THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS EDITED TRANSCRIPT · 2/4/2016 · thomson reuters streetevents edited...

THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS

EDITED TRANSCRIPTSN.L - Q4 2015 Smith & Nephew PLC Earnings Call

EVENT DATE/TIME: FEBRUARY 04, 2016 / 9:00AM GMT

OVERVIEW:

Co. reported full-year 2015 revenues of just over $4.6b and EPSA of $0.851.

THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us

©2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibitedwithout the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and itsaffiliated companies.

http://www.streetevents.com

http://www010.streetevents.com/contact.asp

C O R P O R A T E P A R T I C I P A N T S

Olivier Bohuon Smith & Nephew plc - CEO

Julie Brown Smith & Nephew plc - CFO

Phil Cowdy Smith & Nephew plc - Head of Corporate Affairs

C O N F E R E N C E C A L L P A R T I C I P A N T S

Lisa Clive Bernstein - Analyst

Alex Kleban Barclays - Analyst

Veronika Dubajova Goldman Sachs - Analyst

Michael Jungling Morgan Stanley - Analyst

Julien Dormois Exane BNP Paribas - Analyst

Tom Jones Berenberg - Analyst

Ines Duarte Silva BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst

Christoph Gretler Credit Suisse - Analyst

P R E S E N T A T I O N

Operator

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements that may or may not prove accurate. For example, statements regarding expectedrevenue growth and trading margins, market trends and our product pipeline are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as aim, plan, intend,anticipate, well-placed, believe, estimate, expect, target, consider and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-lookingstatements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differmaterially from what is expressed or implied by the statements. For Smith & Nephew, these factors include: economic and financial conditions inthe markets we serve, especially those affecting health care providers, payers and customers; price levels for established and innovative medicaldevices; developments in medical technology; regulatory approvals, reimbursement decisions or other government actions; product defects orrecalls or other problems with quality management systems or failure to comply with related regulations; litigation relating to patent or otherclaims; legal compliance risks and related investigative, remedial or enforcement actions; disruption to our supply chain or operations or those ofour suppliers; competition for qualified personnel; strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions, our success in performing due diligence,valuing and integrating acquired businesses; disruption that may result from transactions or other changes we make in our business plans ororganization to adapt to market developments; and numerous other matters that affect us or our markets, including those of a political, economic,business, competitive or reputational nature.

Please refer to the documents that Smith & Nephew has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities ExchangeAct of 1934, as amended, including Smith & Nephew's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors.

Any forward-looking statement is based on information available to Smith & Nephew as of the date of the statement. All written or oral forward-lookingstatements attributable to Smith & Nephew are qualified by this caution. Smith & Nephew does not undertake any obligation to update or reviseany forward-looking statement to reflect any change in circumstances or in Smith & Nephew's expectations.

2



FEBRUARY 04, 2016 / 9:00AM, SN.L - Q4 2015 Smith & Nephew PLC Earnings Call



Olivier Bohuon - Smith & Nephew plc - CEO

Good morning everyone, and welcome to our full year results presentation. I will start by covering the highlights of the full year and give you anupdate on the delivery of our strategy. Then I will give you details on our Q4 revenue before handing over to Julie, to take you through the numbersand I will conclude with a summary. As usual, we'll take the questions at the end.

I also would like to welcome our Chairman, Roberto Quarta, who is today in the audience. Roberto, good morning.

As we said in our guidance for 2015, we have accelerated our sales growth, improved the trading margin and delivered an uplift in adjusted earnings.The underlying earnings growth of 4% for the full year is twice the rate we achieved in 2014.

Behind this headline number is a better performance for many of our global franchises and geographies. We have successfully turned aroundadvanced wound care, particularly in the US, and delivered 8% growth for the year.

Our knee franchise has driven strong recon growth and sports medicine joint repair goes from strength to strength.

Geographically, the emerging markets have grown double digits despite the slowdown in China.

In addition, in 2015 we announced five bolt-on acquisitions. Most recently we acquired Blue Belt Technologies, giving us presence in the fast-growingarea of robotic-assisted surgery.

Trading profit was $1.1 billion, giving a trading margin of 23.7%, an improvement of 80 basis points over last year. And Julie will highlight ourexpense and tax optimization programs, leverage our revenue growth to deliver EPSA growth of 2%, which would have been 9% at constantcurrency.

Today we also announced a final dividend of $0.19, giving a full-year dividend of $0.308, representing a 4% growth. For our UK shareholders, atcurrent exchange rates, this translates into 21p per share, representing 10% growth.

I will now turn to review progress on our strategy.

We set out our five priorities in 2011. In 2015 we have continued to deliver against these. Our actions and our increased commercial focus in theestablished markets improved growth from flat in 2014 to 3% this year.

As I mentioned, the US stands out. Also, after several challenging years, it is pleasing to see Europe delivering three consecutive quarters of positivegrowth.

In the emerging markets we have continued to grow and reinforce our platform. During 2015 we acquired our distributors in Colombia and Russia,and we expanded our mid-tier portfolio. Despite the greater macro concerns in emerging markets, I am convinced of the long-term prospect ofSmith & Nephew in this area.

Regarding innovation we have a great portfolio and many of the products driving growth today are systems that will deliver growth for many yearsto come and I will come back to our innovation pipeline in the following slide.

Simplifying the business results in efficiency saving and greater agility. Our Group optimization plan is delivering the expected benefits ahead ofschedule, and Julie will talk more about this.

From a commercial organization point of view we are extending our single managing director model to the US, as we have successfully done inall other countries.

3






Operationally we have established a global business service unit which will provide an increasing number of day-to-day transaction services in anefficient and cost-effective way

We had an active year in M&A with five bolt-on deals. We have a high bar when assessing the strategic and financial rationale for acquisition. Thisensures our acquisitions provide clear benefits to the Company and to our shareholders.

In a couple of slides I will provide a review of our two largest acquisitions.

Firstly, turning to our corporate structure in more details, which enable the effective implementation of a strategy, we see on this slide when Ijoined Smith & Nephew in 2011 we had three vertical stand-alone divisions and individual leaders, systems and functions. This was inefficient anddid not allow us to focus our resources in a coherent impactful way.

