Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 5, 2024 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
John Zoeller - Vice President and Treasurer
Albert Chao - Executive Chairman
Jean-Marc Gilson - President and CEO
Steve Bender - Executive Vice President and CFO
Conference Call Participants
Eric Zhang - Citi
Duffy Fisher - GS
Bhavesh Lodaya - BMO Capital Markets
Ryan Weis - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Frank Mitsch - Fermium Research
John Roberts - Mizuho Group
Matt Hettwer - Vertical Research Partners
Chris Perrella - UBS
Arun Viswanathan - RBC Capital Markets
Michael Leithead - Barclays
Turner Hinrichs - Morgan Stanley
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Corporation Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, you will be invited to participate in the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, November 5, 2024.
I would now like to turn the call over to today’s host, John Zoeller, Westlake’s Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.
John Zoeller
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to the Westlake Corporation conference call to discuss our third quarter 2024 results. I am joined today by Albert Chao, our Executive Chairman; Jean-Marc Gilson, our President and CEO; Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our management team.
During the call, we will refer to our two reporting segments, Performance and Essential Materials, which we refer to as PEM or Materials, and Housing and Infrastructure Products, which we refer to as HIP or Products.
Today’s conference call will begin with Jean-Marc, who will open with a few comments regarding Westlake’s performance. Steve will then discuss our financial and operating results. After which, Jean-Marc will add a few concluding comments and we will open the call up to questions.
During the third quarter of 2024, we accrued $75 million of after-tax expenses in the Performance and Essential Materials segment related to the previously announced decision to mothball two units within our European epoxy business to reduce our costs and allow our manufacturing footprint to align with changing global conditions. We refer to this charge as the identified item in our earnings release and on this conference call. References to income from operations, EBITDA, net income and earnings per share on this call exclude the financial impact of the identified item.