Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 1, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Karla Kimrey – Vice President-Investor Relations
Jim Grech – President and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Spurbeck – Chief Financial Officer
Malcolm Roberts – Chief Marketing Officer

Conference Call Participants

Lucas Pipes – B. Riley
Katja Jancic – BMO Capital Markets
Nathan Martin – The Benchmark Company

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Peabody Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Karla Kimrey, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Karla Kimrey

Good morning, and thank you for joining Peabody's call for the second quarter of 2024. With me today are President and CEO, Jim Grech; CFO, Mark Spurbeck; and our Chief Marketing Officer, Malcolm Roberts. Within the earnings release, you will 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.

Now I'll turn the call over to Jim.

Jim Grech

Thanks, Karla, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us today and for your interest in Peabody. I am pleased to report the second quarter results came in as forecasted, and we have a confident outlook for the second half of 2024. More importantly, to date, Peabody is having a remarkable year with safety, our number one value as five of our mines have had zero reportable injuries. Peabody is committed to increasing shareholder value through a balanced approach of maximizing shareholder returns and investing in organic metallurgical coal growth at Centurion.

Our resilient balance sheet allows us to be flexible and dynamic in the prevailing market conditions. As a result, and in accordance with our shareholder return policy and favorable outlook for the remainder of the year, we have committed an additional $100 million for opportunistic share repurchases. Centurion, our world-class hard coking coal growth project is going very well. The initial underground development rates are exceeding expectations. We are able to mine our first development coal in June, and in July, we commissioned our second continuous miner. We are on budget and expect to ship coal from this mine to customers in the fourth quarter and are on target for longwall coal in the first quarter of 2026.