Over the last few years, we have radically changed the structure which has contributed to our improving performance. From the start of 2016 wehave further refined the organization as set out on the table in the slide. We now have a single customer-focused organization led by a ChiefCommercial Officer who is charged with driving commercial excellence to deliver improved revenue performance.

Mike Frazzette, who many of you know, is here today and takes that role. So reporting to Mike will be our three regional presidents; the structurefocuses the organization. So Mike, you are here? I expect to see better product launches, more efficient marketing, more market access, more globalmarketing push and I am sure you will do it.

At the same time we have created a single global R&D function to better allocate resources. With increased focus we intend to accelerate thedevelopment of the more disruptive products and services that increasingly define Smith & Nephew and will help drive success in the future.

There is no doubt that the changes we have made since 2011 have greatly improved our execution and I feel confident that this new structure willenable us to push our performance on again.

Following the established and emerging markets, I will now move to our innovation pillar.

Throughout its history Smith & Nephew has been associated with pioneering technology and brands, and the top half of this slide shows you someof the leading brands that are driving growth today.

You know we have a leading knee, hip and shoulder portfolio in sports medicine joint repair. The JOURNEY II family is pushing up our growth inknee and we'll expand the range.

Our unique PICO product is shifting the negative pressure wound therapy market towards disposable solutions. The lower part of the slide givesyou a glimpse into the future.

I will just highlight a few products and if you visit us at the upcoming AAOS meeting, you will have more opportunities to learn.

In sports medicine WEREWOLF is the major step forward for enhancing the clinical performance of our market-leading COBLATION technology.

Our Syncera model for recon has generated strong interest among customers. The 3-D printing is allowing us to introduce advanced clinical designand we are first applying that with our REDAPT hip revision system.

And in wound, as highlighted at our Capital Markets Day, our longer-term vision of owning the disease means you will see us focusing more onproviding solutions and not just standalone products.

We also focused on disruptive innovation with our mid-tier offering for the emerging markets -- sorry, mid-tier offering for the emerging marketwhich spans all three segments of this slide.

4






I remain convinced that disruptive technologies that bring value to our customers, patients and payers, are essential to deliver sales and earningsto us in the long term and I am committed to investing behind this.

Turning now to M&A. We make acquisitions to reinforce our long-term position and accelerate growth and it is clear that we are delivering.

If you remember back to when we announced the acquisition of Healthpoint in 2012 we promised mid-teen sales growth for several years andreturn on capital employed in year three greater than our cost of capital. We have delivered on both targets, with compound annual sales growthexceeding 20% and return on capital employed in year three exceeding our WACC.

ArthroCare is more recent but equally promising. The integration was completed exactly on time, almost all the cost synergies have come throughahead of plan and the team is confident in delivering the revenue synergies by 2017.

I am very encouraged by the strong performance of joint repair in the US, demonstrating the strength of our combined business and validatingour expectation of strong revenue synergies. This was particularly clear in the fourth quarter of 2015 which I now want to focus on.

So as usual, this slide captures our underlying growth, on the left-hand side geographically and on the right by product franchise.

We delivered 5% underlying revenue growth this quarter. In the US we had an excellent quarter, driving revenue up 9%, the best quarter for severalyears, as most franchises performed strongly.

In the other established markets sales increased by 2% as our actions have successfully stabilized our business in Europe.

Emerging markets grew by 2%. As we have said for the last two quarters, China has been a more challenging environment, mainly in sports medicine,in trauma and in wound. Excluding China, growth in the emerging markets would have been 15%.

I will now turn to look at each franchise in more detail.

Sports medicine joint repair had a strong quarter, growing at 9%. The strength of US franchise continues with 17% growth in Q4. We are clearlyseeing the benefit of the acquisition of ArthroCare. Among other things it reinforced our position in shoulder and the combined sales force andproduct portfolio are delivering great results.

Enabling technologies was 3% within which COBLATION technology continue to grow strongly.

Our trauma and extremities revenue was flat, partly reflecting the slowdown in the Chinese business.

Our other surgical businesses delivered a combined underlying growth rate of 13%; this is primarily our ENT and GYN business. The ENT continuesto improve, following the changes we made to the business after we acquired, as part of the ArthroCare deal.

Globally our recon implant revenue was up 4%; global knee growth of 6% was driven by continuous strong uptake of JOURNEY II, our kinematicknee.

We continue to train new surgeons and have plans to expand the JOURNEY II family of products and publish further clinic data; hence, we expectJOURNEY will deliver many more quarters of growth.

Global hips grew at 1% with BHR reducing growth by about 1 percentage point this quarter.

We acquired the ZUK uni knee in the US at the end of June. Sales have tracked ahead of our expectations and ZUK has given us access to newsurgeons, many of whom have also started using other products in our range.

5






Coupled with the Navio system from Blue Belt Technologies, I see even more opportunities for these small bolt-ons to deliver great value.

Speaking of which, Blue Belt is off to a very good start. We completed the strategic acquisition and our entry to the robotics-assisted surgery at thebeginning of January 2016.

Advanced wound management and advanced wound care grew revenue by 4%. We delivered strong growth in the US and Europe, led by ourALLEVYN Life brand. The action we took in late 2014 and early 2015 to turn around performance are clearly bearing fruit and we expect the improvedresult will continue.

In advanced wound bioactives, we grew at 16% and delivered high single-digit growth for the full year, as guided. A good SANTYL dynamic in thequarter was partially offset by the performance of our skin substitute product, OASIS, which faces reimbursement headwinds.

Advanced wound devices grew 14%, continued to spread a strong underlying trend of PICO. We see customers and payers increasingly recognizingthe tremendous value which PICO brings to patients.

In the US, the advantages of disposable negative pressure have been recognized and the reimbursement environment is set to improve in 2016and, again, in 2017.

I will now hand over to Julie.

Julie Brown - Smith & Nephew plc - CFO

Thank you Olivier and good morning ladies and gentlemen. I will start with the financial highlights for the full year.

Revenues were just over $4.6 billion, with growth at constant exchange rates at 8% and underlying growth of 4%.

Trading profit grew ahead of this, with 10% at constant exchange rates and 5% underlying growth. This resulted in a trading margin of 23.7%, an80 basis point improvement over last year.

