Linde plc (LIN) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call October 27, 2022 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Juan Pelaez - Head of Investor Relations

Sanjiv Lamba - Chief Executive Officer

Matt White - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Peter Clark - Société Générale

Duffy Fischer - Goldman Sachs

Steven Richardson - Evercore ISI

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Mike Leithead - Barclays

Nicola Tang - Exane BNP Paribas

Jeff Zekauskas - JPMorgan

David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank

Vincent Andrews - Morgan Stanley

Dan Rizzo - Jefferies

Geoff Haire - UBS

John Roberts - Credit Suisse

Cory Murphy - Vertical Research Partners

Mike Sison - Wells Fargo

Mike Harrison - Seaport Research Partners

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Linde plc Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Teleconference. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that 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, Cecilia. Good morning, everyone, and thank you again for attending our 2022 third quarter earnings call and webcast. I am 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 this teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are in the appendix to this presentation.

Sanjiv will provide some opening remarks and then Matt will give an update on Linde's third 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. Linde employees once again delivered a strong quarter despite the economic challenges. EPS increased 21%, excluding FX, while operating margins expanded 90 basis points when adjusting for contractual cost pass-through, all underpinned by $2.6 billion of operating cash flow, and a record ROC of 21.8%.

Now in addition to achieving this financial performance, the company recently received approval for its absolute emission reduction targets by the science-based targets initiative, confirming our road map to help de-carbonize the planet. I'm pleased to see these results, which are truly a testament to the quality of our team, and our relentless execution culture.