Pioneer Municipal High Income Advantage Fund, Inc. Price & Performance (MAV)

Thank you, Mark. Good morning, and welcome to MAV's 2nd quarter conference call. I'm joined by Lauren Mackie Lee, our Chief Financial Officer. I will briefly cover the operational results before Lauren reviews the financial highlights. As we have discussed over the past several quarters, our top line results have been impacted by reduced distribution, mainly in the U. S. Mass and drug channels. Sales for Q2 were €20,700,000 a decrease of 19% over the prior year and distribution losses more than offset Strong performance in e commerce and growth in Canada. As we look at brand performance year to date, one of our brands, The largest is directionally flat, while the others are down from 2022 levels with one showing stronger declines from a reduced footprint in the U. S. Mass channel. Taken together, the portfolio results fell short of the broader U. S. Market category, which posted high single digit dollar growth for the period. Our team continues to make good progress on our innovation and marketing plans as we work to strengthen each of our brands And position in that portfolio for improved results moving forward with our complementary collection of authentic and differentiated brands. With Marc Anthony, we are building on our Welles Dam Strictly Curls and Grow Along collections through innovation while pursuing opportunities in new categories where we can make salon quality products accessible to our channel consumers.

Our repair bond collection, which was introduced earlier this year with select retailers, Continues to generate positive consumer feedback and we're seeing gradual increases in POS run rates. We are sustaining awareness marketing campaign this summer and this fall as We work to establish Vippaure Balm as the new core collection. With Rent Your, our priority this year is a successful brand relaunch. We've introduced a new master brand design, sustainable packaging and new formulas with the most stringent clean standards. We believe this gives us a strong foundation to rebuild the brand's distribution and establish it over time as a key player within conscious beauty. All major accounts have now transitioned to the new packaging and our marketing campaign is ramping up. With Cake, We are focused on innovation and accelerating digitization, particularly growth in Amazon. The high value strategic collaboration is set to launch in the coming weeks. Our team is very excited to see this come to life as it should generate great brand awareness and potentially serve as a blueprint for other collaborations. We'll share more once the campaign is in market. Lastly, with the main choice, one of the main priorities is simplified product assortment With collections built around key store products such as the Alpha Growth Oil, our top overall SKU for this brand.

As with other brands, innovation is Priority, we have compelling new launches planned for 2024. We're also focused on engaging with our social community, which has historically been the strength of the brand. For the mass portfolio overall, we continue to see strong results in e commerce, namely Amazon. Sales grew by double digit And we believe this channel would continue to be an important growth area for the portfolio. Separately, We've also been working diligently on operational improvements and efficiencies, and we're making steady progress across the key initiatives. We're encouraged by the sequential improvements in adjusted EBITDA, cash flow and working capital in our Q2 results. In addition to the immediate cost reductions, these efforts should give us a stronger foundation for which to scale and grow the business. I will now ask Laurel to cover the financial highlights financials in greater detail.

Thank you, Serge. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. As Serge highlighted, net sales decreased from $25,400,000 last year to $20,700,000 this quarter, principally reflecting the impact of previously disclosed distribution losses in the U. S. Mass and drug channels. Q2 2023 gross profit That decreased by 13% to $9,300,000 compared to $10,800,000 in Q2 2022 reflecting the sales decline. Gross profit margin was 45.1%, a decrease from 42.4% in the Q2 last year. The improvement benefits from the impact of $595,000 in business interrupting insurance proceeds that were received during the quarter related to a claim for a cybersecurity breach at the company's primary third party logistics partner in February 2022. Overall, we continue to make headway on improving cost of sales to combat the impact of inflation with the supply chain. Q2 adjusted EBITDA decreased to $2,700,000 from $3,500,000 in the same period last year, mainly reflecting lower revenue and gross profit. Cash generation improved with free cash flow increasing $1,900,000 from $1,300,000 last year driven by the decrease in non cash working capital in the quarter. We reported a higher net loss in the current period of $2,200,000 versus net income of $300,000 in Q2 2022.

The year over year change reflects the softer operating results as well as higher interest and accretion expense due to an increase in variable rates and incremental payment in kind interest added as part of 6 amendments to the credit facility in March. In addition, we incurred additional expenses related to the strategic review process initiated during the quarter. This process is ongoing. Lastly, at quarter end, our cash position was $8,200,000 And net debt was $115,800,000 Thank you for joining us this morning, and thanks again to the whole Mav team. We greatly appreciate your efforts. Now Mark, would you please open up the call for questions?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Okay. There seem to be no questions coming through at this time. So with that, we will now conclude the conference. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for calling in today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.