EPSA was $0.851; reported growth of 2% and 9% at constant exchange rate.

And completing the picture, trading cash flow was $936 million, a conversion rate of 85%, an improvement on the 74% in the prior year.

Free cash generation was $672 million. Net debt reduced by around $250 million, after the acquisition payments in the year, to just under $1.4billion. This was a closing net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.

I will now look at each of these areas in turn, starting with revenue. This slide shows the adjustments between underlying and reported revenueperformance in quarter 4. The business delivered a strong underlying revenue growth of 5%. There was one additional sales day in Q4 comparedwith the same period last year, and this will have boosted underlying growth by around 1%.

In established markets, growth for the quarter was 6%, and this is our strongest established market performance since we started reporting theregion in 2012, driven by the US with 9% growth.

In emerging markets, growth was 2% for the quarter, and as Olivier mentioned, in China we've continued to see a significant slowdown in sales.The Group overall, excluding China, grew 7% on an underlying basis in Q4.

Next, acquisitions added 2 percentage points to the reported growth rate. This includes the impact of ZUK knee, which we acquired mid-year, aswell as the impact of our acquisitions in Colombia and Russia.

6






Sales growth in Q4 at constant exchange rates was therefore 7%. Currency was adverse by 6% in Q4 and, hence in reported terms, the Grouprevenue growth for the quarter was plus 1%.

For the full year, the trends are similar. Underlying revenue growth was 4%. The acquisition impact is also 4%, with the majority due to ArthroCarein the first half.

The full-year currency headwind is 8%, in line with our guidance in the Q3 update. And reported revenue is therefore flat for the full year.

Next, the trading income statement, with additional details of this shown in note eight to our announcement. Our gross margin for the full yearwas 75.3%, 30 basis points down on the prior year. And on price, we faced similar pressures of around minus 1% to 2% overall. This was offset bycost of goods efficiency programs.

On currency, we are seeing headwinds as a result of transactional exchange. But in 2015, this was mostly offset by hedging gains.

Turning to SG&A, our selling, general and admin expenses reduced by 80 basis points to 46.8% of sales, largely due to G&A savings. I will look atthe cost initiatives that drove this on the next slide.

R&D reduced as percentage of sales, to 4.8%, due to the closure of the HB802 program, as we've previously announced.

Overall, our trading margin for the full year increased 80 basis points, delivering on our commitment of margin improvement.

Turning now to look at the trading margin in more depth. You can see that our margins have shown steady improvement in both 2014 and in 2015.And turning to look at the key drivers, Group optimization is ahead of plan, with annualized benefits of $100 million. Our target savings remain atleast $120 million.

Through this program, we have simplified the organization with the rollout of single MD. We've realized benefits and improved the managementinformation, through optimizing our functions and this includes finance, legal, IT and HR.

We've delivered good results from our procurement initiatives across the Group.

And finally on office locations, we've rationalized our footprint in a number of major markets, including Australia, Germany and the US.

Next, in terms of ArthroCare synergies, as you recall we targeted $85 million of synergies by 2017, of which three-quarters were coming from costsynergies. We're ahead of plan, and we've now achieved most of our targeted cost synergies from ArthroCare. Revenue synergies will continue tobe delivered over the coming years.

Now turning to the headwinds. Price, mix and currency continue to be headwinds, as we've previously discussed. And RENASYS, similarly, continuedto be a headwind in 2015, following the distribution hold in the US market. But as we said in our AWM Capital Markets event, the new RENASYSrange will be gradually phased in during 2016 but will take time to ramp up.

Now a review of the adjusting items between trading profit and the reported IFRS operating profit. Acquisition-related costs of $12 million relateto the remaining ArthroCare integration costs and emerging market deals.

Restructuring costs of $65 million relate to the structural efficiency programs. We've now charged just over two-thirds of the cost of the Groupoptimization program, with the remainder to come largely in 2016.

Amortization of acquisition intangibles of $204 million is higher than last year, as a result of the annualization of ArthroCare amortization, andsome accelerated charges on OASIS, due to the reimbursement headwinds that Olivier mentioned.

7






Finally within legal and other, there is a new charge to highlight of just over $200 million, relating to metal-on-metal claims. I'll talk more aboutthis on the next slide.

The remaining significant items in legal and other that we discussed at the half-year include the income from the Arthrex legal settlement; a one-offcurtailment gain on post-retirement healthcare benefits in the US; and some additional costs in relation to the RENASYS products hold.

After these items, Group operating profit for the year was $628 million.

During the quarter, we settled the majority of our US metal-on-metal hip claims. Our product liability insurance has covered most of this settlement,and the Group has paid a net $25 million in cash to the end of January. These claims principally relate to a portfolio of modular metal-on-metal hipproducts, such as the R3 metal liner, which are no longer on the market.

In addition to this, charges of $21 million were incurred in 2015 for legal fees defending metal-on-metal claims globally. We have taken a chargeof $203 million to cover the $25 million net settlement payment, plus the present value of cost to resolve all other known and anticipated claims.

The charge is based on an actuarial estimate and does not include future insurance receipts or future legal charges, in line with accounting standards.In practice, we expect this process to now take a number of years.

It is important to note that whilst future insurance receipts cannot be recognized in our accounts, the Group carries considerable product liabilityinsurance.

Now a review of EPSA for the year. Trading profit grew 4% reported and 10% at constant currency. Net interest costs in our trading result were $41million compared with $15 last year.

The tax rate on the trading result in the year was 26.8%. This is a 90 basis point reduction compared to last year, and a reduction of over 300 basispoints compared with where were three years ago. In 2016, we expect the tax rate to be 26.5% or slightly lower, in line with our commitment.

Taking these factors into account, EPSA for the year was $0.851, a 2% increase on a reported basis and a 9% increase at constant exchange rates.

Now turning to cash, the trading cash flow for the full year. We generated trading cash of $936 million, a trading profit to cash conversion rate of85%. The improvement compared to last year includes benefits from reduced outflow of working capital.

Regarding trade receivables, our day sales outstanding metric fell from 77 to 74 days. And our inventory churn improved, if you exclude the impactof acquisitions; so there remains more to do on inventory.

