Livent Corporation (NYSE:LTHM) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 2, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Daniel Rosen - IR and Strategy

Paul Graves - President and CEO

Gilberto Antoniazzi - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Chris Kapsch - Loop Capital

Christopher Parkinson - Mizuho

Matthew DeYoe - Bank of America

Corinne Blanchard - Deutsche Bank

Kevin McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners

David Deckelbaum - TD Cowen

Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets

Aleksey Yefremov - Keybanc Capital Markets

Pavel Molchanov - Raymond James

Ben Isaacson - Scotiabank

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the First Quarter 2023 Earnings Release Conference Call for Livent Corporation. Phone lines will be placed on listen-only mode throughout the conference. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer period.

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Daniel Rosen, Investor Relations and Strategy for Livent Corporation. Mr. Rosen, you may begin.

Daniel Rosen

Thank you, Rob. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Livent’s first quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me today are Paul Graves, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gilberto Antoniazzi, Chief Financial Officer.

The slide presentation that accompanies our results, along with our earnings release, can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. Prepared remarks from today’s discussion will be made available after the call.

Following our prepared remarks, Paul and Gilberto will be available to address your questions. Given the number of participants on the call today, we would request a limit of one question and one follow-up per caller. We’d be happy to address any additional questions after the call.

Before we begin, let me remind you that today’s discussion will include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning specific factors, including, but not limited to, those factors identified in our Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Information presented represents our best judgment based on today’s information. Actual results may vary based upon these risks and uncertainties. Today’s discussion will include references to various non-GAAP financial metrics. Definitions of these terms as well as reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP are provided on our Investor Relations website.

And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Paul.

Paul Graves

Thank you, Dan, and good evening, everyone.

Livent had a strong start to 2023, reporting record financial results in the first quarter of this year. Adjusted EBITDA of $157 million was nearly 50% higher than the fourth quarter of 2022, with this improvement being a result of higher average realized prices across all lithium products. The development of Nemaska Lithium, in which Livent is a 50% shareholder, continues to progress as expected, and the project reached several important milestones in the quarter. The detailed engineering phase of the project is now complete. And the Nemaska Lithium Board has approved the start of construction of the 34,000 metric ton, lithium hydroxide facility at Bécancour and the earlier commencement of mining operations at Whabouchi.