Linde plc (LIN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call February 7, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Juan Pelaez - Head, IR

Sanjiv Lamba - CEO

Matt White - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Duffy Fischer - Goldman Sachs

John McNulty - BMO Capital Markets

Mike Leithead - Barclays

Nicola Tang - BNP Paribas

Jeff Zekauskas - JPMorgan

David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank

Peter Clark - Société Générale

Kevin McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners

John Roberts - Credit Suisse

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Vincent Andrews - Morgan Stanley

Tony Jones - Redburn

P.J. Juvekar - Citi

Christopher Parkinson - Mizuho

Operator

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Linde Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Teleconference and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. And after the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Juan Pelaez, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Juan Pelaez

Thanks, Devon. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending our 2022 fourth quarter earnings call and webcast. I'm Juan Pelaez, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined this morning by Sanjiv Lamba, Chief Executive Officer; and Matt White, Chief Financial Officer. Today's presentation materials are available on our website at linde.com in the Investors section.

Please read the forward-looking statement disclosure on page 2 of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during the teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are in the appendix of this presentation. Sanjiv will provide some opening remarks, and then Matt will give an update on Linde's fourth quarter financial performance and outlook, after which, we will wrap up with Q&A.

Let me now turn the call over to Sanjiv.

Sanjiv Lamba

Thanks, Juan, and good morning, everyone. By all measures, 2022 was another successful year for Linde, despite the significant and unprecedented headwinds. I'm incredibly proud how every employee rose to the challenge by not only delivering record financial performance but also living our core values and supporting key initiatives for all stakeholders. And while there are hundreds of daily examples where Linde employees have created real value through their commitment and determination, I'd like to highlight just a few on slide 3.

Starting with shareholders. We delivered record financial performance against the backdrop of an energy and inflation crisis not seen in half a century. Three important metrics for our owners: operating margin, EPS and ROC, all reached record highs, both for the fourth quarter and the full year. In fact, we achieved our ninth quarter in a row of growing EPS ex FX by 20% or more. On top of that, $7 billion, almost 5% of our average market cap, was returned to owners in the form of dividends and share repurchases.