Free cash flow for the year was $672 million compared to $308 the previous year. As well as the improvement in trading cash, we had a loweroutflow of restructuring and acquisition charges, and we also had the Arthrex settlement.

Our tax paid reduced by just over $100 million, including some timing differences.

Now turning to capital allocation. We started the year with net debt of $1.6 billion, and generated free cash flow of just over $1 billion before capitalexpenditure. Capital expenditure was $358 million, reflecting the investment in instrument sets, IT, development, and manufacturing facilities.

Dividends paid were $272 million. For acquisitions our net cash spend of $71 million includes acquisitions in Colombia, Russia, the purchase of theZUK knee and also investments in associates.

Finally, within other we include the repurchase of our own shares, equivalent to the shares issued under employee share schemes during the year.And we expect the number of shares in issue to be consistent in 2016 with 2015.

8






At the year-end, we closed with net debt of just under $1.4 billion, a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.

Finally, not shown on the chart, immediately post the year-end, we completed the acquisition of Blue Belt Technologies, resulting in a cash outflowof $0.3 billion, as announced previously.

Next, turning to our outlook for 2016. I will cover here the main trading developments and the technical guidance is attached in the appendix tothe presentation.

Firstly, regarding revenue. We expect to maintain good, underlying revenue growth in 2016, as we delivered in 2015. And to give some detail ontranslational exchange, if the rates were to continue as they are at the end of January, we would expect this to reduce revenues by approximately2% to 3% in 2016.

Now, regarding the trading margin. We have delivered on our commitment in seeing a trading margin improvement over the past two years.

Regarding 2016, as you know, the medical device excise tax is being repealed for two years and we have decided to accelerate investment in ourquality and regulatory systems, commercial excellence and our health economics, particularly in support of the US market.

So before exchange, our margin in 2016 would have reached or exceeded 24%, including the 60 basis point dilution from Blue Belt Technologies.I want to stress again that we will experience a significant headwind on margin in 2016 due to transactional exchange.

We guided this at 100 basis points at Q3 and based on current exchange rates, we've now revised this to 120 basis points, due to a furtherstrengthening of the US dollar during the fourth quarter.

Hedging contracts that protected the bottom line in 2015 will not provide the same cushion in 2016.

Next, regarding EPSA. Interest charges are likely to be similar to 2015, while our tax rate will reduce from 26.8% to 26.5% or slightly lower.

Next, on phasing. I would like to highlight that we have an unusual balance of sales days next year, with three extra days in Q1, one extra day inQ2 and four fewer days in Q4 compared with 2015.

And on profit, similar to recent years, we're expecting a lower margin in half 1 compared to half 2, as a result of seasonality and the timing ofinvestments.

And finally, I would like to reiterate my previous points on the margin outlook. Group optimization benefits are ahead of plan. ArthroCare synergiesare almost all achieved, but the margin will be structurally impacted by foreign exchange.

And with that, I would like to hand back to Olivier.


Thank you, Julie. So, in conclusion, I think we can say we had a good year and we finished strongly. We delivered higher underlying revenue growth,trading profit and adjusted earning year on year.

At the heart of this are our innovative products and solutions, delivered through a more focused organization and continuing improvement inexecution.

We have continued our disciplined M&A strategy, which in 2015 has further reinforced our portfolio and market position.

9






So, looking ahead, we expect to deliver continued good revenue growth in 2016, as we benefit from our investments in existing businesses andpioneering technologies.

Our medium-term vision to increasingly outgrow the market in which we operate remains unchanged as we continue our journey to transformSmith & Nephew.

Thank you. And that ends the formal presentation and we will be happy now to take questions. Thank you.

Q U E S T I O N S A N D A N S W E R S

Lisa Clive - Bernstein - Analyst

Lisa Clive, Bernstein. Julie, you talked about the cost savings program which sounds like it's well on track. I believe I read in the transcript or in thepress release that it was at $100 million. Was that the exit rate for the year? And if so, could you give us what the actual underlying, the full-yearsavings was in 2015? And of the remaining balance to get to that $120 million, how much we should expect in 2016 versus 2017?

And also, you seem to imply that it's a minimum of $120 million, so maybe what could be our positive expectations around something greaterthan that?

And likewise, also on the ArthroCare synergies, it's $85 million in total synergies. I'm a little bit confused about how that's supposed to be splitbetween revenues and costs.


$65 million in costs and $25 million in revenue -- $20 million actually, $20 million and $65 million when we did the deal.


Okay. And so just to clarify, if you've actually gotten the full amount of the cost savings at this point?

And then lastly, you mentioned the medical device tax reprieve and clearly, the general consensus from the medtech companies seem to bereinvestment. But the reinvestments that you're specifically doing, how should we think about how that potentially accelerates top-line growthor what are the real benefits from that other than just the reinvestment?


Well, let me just take the last one quickly on the medical devices and then I hand over to Julie. First of all, it's one year, two years, we don't exactlyknow how long it takes, if it will last. We have between $20 million and $25 million of medical device tax.

The reinvestment that we plan to do is not something which is supposed to be reinvestment in the business. What we need to do and what wewant to do is we enhance our quality systems in manufacturing. Why? Because we have more and more requirements and regulations actually inthe US with the FDA and so we want to be at the top. So we want to take this opportunity to put them on here as well as in IT systems. So that willnot go in the business, to support the business.

10







Okay.


I'll take the Group optimization one and the ArthroCare synergies one. So in terms of Group optimization, we've achieved annualized benefits todate of now $100 million. And the approximate impact on - in terms of trading in 2015 was $70 million.

In terms of the future program, we do expect to achieve more than $120 million. And we would expect it to be more or less phased mostly in 2016,with an element in 2017.

So the bottom line is we've done a huge amount of work in the business. The whole business has been engaged with this, from procurement tosingle managing director to functional optimization and also improving much better quality financial and HR information for the business. So we'rereally, really pleased with how it's gone and like I say, it's ahead of plan, in fact of where we expected to be.

In terms of ArthroCare, the revenue synergies, just going back to the revenue synergies in ArthroCare, were $50 million. And the drop through onthat was $20 million and the cost synergies were $65 million. We're actually really pleased; we closed the ArthroCare integration office early, so itwas going so well.

