Westlake Corporation (WLK) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending December 31, 2024

February 24, 2025 1:00 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Corporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today February 24, 2025.

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 to the Westlake Corporation conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year results for 2024. 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, housing and infrastructure products, which we refer to as HIP or products and Performance and Essential Materials, which we refer to as PEM or materials. 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 up the call to questions.

During the third quarter of 2024, we accrued $75 million of expenses related to the decision to mothball 2 units within our European Epoxy business. Additionally, during the fourth quarter of 2023, we recorded a noncash impairment charge of $475 million related to the company's epoxy business, as well as a $150 million charge to fully resolve certain liability claims. We refer to these three charges as the identified items 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 items.

As such, comments made on this call will be in regard to our underlying business results using non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is provided in our earnings release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management.