Nutrien Ltd. (NTR) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 11, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Holzman - VP, IR

Ken Seitz - President and CEO

Pedro Farah - CFO

Mark Thompson - Chief Commercial Officer

Jason Newton - Chief Economist and Head of Market Research

Chris Reynolds - President, Potash

Trevor Williams - Interim President, Nitrogen and Phosphate

Jeff Tarsi - EVP and President, Global Retail

Conference Call Participants

Ben Isaacson - Scotiabank

Jacob Bout - CIBC

Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets

Adam Samuelson - Goldman Sachs

Will Tang - Morgan Stanley

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Christopher Parkinson - Mizuho

Andrew Wong - RBC Capital Markets

Richard Garchitorena - Wells Fargo

Benjamin Theurer - Barclays

Martin Pradier - Veritas Investment Research

Edlain Rodriguez - Credit Suisse

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Nutrien 2023 First Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Holzman, VP of Investor Relations.

Jeff Holzman

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to Nutrien’s first quarter 2023 conference call. As we conduct this call, various statements that we make about future expectations, plans and prospects contain forward-looking information. Certain material assumptions were applied in making these conclusions and forecasts. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking information. Additional information about these factors and assumptions are contained in our quarterly report to shareholders as well as our most recent annual report, MD&A and annual information form filed with Canadian and U.S Securities Commissions.

I will now turn the call over to Ken Seitz, our President and CEO and Pedro Farah, our CFO, for opening comments before we take your questions.

Ken Seitz

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Nutrien’s first quarter results reflect the impact of structural supply issues and shifting buying patterns that have contributed to an unprecedented period of market volatility. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 billion the second highest for any first quarter on record. Continuing to demonstrate the advantages of our flexible low cost production assets and global distribution network. We invested $700 million to sustain and grow our assets and returned over $1.1 billion to shareholders in the first quarter.

While our full year outlook is lower than previously expected, we are encouraged by the continued stabilization of crop nutrient markets and anticipate increased fertilizer demand in the second half of the year. We expect to generate strong cash flows in 2023 and maintain a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation.