Vermilion Energy Inc. (NYSE:VET) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript March 9, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Dion Hatcher - President & Chief Executive Officer
Lars Glemser - Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Bryce Kremnica - Vice President, North America
Jenson Tan - Vice President, Business Development
Conference Call Participants
Amir Arif - ATB Capital
Menno Hulshof - TD Cowen
Josef Schachter - Schachter Energy
Operator
Please standby. We're about to begin. Good morning. My name is Jess, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vermilion Energy Q4 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
Mr. Dion Hatcher, you may begin your conference.
Dion Hatcher
Thank you, Jess. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Dion Hatcher, President and CEO of Vermilion Energy. With me today are Lars Glemser, Vice President and CFO; Darcy Kerwin, Vice President, International and HSE; Bryce Kremnica, Vice President, North America; Jenson Tan, Vice President, Business Development; and Kyle Preston, Vice President of Investor Relations.
We’ll be referencing a PowerPoint presentation to discuss the Q4 full year 2022 results. Presentation can be found on our website under Invest with Us and Events and Presentations. Please refer to our advisory and forward-looking statements at the end of the presentation, it describes the forward-looking information, non-GAAP measures and oil and gas terms used today and outline the risk factors and assumptions relevant to this discussion.
In 2022, we delivered on our strategic priorities and continue to reposition Vermilion for long-term success. We remain focused on financial discipline and reduced net debt by another $300 million. We benefited from strong European gas prices as a result of our international diversified asset base, we advanced the core of acquisition to significantly enhance our Euro gas exposure, which is planned to close on March 31st of this year, and we completed the strategic acquisition of Leucrotta Exploration, marking Vermilion's entry into the prolific Montney resource play, which has significantly increased the depth and quality of our drilling inventory.
Looking at our financial results, Vermilion generated record fund flows of $1.6 billion and record free cash flow of $1.1 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 78% and 99%, respectively. These results were achieved despite a $406 million of realized hedging losses and $223 million of temporary European windfall taxes. This free cash flow allows us to fund over $500 million of strategic acquisitions, reduced net debt by over $300 million and returned over $100 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.