Peabody Energy Corp (NYSE:BTU) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 14, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Karla Kimrey - VP, IR

James Grech - President, CEO & Director

Mark Spurbeck - EVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Nathan Martin - The Benchmark Company

Lucas Pipes - B. Riley Securities

Operator

Welcome to the Peabody Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Karla Kimrey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Karla Kimrey

Good morning, and thanks for joining Peabody's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022. With me today are President and CEO, Jim Grech; and CFO, Mark Spurbeck.

Within the earnings release, you'll find our statement on forward-looking information as well as a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. We encourage you to consider the risk factors referenced there, along with our public filings with the SEC.

I'll now turn the call over to Jim.

James Grech

Thanks, Karla, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started this morning, I'd like to take a moment and welcome Karla Kimrey to her new role as Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications for Peabody. Karla has over 25 years of experience in Investor Relations with 7 of those in the coal industry.

In the fourth quarter and full year 2022, Peabody's diverse portfolio produced substantial and, in many cases, record-breaking results. We had record free cash flow in the quarter and record net income attributable to common stockholders. This performance enabled us to retire all our remaining senior secured debt which was a key milestone in the execution of our anticipated shareholder return program, which we expect to be implemented in the near future. We did have weather challenges in the quarter that we had to overcome in both the U.S. and Australia.

In the U.S., the extreme cold weather in December resulted in a substantially disrupted rail service for the PRB. In Australia, the intense rainfall during the quarter impacted production, sales and in turn costs. Additionally, we did feel the impact of greater than anticipated inflation across all our operations, and we're working diligently to control those costs.

Before I go into the discussion on markets and our platform, I speak for our entire management team as we would like to sincerely thank our global employees for their continued hard work and their focus on working safely. In 2022, we had our lowest annual global injury rate ever, and 3 of our mines reported 0 incidents. Dedication and commitment of our employees allowed us to deliver the strong results we're announcing today.