We've had great results in the US and you've seem from the sales result how good that's been. In terms of the cost savings, we've now deliveredmost of it. So a large part of it has already now been delivered.


Okay. And then one last final question for Olivier: on your trauma business, the 0% growth. This has been a perpetual challenge. It's the one businessthat just doesn't seem to be turning around. Clearly China didn't help but excluding China, what would that business have grown? And whereshould we really expect it to grow longer term?


We don't disclose the details per geography but China has been the real slowdown of trauma. Trauma is not doing badly, actually, it was okay. Butyou're right; it's up and down and sometimes we face some valleys but that was not a valley this time, it was okay. China was the main issuecontributing to this zero growth.


Okay, thanks very much.

Alex Kleban - Barclays - Analyst

Alex Kleban, Barclays. For my three questions, one I was going to ask about the portfolio. And if you look across your portfolio and you think aboutmaybe potential product gaps, what do you think about upper extremity in terms of shoulder, elbow, wrist replacement and total ankle replacementin lower extremity and potentially investing in that? It seems like at least upper extremity has good overlap with the sports med business. So I wasjust wondering your thoughts on that.

11






Secondly, a bit more color on price/volume for Healthpoint in Q4. I was just wondering if you'd done some price cuts to generate volume orvice-versa.

And I guess a longer-term question on tax rates. We have the 26.5% for this year. But can you give us a sense of trajectory for maybe the next threeyears, in terms of that continuing to decline.


In what, sorry, say again?

Alex Kleban - Barclays - Analyst

Tax rate. And maybe long or very long term, can we ever think about a sub-20% tax rate, like what we see at some of the peers in the medtechsector?


Julie will take two questions here. On price/volume in Healthpoint, which is not any more Healthpoint actually, it is Smith & Nephew Biologies, wehave mainly volume. We have fine-tuned some prices here and there but with no global price increase, so that was mainly volume.


I'll take the tax rate and then we'll come back to the extremities question. For the tax rate, again, I think we've done a really good job. We've got itdown to 26.5% next year, slightly below that.

In terms of the onward projection, we've decided to guide on tax only one year. We normally would do only one year. And the reason for that istax is changing so much, as I think everybody knows, with BEPS, with base erosion profit shifting and also with country-by-country reporting. Wedon't want; because the tax legislation is changing so much, we don't want to guide out more than one year.

It's interesting you mentioned some of the peers, the US companies in particular and pharma, of course, as well with some low tax rates around20% or below. I think the difference is with a US peer in particular, they don't record the tax or the deferred tax on their offshore cash.

And if you actually adjust for that, if you do a like-for-like comparison between our tax rate now, at 26.5%, and theirs, it's actually very similar. If younormalize for US GAAP and IFRS, it's very similar. So actually, we're really pleased with where we've got the Company to. It's exactly what wecommitted to do. And actually, we've delivered exactly what we committed on. I think those are the main points.


On the upper extremities, Phil wants absolutely to answer the question, so go ahead Phil.

Phil Cowdy - Smith & Nephew plc - Head of Corporate Affairs

So upper extremities, yes, we're interested in that space. Most of our product launches recently have been around hand and wrist and we showedsome at AAOS last year. In terms of shoulder itself, we have one small product but we're not big in that particular part of it. But yes, we like extremities.

12







Yes, we do like extremities, I concur.

Veronika Dubajova - Goldman Sachs - Analyst

Veronika Dubajova, Goldman Sachs. I have questions three, I'll make them three.


Three's the max, you know.

Veronika Dubajova - Goldman Sachs - Analyst

Three's the max, understood. So my first question is just conceptually around the operating leverage in your business. Just because if I look at whatyou reported this year, stripping out currency, you delivered 4% top line and 5% trading profit growth, while you were doing quite a lot of workon restructuring.

So I'm trying to understand once we get through the $120 million and the $85 million from ArthroCare, how are you thinking about underlyingleverage in the business? And if you are delivering, let's call it, mid-single-digit growth, what do you think are the opportunities for you to get someoperational leverage on top of that?

And related to that, I know you haven't yet hit the $120 million, but as you look at the cost base now, Julie, that you're mostly the program, do yousee opportunities for anything beyond that?

My second question is just a quick one on price and mix in hips and knees. I don't know if you just called it out on the slide as a regular trend or ifthere was anything that you saw in the quarter.

And my last question is just on Syncera and when we might get an update from you on how that is progressing, from a revenue perspective.


Okay, let me take the three last questions and we will go with the operating leverage with Julie. And Julie, feel free to add on to what I say.


In terms of operating leverage, I think when we look at what we've achieved within the business, in terms of underlying cost saving programs,we've now delivered in the order of $250 million of savings in structural cost base.

What we find, though, with the business is there are still so many opportunities to invest to drive the growth. And as you've seen, we've taken thesales growth rate from very low single digit, 2%, now to more or less 4%, around the 4% mark.

So we still feel there's opportunity for growth, and we have got a mix of margins in our business as well, and in particular emerging markets tendto run at a lower margin than the Group operates. And certainly, established markets have got lower margins than established markets. So there,what we want to do is still invest for growth, because we still see significant opportunity in those regions.

So I think you're right, Veronika, we would expect operating leverage. We tend to only get it when we get to the mid single-digit sales growth rates.

13






In terms of further cost base opportunities, when we set about doing Group optimization, we really wanted to tackle where we saw the four majorlevers of change. So that was really in the functions: it was procurement, it was also the sites, and it was single MD. So we went from two or threemanaging directors in a country to one.

The new opportunity that we're working on now, I guess, which was part of the original program but we're now progressing, is what Oliviermentioned, which we're now doing single MD in the US market for the first time. So we've not done that before; that's a new change this year.

And I think we will still have opportunities as we create global business services and we rationalize some of the activities in the functions. So we'reusing outsourcing now a lot in terms of offshoring. Over to you for price


Yes, well, I think back on the opportunities, I think that is a good question. Again, when we started the global optimization plan, you rememberwe said we would focus of four items which was the functions; the second one was the span of control in the layers; the third one was on thecommercial footprint; and the last one, very important, was procurement.

So we have done a lot on these. For example, if you take the commercial footprint, this has not generated yet all the benefits, because we haveobviously a cost link to the people leaving or not moving. So I think there is still some opportunities there. And we are going to continue to workon this item.

