women's health and an expanding portfolio of neurology products. We are partnered with the biggest pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Gilead, BMS, Novartis. We're also partnered with biotech companies that are specialists in certain categories, like Incyte or Helsinn in oncology and hematology. But also small biotech companies that are really product companies, like Puma and TherapeuticsMD. We have had a long history of partnership when we were at Paladin as well as the last over a decade at Knight. Going through some of our financial highlights. We have had, as I mentioned earlier, a CAGR of 16%, growing in each therapeutic category, adding portfolio of products in each category. We've guided to revenues of $390 million to $405 million for 2025. We expect -- with the expectation that Paladin will close in the middle of the year. What I'm really proud of is a business that is cash flow generating and that is EBITDA positive even as we go into launching new products. We continue to have a great churn from EBITDA to pure cash. A lot of the numbers that you see, we have been investing behind our launches, which has meant investment in working cap. And for 2025, we've guided of adjusted EBITDA of 13% revenue, really behind the investment and product launches in Canada, in Mexico, in Brazil and in Argentina, where we continue to be launching the pipeline of products that we've built over the last 5 years. We have a very strong balance sheet with over $142 million at the end of the year, with financial assets of almost $135 million and debt of just over $40 million, which gives us an adjusted debt-to-EBITDA of less than 1 at 0.75x. And again, what I'm really proud of is our net asset value is just under $800 million. One of the activities that we did at the start of Knight, the idea here being that if we invested in venture capital funds, that we would have preferential access to some of their investments and be able to license innovative products for our territories. Unfortunately, from a portfolio basis, we did not have any interesting product rights. That being said, on a financial performance basis, this investment has done really well. We will continue to hold and wind down as these funds wind down, but we're not investing in any more new funds. And what I can say is over the last 5 years, the distributions of the -- from the funds have exceeded the capital calls. And they have been a source of cash over the last 5 years, and we expect for that to continue until they wind down. From a capital allocation perspective, obviously, we raised our financings, that we have done to be -- investing in products and companies, and that's what you see in the yellow bars. But what we have also been doing is investing in ourselves. And we've acquired $250 million of shares of Knight, and have taken out over 30% of the shares outstanding. And we -- as you know, we will continue to invest in building the company with the acquisition of Paladin, and we will continue to do more business development as we go forward. From a capital -- market cap, as of a few weeks ago, was $615 million. When you look -- when you exclude the cash and the financial assets and debt, the adjusted enterprise value is $382 million, which gave us an EBITDA of 6.6x, with shares outstanding of just under 100 million. And what we're also really proud of is the insider holdings, because we really do believe in what we're doing here and we are all large investors. Our management team is well diversified across all of the various countries that we work in. We have a lot of people who are actually -- who have been at Paladin in their former -- at some point in their career with myself, Amal Khouri, Arvind, Susan, all having served there at some point that we were together. On the right side, what you see Monica Percario, who's our Global VP of Regulatory Quality based in Sao Paulo. Long history working in regulatory and quality in Brazil as well as leading LatAm for Sanofi. Leopoldo Bosano, who is our VP of Manufacturing and Operations. Again, a long career at Givaudan and BMS across Latin America. Henrique, who is Brazilian, had a lot of global roles as well. Today based in Uruguay. Melanie Groleau, long career in Canada at Sanofi, leading medical, commercial and regulatory. All of whom -- really this entire team is leading the global teams across, and I'm really proud of what we've been able to achieve together. Our Board of Directors, myself and Jonathan, as you heard earlier. Jim Gale and Robert Lande, 2 finance guys based in New York with a long history at Paladin as Board Members as well. Michael Tremblay, who is our former Head of Astellas Canada. What's great is Astellas has been a -- has AmBisome in their portfolio. Good knowledge of one of our largest products. Janice Murray, who's former president of Novartis Canada. But even more importantly, former CFO of Can/LatAm for Novartis. Has great knowledge of the region. Knows some of our customers as well as some of our HMOs. Nico Sujoy, who was with Advent as they brought together Biotoscana and was a former Board Member of Biotoscana when it went public. What we do and what our strategy is, is really growing our pipeline, which we've done with several products in the last year; submitting those products for approval, which we did last year; obtaining regulatory approval for those products, again, which we did several times over last year; and launching those products throughout our markets. And you will see us continue to do this over and over and over again as we continue to build our business. We had a great year last year with record revenues of over $365 million, adjusted EBITDA of $58 million. We ended the year with cash and marketable securities and financial assets of over $275 million. We've already announced the year with a great acquisition of Paladin, we've given guidance for another year of record revenues and continuing to build our business across Canada and Latin America. Why consider Knight a great company? We have a unique platform in high-growth markets. We have a profitable business. We have a strong financial position. We have an expanding pipeline. And we have a great management team who can execute on all fronts. That concludes my comments for today. Thank you for joining the AGM.

Now we'll be pleased to answer your questions from shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders. As a reminder, comments, questions or additional nominations can be provided by shareholders through the Q&A button on the top right portion of the webcast platform.

Mr. Chair, there are no questions or comments.

As there are no further questions at this time, I now ask Samira for a motion to terminate the meeting.

I move that the meeting be terminated.

Thank you, Samira. I second the motion. Unless there are any objections, we will consider the motion carried. Are there any objections?

Mr. Chair, there is no objection.

I declare the motion carried and the meeting terminated. As there are no further questions, thank you again for your interest and ongoing support and for taking the time to join us today.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.