2/18/2025

speaker
Barbara Amaya
Investor Relations Officer

Good morning everyone and welcome to Alpex four quarter 2024 earnings webcast. I am Barbara Amaya, Alpex IRO and I am pleased to welcome you today to our call along with Jorge Young our CEO and Jose Carlos Pons our CFO who will be taking us through today's webcast presentation. In today's agenda, first, Jorge will provide a high level overview, as well as the progress made on the key initiatives and priorities that we established early last year. Second, Jose Carlos will review our financial performance. And then, Jorge will discuss guidance, outlook, as well as our priorities for 2025. Finally, we will open the floor 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 cautious the market not to rely on duly on these forward-looking statements. Alpec undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether it is because of new information, future events or otherwise. Financial results are expressed in US dollars unless otherwise specified. For your convenience, this webcast is being recorded and will be available on our website.

speaker
Jorge Young
Chief Executive Officer

Jorge, I'll turn the call over to you. Thank you, Barbara. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm happy to report that comparable EBITDA reached $699 million, exceeding both or each of our original and revised guidance. Our stronger performance was mainly driven by our ability to capitalize on the effects from higher than expected container freight costs. and Stable Reference Margins. As a reminder, higher container freight costs support our margins as the costs of imported products increases. I would like to highlight that throughout 2024, ALPEC implemented key initiatives to enhance its competitiveness and operational efficiency, maintaining a disciplined approach while navigating the challenging industry conditions. A strategic priority was for the leveraging strategy supported by cash flow generation of $104 million and disciplined capital allocation. These efforts have contributed to strengthening our balance sheet and better positioning the company to navigate the current market landscape as the industry gradually improves. I'm excited to share the progress we made in strengthening our competitiveness. In 2023, we launch a comprehensive long-term strategy designed to reinforce our leadership position with a focus on two key areas. One, optimizing our footprint and cost structure. And two, driving cash flow generation. In 2024, we surpass the ambitious goals set in our plan, driven by targeted actions focused on continuous improvement, such as The organizational restructuring of our business, improving energy supply contracts, inventory management, and footprint optimization. On this last note, during the last quarter, we began the process to shut down the EPS facility at Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania. This decision is expected to generate an additional $20 million in cost savings on a run rate annualized basis. bringing the expected total of the values measures to approximately $100 million by the second half of this year. The aforementioned initiatives are part of an ongoing process for Alpec and we will continue to further enhance our competitiveness across our portfolio. Now, I turn the call over to Jose Carlos who will discuss overall financial performance for the quarter.

speaker
Jose Carlos Pons
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jorge. Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Let me dive deeper into the annual and quarterly results. During the quarter, volume resulted in 1.12 million tons, down 8% from the previous quarter, giving typical seasonality effects. This led to an annual volume of 4.75 million tons, representing a 2% increase from the previous year, reflecting a stable demand levels across all of our business segments. ALPEC generated $168 million in comparable EBITDA as seasonal effects were slightly offset by stronger reference margins. Reported EBITDA for the quarter was $109 million, up 106% year-over-year. This figure included a negative inventory adjustment of $52 million, driven by a sequential decline in raw material prices towards the year-end. As Jorge previously mentioned, full-year comparable EBITDA reached $699 million. Surpassing both revised and original guidance by 4% and 17% respectively. The company's reported dividend during 2024 was $646 million. Our dividend yield in 2024 was 9%, higher than our historical average as we paid a dividend of $132 million in September to shareholders. Now, looking into the polyester segment, quarterly volume decreased to 926,000 tons, 2% higher than the previous year as there was a general demand improvement, but 7% lower quarter on quarter due to typical seasonality effects. Asian integrated pet reference margins reached an average of $305 per ton, up 3% from the third quarter, and Chinese integrated pet reference margins averaged $170 per ton. US reference paraxylene prices decreased by 13%, narrowing the disconnection between North American and Asian prices to $194 per ton, 22% lower than the previous quarter, yet remaining 8% higher compared to the same period last year. Quarterly comparable levita was 100 million, 18% lower than the previous year. Turning to the plastic and chemical segment, Polling during the quarter totaled 198,000 tons, down 11% quarter on quarter, but up 3% year over year. We saw stable demand primarily in the propylene business. Polypropylene reference margins remained flat at 15 cents per pound, while average propylene reference prices declined to 42 cents per pound, down 21% from the previous quarter. North American EPS reference margins continued the recovery, Averaging $0.43 per pound, 19% higher quarter over quarter. Meanwhile, average starting reference prices fell to $0.45 per pound, a 21% decline on a quarterly basis. And for comparable levita, results increased to 65 million, up 51% annually, and 3% quarterly as reference margins improved sequentially, particularly for EPS. Looking at free cash flow for the year, we invested $224 million in networking capital, primarily due to higher volumes. Maintenance capex resulted in an increase of $4 million, with total capex standing at $121 million. This resulted in operating free cash flow for the year of $104 million, driven by higher EBITDA and strategic efforts to maximize cash flow generation. Finally, Regarding the company's financial position, net debt increased to $1.9 billion, while the last 12 months reported EBITDA was $646 million, resulting in a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.9 times. I would just like to highlight that this is a considerable reduction from 3.7 times at the beginning of the year. We concluded the year in a stronger position, yet we remain determined to reaching our target of 2.5 times, and we'll continue taking the necessary measures to achieve. Finally, throughout the year, the company maintained its investment rate ratings across the three main agencies, and all of them reaffirmed their stable output.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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Investor presentation