4/23/2024

speaker
Bárbara Amaya
Investor Relations Officer

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Alpec's first quarter 2024 Air News Webcast. I am Bárbara Amaya, Alpec's IRO, and I am pleased to be here today with Jorge Young, our CEO, and Jose Carlos Font, our CFO, who will be presenting today's material. Jorge will provide an overview of quarterly results, including the progress we have made this year to position Alpec for success. Jose Carlos will then cover the quarterly financial results in greater detail. and then Jorge will outline our expectations for the remainder of the year. We will then open it up to your questions. Please note that the information discussed today may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's future financial performance and prospects, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially and the company assures the market not to rely on duly on these forward-looking statements. Thank you, Barbara. Good morning, everyone.

speaker
Jorge Young
Chief Executive Officer

I'm going to start by stating that first quarter results were in line with our guidance expectations. We have already begun to see some demand recovery, which has led to higher volumes across our product portfolio, specifically in the polyester business, where there was an expansion of the company's PTA exports. Raw material prices increased, and so did the disconnection between Asian and North American prices for paraxylene and styrene. In terms of PET reference margins, these rebounded during fourth quarter 2023 and have since stabilized. However, there were declines in the reference margins for the plastics and chemical segment, particularly for EPS, although they are expected to gradually recover. I am pleased to share that we have made significant progress in achieving structural cost reductions. and reinforcing our balance sheet. This is aligned with our commitment and our strategy to continuously enhance our competitiveness and to position favorably to navigate industry cycles. Regarding our goal of reaching a total of $75 million in savings, We have already realized annualized benefits of approximately 60 million from footprint optimization, more competitive electricity agreements, and partially from organization and restructuring. Furthermore, we're on track in terms of enhancing our operational efficiency through investments to standardize new systems. Overall, we expect pool savings to materialize by the second half of the year on a run rate basis from the combined executions of all the above initiatives. We are committed to continuing to identify cost savings opportunities and we're assessing further possible efficiencies. Regarding our prioritization of free cash flow, and the maintenance of healthy leverage levels, the year started off with disciplined and prudent capital spending. There was an increase in net working capital due to rising raw material prices and sequential volume growth. However, we remain committed to achieve our target leverage of 2.5 times by year end through structural cost reduction initiatives, disciplined capital allocation, and we're also foregoing a dividend payment in 2024. Regarding our ESG efforts, I would like to highlight that we've made steady progress in our sustainability results as evidenced by our ESG agency scores. CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project, updated ALPEX supply chain rating to a B- from AD, given the company's progress on the topic. Such as SBTI's scope three target approval, which has gained greater relevance as well as incremental disclosure of downstream and upstream supply chain emissions. Additionally, the Sustainalytics risk rating improved by 23% to a score of 20 as a result of enhanced disclosure in key environmental KPIs. Strengthening our governance practices and the expansion of programs for employee safety, integrity and health. With this improvement, we are now in the top decile of our industry. This is great news for our sustainability goals and we remain focused on the continuous development of our ESG efforts going forward. At this point, I will turn the call over to Jose Carlos to cover our financial performance in more detail.

speaker
Jose Carlos Font
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jorge. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us. Let me provide more insight into our first quarter performance. Volume reached 1.2 million tons in line with our expectations. This was an increase of 9% quarter over quarter and 4% year over year, mainly due to demand recovery, particularly in the polyester segment supported by increased PTA exports and to expected seasonal demand improvement as we gradually enter the period of warmer temperature in our markets. Reported EBITDA was 168 million, including combined inventory adjustment and carry forward effects of 18 million, as well as a non-recurrent effect of 3 million from the organizational restructuring in the polyester business. APEC generated 154 million in comparable EBITDA due to a combination of factors that included a stronger volume, stable PET reference margins, and pressured plastic and chemicals reference margins. Now, turning over the polyester segment. Volume was 990,000 tons, a significant improvement of 9% quarter over quarter and 6% year over year. This was a combination of seasonality as well as the fact that customers increased their volume as they anticipated heightened demand all aligned with our guidance expectations. Asian integrated pet reference margins remain steady, increasing by 1% quarter over quarter, averaging $288 per ton and reaching close to $300 per ton by March. Chinese integrated pet reference margins decreases slightly to $154 per ton. U.S. reference paraxylene prices saw a greater increase, rising by 5%, resulting in a spread between North American and Asian prices of $230, 28% higher than the previous quarter. Comparable EBITDA was $107 million, down 19% year over year. This was partially due to the reference margins declining from historical highs in previous years. Now, let's dive into the plastic and chemical segment. Volume was 212,000 tons, up 10% quarter-on-quarter, driven by typical seasonality. If we observe the year-over-year figure, there was a 5% decrease as certain industries such as construction remain under pressure. However, we're expecting a gradual improvement as housing starts have started to increase. Polypropylene margins experienced a decrease to 15 cents per pound, down 12% from the previous quarter. mainly due to the significant increase in raw material prices. Average reference propylene prices increased to 55 cents per pound, up 18% from the previous quarter. And for EPS, North American reference margins also declined, reaching an average of 18 cents per pound, 32% lower quarter over quarter. There was also an increase in average reference prices as starting rose to 58 cents per pound, up 25% compared to the fourth quarter. We expect margins to improve in the coming months as North America raw material supply normalizes. Comparable EBITDA was 43 million, flat quarter-on-quarter, yet down 44% year-over-year, resulting from tighter reference margins, particularly from EPS. Turning to free cash flow, disciplined capex remains a priority for Alpec, and for the first quarter, capex totaled 34 million, mostly focused on scheduled maintenance. This figure was below guidance and will remain on track for the expected capex of 200 million for the year. Meanwhile, networking capital increased by 160 million, mainly from the rising raw material prices from all of our products and the sequential volume growth. In the second half of the year, we do expect a recovery, however, not at the high levels we experienced in 2023, as petrochemical prices are not expected to decrease much further. And finally, regarding the company's financial position, I would like to highlight that we continue to prioritize balance sheet discipline. Our debt profile remains at the healthy levels as we have no upcoming maturities. Our net debt increased sequentially to 1.8 billion. However, this was down 13% year over year as our efforts to improve cash flow generation continue to yield results. Last 12 months reported EBITDA was $495 million, resulting in a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.7 times. This leverage level was anticipated. We expected a decrease in our last 12 months EBITDA as we transitioned from higher margins to a lower cycle environment. As we have previously stated and shared with our rating agencies, we expect leverage levels to decrease more notably towards the second half of 2024. We're confident that our continuing decisive actions, including the structural cost reduction initiatives and disciplined capital allocation, as well as foregoing a dividend payment this year, will allow us to come closer to our target leverage of 2.5 times by the year end, setting a strong foundation to our future. With that, I'll turn the call back to Jorge.

Disclaimer

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