I believe Julie mentioned the US single MD which, obviously, means also a potential saving opportunity here. We're mixing two businesses in onebusiness with common functions. There is definitely an opportunity here.

We also think about opportunities in refocusing the R&D, putting the R&D as a global entity. We'll certainly also find some benefits here; it's earlystage, but we believe there is certainly an opportunity.

So all this makes me confident that, yes, we are in the middle of the journey. There is a lot to do; procurement is not done and we still have a lot ofthings to do. So I'm pretty happy to see what we can do in the future.

In terms of price, very stable. We have not seen any changes in the prices in the US and, indeed, in Europe. I mean very stable. As usual, you knowit's not -and you see the market growth actually also pretty stable.

I remember I was thinking this morning about this, when I first came here, talking about the recon market in the US, I answered a question aboutwill that go back up? It doesn't actually. We've seen the market this year is 2% in recon, so we don't see that. We see us beating this market andwinning, so that's for sure.

In sports med same, no price erosion. In wound management, as usual. In emerging market, some opportunities of price increase. I think that's all.


Just going back to the price point, and I think Olivier will want to take Syncera. In terms of, although we've seen this price erosion has not changed,we have got also cost of goods efficiency programs. So when you're looking at the gross margin, a fall of 30 basis points that I mentioned, largelythat's the transactional exchange coming through that's not been offset by hedging this year.

So actually, the cost of goods efficiency programs are working; procurement's working on direct materials, and lean through the operating facilities,etc., is driving cost of goods efficiencies.

14







On Syncera, well look, I'm not going to tell you many things on Syncera because we plan to do it at Q2, as announced in Q3 last year. Things aredoing well, actually; things are pretty strong in terms of understanding of the value of the proposition; extremely good feedback from customers.The only downside, I would say, is maybe it's slower than what we were expecting in terms of capturing customers. Why? Because we realized thecomplexity of changing a model to another one.

So I think this is the only thing which I can tell you: a bit slower than what I expected, but even better in terms of feedback from our customers thatwe have now in the portfolio. I will know more in Q2 and I will be back to you with more details on this one.

In terms of procedures, we are doing well, so we are on track but again, it takes some more time. Maybe we can take questions from the phone,two questions by phone?

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Michael Jungling, Morgan Stanley.

Michael Jungling - Morgan Stanley - Analyst

I have three questions. Firstly, on CJR. Going into the event in April, can you comment on what the customers are saying to you. Are they askingfor a greater price discount? Are they asking for better technology? Some commentary around that would be useful.

Secondly, on China. Can you give me, please, the constant currency sales growth rates for Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

And then the final question I have is on the transactional EBIT margin headwind of 120 basis points. Can you please provide the major currencieswhich are driving it? So for instance, maybe, by ranking dollar/ruble, dollar/renminbi, dollar/real. Some guidance on that would be helpful. Thankyou.


I will take the two first questions on the CJR and on China.

CJR starts in April, as you said, but we have not seen any type of questions regarding price discounts or different technology. We are pretty proactivewith these hospitals. And again, I think that our message is the following. We can help you in decreasing your cost; we can help you in having lesspeople coming back to the hospital if we treat well the wound with the portfolio of Smith & Nephew. We can offer a solution which is Syncera also,which is definitely a good way to minimize the cost and have great outcomes.

So that's the message. We are proactive. We have not received so far any type of push in terms of you have to cut your prices or you have to dosomething different. So that's not yet in the air.

Regarding China. Well, the growth of China, again, we have been affected by Chinese growth slowdown since July, roughly, and Q4 was, as expected,was pretty slow. We see two things in China. Three things.

The first one is that it doesn't affect all the products, because it mainly affects the stock at the distributor level; inventory. And what is happeningis in businesses like trauma, the most affected has been trauma, sports medicine and wound. For three different reasons.

15






In sports medicine, we have seen a drop of the acquisitions of the capital, and that started in July, since the start of the issue. In wound management,we're pretty new in wound management so we had a high stock in wound management, particularly in negative pressure business. And so,obviously, having a bigger stock means that you have the stock going away from the distributors, and we don't sell much ex-factory.

In recon, it's a different item, a different business, because here it's scheduled surgery so the stock level in recon were much lower than in trauma,where you have to have stock for accidents and stuff like this. And so that is the reason why recon has been okay and we have been really sufferingin trauma, in sports med and wound management.

So we expect these two to last a little bit, but we don't see on the medium term/long term any issue in China. We believe that things will go backon track. There is no reason. There is a need, so once the inventory is back at something which corresponds to in-market demand, we expect tosee a start again of the business in China.

And again, I want to insist also on something. It's not because China has been slowing this year. The emerging market strategy of Smith & Nephewis strong. We are strong. We have been able to grow 15% without China in the emerging markets. So, believe me, we have a very strong positionin all geographies. When China will be back on track, we'll be here because don't forget that it's just a slowdown of the market. We keep share andwe gain share. So that's what matters.


Olivier, if you look at it, you're saying China is slowing but in the fourth quarter this must be a seriously negative number of minus 20%, minus 30%.


Yes, it is a negative number. The comparator of last year was very high also, and it's true it's a negative number but it's -- let's see what 2016 willbe.


I'll take the question on the exchange -- the transactional exchange rates.

The reason we've got the exposure, Michael, to give you a bit more background to the 120 basis points, is we've got revenues in US dollars areabout half of our business. But the cost of goods, the US dollar is dominant at about three-quarters of our cost of goods because of where we'vegot the manufacturing facilities, particularly in ASD, which is largely in the US.

In terms of the sales, therefore, obviously when the dollar strengthens, the sales effectively weaken relative to the cost of goods. And in terms of-- I won't give you a perfect split of the currency, but roughly we've got emerging market currencies, which is about 15% of our sales, as you know.And then, clearly, the next biggest currency is the euro. And then the rest of the exposure is really split across the pound, the Australian dollar, theJapanese yen, and those are the main other currencies that are in play.

So I hope that gives you enough of a flavor as to why we've got the transactional headwind.

