Sylvamo Corporation (NYSE:SLVM) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 10, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Hans Bjorkman - Vice President, Investor Relations

Jean-Michel Ribieras - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

John Sims - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

George Staphos - BoA Securities

Paul Quinn - RBC Capital Markets

Ed Brucker - Barclays

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Sylvamo's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, your conference is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the call over to Hans Bjorkman, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Hans Bjorkman

Thanks, Amy. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call today.

Our speakers this morning are Jean-Michel Ribieras, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and John Sims, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Slides 2 and 3 contain important information, including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-U.S. GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of those figures to U.S. GAAP financial measures are available in the appendix. Our website also contains copies of the fourth quarter 2022 earnings press release as well as today's presentation.

With that, let's hear from Jean-Michel.

Jean-Michel Ribieras

Thanks, Hans. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. I'll begin my comments on Slide 4.

In 2022, we delivered significant accomplishment as we executed our three-pronged strategy of commercial excellence, operational excellence and financial discipline. We worked hard to be the uncoated freesheet supplier of choice, which resulted in our outperforming industry shipments in all three regions. We improved our safety performance and defined our ideal culture, which would help us become the company in which employees care, trust and grow and succeed together.

We delivered strong earnings and free cash flow despite global supply chain challenges and unprecedented input cost inflation. We reduced our geopolitical risk and uncertainty by divesting our Russian business and agreeing to acquire the Nymolla mill in Sweden. We achieved a 30% return on invested capital, strengthened our balance sheet by repaying more than $370 million in debt and returned $90 million in cash to shareowners. I'm proud of our team and their accomplishment over the last year.