Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending December 31, 2022

March 16, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Franco-Nevada Corporation’s 2022 Year End Results Conference Call and Webcast. This call is being recorded on March 16, 2023. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Candida Hayden, Senior Analyst, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Candida Hayden

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Franco-Nevada’s 2022 year end results. Accompanying this call is a presentation, which is available on our website at franco-nevada.com, where you will also find our full financial results. The presentation is also available to view on the webcast.

During this call – sorry, during our call this morning, Paul Brink, President and CEO of Franco-Nevada, will provide introductory remarks followed by Sandip Rana, our Chief Financial Officer, who will provide a brief review of our results. This will be followed by a Q&A period. Our full executive team is available to answer any questions. Participants may submit questions by telephone or via the webcast. We would like to remind participants that some of today’s commentary may contain forward-looking information and we refer you to our detailed cautionary note on Slide 3 of this presentation.

I will now turn the call over to Paul Brink, President and CEO of Franco-Nevada.

Paul Brink

Thanks, Candida and good morning. I am pleased to report strong fourth quarter and annual results for 2022. Our diversified assets outperformed driven by elevated energy prices in the year. The benefit of our top line business was again apparent. While inflation impacted the margins of many operating companies, our EBITDA margins actually expanded slightly and our business generated record profits. It’s good to see our efforts on ESG being well received. Most recently, we were awarded a Sustainalytics global top 50 rating given to the top 50 companies in their ratings universe. This January, we announced our 16th consecutive annual dividend increase. The roughly 6% increase takes our quarterly dividend to $0.34 per share.

Many of our largest shareholders have held the stock since the IPO and they are now realizing a 12% yield in Canadian dollars or almost 9% in U.S. dollars. The renegotiation of the Cobre Panama concession contract over the last few months and the brief production halt caused some sleepless nights. It was a relief I am sure for everyone last week, when First Quantum and the government reached agreement on a refreshed contract. We hope it moves swiftly through public consultation and parliamentary approval.