As I mentioned as well before, we've got a very comprehensive hedging policy, and that really helped us during 2015. So we've been able to cushionwhat's happened in exchange rates. During the course of 2015, we've been able to cushion that with the hedging. Of course, in 2016, most of thosehedges are rolling off and, hence, you get the steep drop.

16







Okay. Olivier, just on China. When you're growing at minus 20%, minus 30% or so in the fourth quarter, how do you know this is market developmentsversus, perhaps, Smith & Nephew's own underperformance? Because those sort of growth rates are extraordinary in the context of an economythat is still showing positive healthcare growth.


Michael, because we have done some homework on this, believe me, and we know that the in-market demand is really dropping. And that's thereason why this is happening. And we know that we are not underperforming in China.


Great, thank you.

Operator

Julien Dormois, Exane.

Julien Dormois - Exane BNP Paribas - Analyst

I have mainly three questions, the first one regards to bioactives. I was just wondering if you could be a bit more -- give a bit more details abouthow you see growth in bioactives in 2016 you have guided for high single digit in 2015, so should we replicate that for 2016, and what would bethe drivers behind this really good growth you would have in bioactives?

The second one relates to wound care. I think you've highlighted that you've seen sustainable improvements in advanced wound care. Should weconsider that the run rate you had in H2 for a mid-single digit is sustainable into 2016 or will it be more likely the low singles because the compswill be tougher?

And the last question is on BHR. Just wondering if you think that 2016 could be the final year where BHR stops dragging, because I think you saidthere was still a 1 percentage point of impact in Q4. When will that end?


Yes, good questions. On the bioactives growth, we have a guidance which is roughly the same than what we said last year actually to be a highsingle-digit growth for the bioactives. Driven by SANTYL we know this will face again the issues into the reimbursement, but it's a guidance whichis roughly the same than what we did in 2015 for 2016. So here, no change.

In the advanced wound care, yes, you're right it was very strong. The growth in the US in Q4 was 27%. That shows you how important is the dynamicof wound care and how important is what I told you last year: the change of management, the actions we have taken in wound care, refocusingour people on the right products, the changes in the incentives system and so on and so forth, so that works.

So yes, we have seen a tougher comp for the growth, but we expect the growth to beat the market in the -- in 2016 in advanced wound care. That'swhat I can tell you.

Regarding your last question on BHR, who knows? I mean BHR -- I've always been in a position to tell you that it was the end. It's never the end. Soit's lower and lower actually. For us it's - what, now 6%, Julie, for the hip business -- less than 6% --?

17







I think it's 5% actually.


5% of the hip business, which is minimal in the Company, but still with 5% it has a negative impact of 1 point in the growth of the hip business. Soit will be less and less; that's what I can tell you. Now, is it the end? I don't know.


Okay, thank you. And maybe just one follow-up if I may on emerging markets. I think you've indicated 15% underlying growth excluding China. Ijust want to make sure that it was for Q4 and not for the full year.


It was for the full year. Actually both for Q4 and full year are the same.


And full year. Okay, thank you very much.


It's funny what you ask because I was asking the same question this morning, talking to Julie and Phil, so that's exactly a 15/15.


Thank you very much.


Okay, back to the room. Yes, Tom?

Tom Jones - Berenberg - Analyst

I had two actually. One was just on what's going on in orthopedics in the US at the moment. To what extent do you think your hip and knee franchisehas benefited from the disruption around the Zimmer Biomet merger last year? And now with J&J seemingly turning itself in knots, do you expectthere to be some disruption that you could benefit from this year? I was just wondering what you're seeing on the ground in that context.

And then the second question was just on FX. Obviously you protected yourself last year and all those hedges are now rolling off. To what extenthave you locked in the 120 basis point headwind this year or are you now naked as far as FX goes and could potentially benefit should things startto move in your favor?

18







Do you want to take the FX, Julie?


Yes, I can take the FX, yes. I think it's fair to say most of the 120 would be locked in. What basically happened is at Q3 I guided to 100 basis pointson the gross margin, as you know, Tom, and in Q4 there's been a further strengthening of the dollar. And so that's caused a difference of about 20basis points.

So you'd expect -- because that's essentially the fourth quarter impact where we're not fully hedged out that far, so you get the fourth quartercoming through in the 2016 result. So we went from 120 -- 100 to 120. So most of the 120 will be locked in but not completely because that finalpart of 2016 will still be volatile, depending on where exchange rates move.


So basically if currencies improve, we're not going to see any benefit until 2017 really?


You would see some benefit. So say it moves 4% to 5%, you'd expect to see about 20 to 30 basis points through the latter part of 2016, but theearly part of 2016, no, because of the hedging.


Regarding your question on ortho US, yes, we do very well but again it's a mix of things. It's first of all the dynamic of the knee, which is doingextremely well and we expect, as I said in my presentation, to have this continuing for a number of quarters.

We extend the range of JOURNEY II. We will showcase at the AAOS a new JOURNEY also. I think there is certainly an impact of the disruption ofZimmer Biomet; there's no doubt, we know that, and we see that every day in the field.

There is also something which seems anecdotal but which is important is the acquisition of ZUK. Again when you do a UNI knee, you have yourUNI knee but in case it doesn't work well, in case the patient needs a full knee you always have a full knee. So in the past it was a Zimmer uni kneeand a Zimmer full knee.

When we now start to see all these customers -- new customers, they have the UNI knee, but they take our LEGION. So that means that it haschanged also the dynamic of the business in many, many of the customers that we discover now with this opportunity.

J&J, your question. Yes, obviously when you announce such a plan, there is no doubt that this will disrupt their sales force and this again is anopportunity for us to rebound on this opportunity.

So I tell you I'm extremely confident for 2016 in the recon business in the US, because it's not only the product. So what Mike has done in the US,which is really reorganizing, reshaping, developing the commercial excellence and what we are going to do this year in terms of additional workon sales force excellence and stuff will certainly be impactful.

19







Thanks.

Ines Duarte Silva - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst

Ines, Bank of America. I have two questions, please. First of all on PICO, I appreciate it continues to do well in the US. Could you give us some coloron what's happening in the rest of the world and mainly Europe, about the adoption?

And secondly on China, you have lower inventory on recon and that's why you're being less affected on recon than on wounds and sports medicine,if I understood that correctly. How confident are you that the underlying acceleration of the market will not impact you on that business as wellduring 2016?


