Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call October 31, 2022 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Sloan Bohlen - IR

Arsen Kitch - President and CEO

Michael Murphy - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Adam Josephson - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Paul Quinn - RBC Capital Markets

Mark Wilde - BMO Capital Markets

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Dennis, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Clearwater Paper Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute, to prevent any background noise. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Sloan Bohlen, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Sloan Bohlen

Thank you, Dennis. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Clearwater Paper's Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on the call today are Arsen Kitch, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Murphy, Chief Financial Officer; Financial results for the third quarter 2022 were released shortly after today's market close, along with the filing of our 10-Q. You will find the presentation of supplemental information, including a slide providing the company's current outlook posted on the Investor Relations page of our website at clearwaterpaper.com.

Additionally, we will be providing certain non-GAAP information in this afternoon's discussion. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP information to comparable GAAP information is included in the press release and in the supplemental information provided on our website. Please note Slide two of our supplemental information covering forward-looking statements, rather than rereading this slide, we are going to incorporate it by reference in our prepared remarks.

With that, let me turn the call over to Arsen.

Arsen Kitch

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Before reviewing our third quarter earnings, I wanted to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Halloween.

Please turn to Slide three. We had a great third quarter, which exceeded our expectations. On a consolidated basis, we reported net sales of $539 million, which was 20% higher than prior year. Adjusted net income was $31 million and adjusted EBITDA was $77 million. Let me share a few highlights.

Both paperboard and tissue demand were strong with increased pricing in both businesses. Inflation remained a headwind across most of our input costs, particularly in pulp, fiber, chemicals and energy.

In addition to price increases, we continue to improve our operating performance to help mitigate the impact of rising costs. We reduced net debt by $6 million in the quarter and $106 million in the first nine-months of the year. We also repurchased $25 million of our outstanding notes due in 2025. And finally, we repurchased $1 million of shares during the quarter for a total of $5 million in the first nine-months of the year. We have $25 million remaining on our buyback authorization.