Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 22, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Holzman - VP, IR

Ken Seitz - President and CEO

Pedro Farah - CFO

Mark Thompson - EVP and Chief Commercial Officer

Jeff Tarsi - EVP and President, Global Retail

Trevor Williams - EVP and President, Nitrogen and Phosphate

Jason Newton - Chief Economist

Conference Call Participants

Steve Hanson - Raymond James

Joel Jackson - BMO Capital Markets

Adam Samuelson - Goldman Sachs

Ben Isaacson - Scotiabank

Jacob Bout - CIBC

Andrew Wong - RBC Capital Markets

Vincent Andrews - Morgan Stanley

Richard Garchitorena - Wells Fargo

Steve Byrne - Bank of America

Jeff Zekauskas - JPMorgan

Edlain Rodriguez - Mizuho

Aron Ceccarelli - Berenberg

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Nutrien's 2023 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow after the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Holzman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jeff Holzman

Thank you. operator good morning and welcome to Nutrien's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call.

As we conduct this call, various statements that we make about future expectations, plans, and prospects contain forward-looking information. Certain material assumptions were applied in making these conclusions and forecasts. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking information. Additional information about these factors and assumptions are contained in our quarterly report to shareholders as well as our most recent Annual Report, MD&A, and Annual Information Form filed with Canadian and U.S. Securities Commissions.

I will now turn the call over to Ken Seitz, President and CEO, and Pedro Farah, our CFO, for opening comments before we take your questions.

Ken Seitz

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today as we recap our 2023 results and provide an outlook for the business and our strategic priorities for the year ahead.

Nutrien delivered adjusted EBITDA of $6.1 billion in 2023, we generated $5.1 billion in cash from operations supported by the countercyclical release of working capital and retail. In response to changing market conditions, we took several actions during the year to enhance free cash flow, including a reduction in planned capital and operating expenditures of approximately $400 million.

We maintained a balanced approach to capital allocation investing to sustain and grow our assets and returning a total of $2.1 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. As the year progressed, we saw increased market stability and strong fertilizer demand in North America, supported by improved grower affordability and extended fall application season, and low channel inventories.