The recon?


Yes.


Because people are bigger and bigger and older and older (laughter). And so they need more and more hips and knees and that's true. So we seethat the volume growth in China, it's extremely strong in the recon.

We believe that we have a great portfolio because you know, we have our high-tier plus the mid-tier product that we manufacture in our factoryin Beijing. And, again, it's scheduled surgery. So that was the reason why you didn't see a big inventory at the distributor level because they knowwhat they need, roughly. But I think that will continue like this. I don't see any reason to see the market in recon going down in China for themoment. And there's no indicators show that.

Regarding your other question on PICO, so PICO is doing very well in the US. Again, we didn't start well in the US. When we launched PICO in - itwas in 2012, I think, when we started to launch PICO. It was slow.

And it's really last year, actually, in 2014 that we have started to rethink the strategy of PICO, that we have realized that it was important to try togo from a patient bed instrument to a disposable instrument. And so the strategy has changed. We have seen the growth accelerating very bigtime in this and I think we have the best device, frankly. So that helps. And you know there's a life cycle management of PICO, so we improve PICObasically every year.

In Europe, we started pretty strongly when we launched the product, mainly in the Nordics, which was a super launch. And now we see that all therest of Europe is following what we see in the US, so a big acceleration of PICO. You can see that in France, you can see that in Spain, you see thatalso in Germany. So we are very happy with the dynamic of PICO in Europe as a whole.

We have launched PICO in Latin America, in Brazil and in Mexico. And I don't think it's in Columbia yet but it's going very well also, so good dynamicthere. Japan is the driver of the growth of advanced wound devices in the country. We are increasing our market share in Japan. We launched PICOwhen was it, a year ago, a year and a half ago? And we're very happy with that. So globally, great results. The US starts from a lower base, but it'sgoing like this. And the rest of the world is doing super well.

20







Thank you.


Last question, Christoph?

Christoph Gretler - Credit Suisse - Analyst

I have two questions. First is just a confirmation. This OASIS charge, that was about $50 million?


$40 million.

Christoph Gretler - Credit Suisse - Analyst

$40 million. And then the second question relates to your trading margin. I think you saw now a good uptake over the last two years on an underlyingbasis. And also if you look now out into 2016, absent the FX effect, is there a need for another restructuring program to come, now the FX is basicallyrun off going into 2017? Are you thinking now the structure needs to be adjusted at some stage again or are you basically happy?


No, we're not going to make any restructuring. I think that the last restructuring actually finalizing the journey is a single entity in the US,synchronization of the R&D. We do some changes, obviously, in manufacturing. We also re-think manufacturing footprint on a long-term basis butthat's different. So there's nothing necessary actually. I think that we have now a very strong structure, very efficient, very agile.

And with Mike Frazzette now our Chief Commercial Officer, it allows us to do a lot of things that we could not do when it was in the division, becauseit was too complex to really pick here and there what we wanted to do. So I think that is, for me, the right structure that we have corresponding towhat we want to do.


Just to add to that, given we've now delivered about $0.25 billion in cost savings through the two restructuring programs, I think it's now just goingto be about continuous improvement. Because we've used the major levers that were there available to us in the business. But it's always aboutcontinuous improvement, continuous procurement savings, continuous functional optimization programs, global business services. That's reallywhat we're going to do.

Together with, I think, the leverage we talked about with Veronika at the beginning, as we get the natural momentum of the business and the topline moving, that's when you'd expect to see a change through that route rather than a formal restructuring program.

21







Where is the growth going to come from actually and Julie has mentioned the margin, which is, I know, in your heads big time, despite the factthat we do what we plan to do every year. We accelerate the margin, the underlying Group margin is improving big time this year. Again, big timenext year. ForEx, who knows? ForEx is ForEx, so we will see what it is.

Again, what we are going to also, and don't forget that is not to be in the chair saying okay, it is, but no, we work. So we work in trying to improveit. So we are 120 basis points off a bad guy margin, I tell you we're going to work and to try to find ways of mitigating a part of this issue.

We have done it with Blue Belt actually, in the other underlying growth that Julie was mentioning, which is at or above we like to be here, a bitconfusing, at or above 24%, which by the way was the target we all had here. In this target, we absorbed Blue Belt. So the only thing which remainsa bad guy is really the ForEx. And believe me, we're going to work like this to make this better now. We have ways of finding it.

Now on a long-term basis, there is a few things that you have to keep in mind. A) We work also on the mix. We try to work on products bringingus better gross margin, which obviously is important, coming from the innovation because we can get price premiums on many products becauseof the value of what we generate.

We also work a lot in the SG&As, not only in G&As. We have mentioned the G&As on the sales and marketing efficiencies, which definitely willchange also the way we work and the way we deliver. We work also in the cost of goods to improve our gross margin, whether it is what we buyor what we do in terms of manufacturing.

So net net, we know where we go. And I tell you, we know that we are going to grow in terms of growing margin, year after year, on a regular basis,as it was said years ago. And you know we have been able to do it and there's no reason why not to think about this for the future.


And we're also looking at, obviously, where we can pass on the FX hit, especially in emerging markets. Europe less so because of the environmentbut in emerging markets we will look to do so. In fact, we have done in some countries already but it just takes time to regain that level of transactionalexposure. It just takes time.

I think in addition, we're looking at natural hedging through manufacturing facilities. So we're also looking at that. So don't think for a minute thatwe're comfortable with this and happy with this. We're not because we're trying to address it. And our commitment to margin improvement forSmith & Nephew remains.


End pricing, Mike is in charge of pricing now (laughter). Believe me, he has big pressure. Anyway, so thanks a lot and have a good 2016.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, you may now disconnect.

22






D I S C L A I M E R

Thomson Reuters reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes.

In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based uponcurrent expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are morespecifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of theassumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION,THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON REUTERS OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUMEANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLECOMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.

©2016, Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved. 5900515-2016-02-08T10:03:53.417

23






THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS EDITED TRANSCRIPT · 2/4/2016 · thomson reuters streetevents edited...

Documents

Transcript of THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS EDITED TRANSCRIPT · 2/4/2016 · thomson reuters streetevents edited...