Livent Corporation (NYSE:LTHM) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 14, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Daniel Rosen - Investor Relations & Strategy

Paul Graves - President & Chief Executive Officer

Gilberto Antoniazzi - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Steve Richardson - Evercore ISI

Chris Kapsch - Loop Capital Markets

Kevin McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners

David Deckelbaum - Cowen and Company

Christopher Parkinson - Mizuho

Matthew DeYoe - Bank of America

Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets

Pavel Molchanov - Raymond James

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call for Livent Corporation. All lines will be placed on listen-only mode throughout the conference. After the speaker’s 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, Bo. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Livent's fourth quarter and full year 2022 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 release and in our 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 continued its strong performance in the fourth quarter and finished the full year 2022 with record financial results. Adjusted EBITDA of $367 million in 2022 was over five times higher than in 2021. This significant improvement was a result of higher average realized prices across all of our lithium products. We expect to generate higher profitability in 2023 as we build on this performance. This is driven by further increase in average realized prices across our portfolio of lithium products, as well as higher sales volumes with the first phase of our Argentina expansion coming online during the year. We are expecting roughly 20% higher sales volumes in 2023, starting in the second half of the year. This translates to an adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $510 million to $580 million, a roughly 50% year-over-year increase at the midpoint. We expect further enhancements to Livent's revenue growth, profitability and cash flow as we bring additional volumes online in 2024 and in the following years.