Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Ma'aden first quarter earnings call, and thank you for joining us. My name is Abdulaziz Alnaim, Investor Relations Director at Ma'aden. All participants on today's call will be in silence mode. The presentation and all relevant material will be available on our website and on Ma'aden app. Please refer to our disclaimer and all of the disclosure made in this presentation. I'm joined today by our CEO, Robert Wilt, and our CFO, Louis Irvine. They will take us through the company performance in the first quarter of 2023. As usual, we will open the floor to your questions at the end of the presentation. Please feel free to start posting your questions at the chat box during the call. We hope to get through as much as possible on today's call.
However, if you have any follow-up questions or clarification, please do not hesitate to email us. With this, now I'll hand it over to Bob.
Thank you, Abdulaziz, and thank you to everyone for joining today's call. I'd like to start off on a serious note by addressing the tragic loss of life of one of our third-party contractors this quarter. On behalf of Ma'aden, I extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We are committed to offer any further support and assistance required. Following the incident at our aluminum refinery during a planned shutdown, we suspended operations for 10 days to conduct a comprehensive investigation. We implemented necessary corrective actions and reinforced safety procedures, which added another 10 days to the shutdown. However, this incident is a reminder of the need to be constantly vigilant and focused on our proactive approach to safety across all our operations. Now let's turn to our results. The first quarter presented clear challenges. Softer pricing for ammonia and aluminum had a major impact on our performance.
However, on the operational front, we delivered a strong period. We increased production in our core phosphate unit and delivered record quarterly volumes. We used the softer ammonia pricing environment to bring forward essential planned maintenance, and Ammonia-3 is now running at nameplate capacity. Our program is on schedule. As discussed at the end of last year, we finalized the settlement of a one-off legacy industrial utility charge in the aluminum business. This will not recur. All-in revenue came in at just over SAR 8 billion. Our Adjusted EBITDA stood at SAR 2.67 billion. Net profit was SAR 420 million, and earnings per share was 0.17. Our focus on disciplined cash management continues.
We generated cash flows from operations of roughly SAR 3 billion, and our net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at a very comfortable 1.4 x, demonstrating our continued commitment to strengthening the balance sheet. As you can see here, commodity prices impacting Ma'aden have come off historically high cycles. Last year, both phosphates and aluminum had exceptional years due to market factors and global uncertainty. We see some price stabilization for the balance of this year, but beyond market dynamics, our cost competitiveness is what sets us apart. Our phosphates and aluminum business units are comfortably in the lowest quartiles of the cost curves. This allows us to weather the softer pricing environment while maintaining profitability throughout the cycles. We will continue to focus on operational excellence every day.
For gold, we are committed to bringing our production costs down as we review our asset base and transition to new mines. Let's look at our progress on our growth strategy. As mentioned, operationally, we've boosted our fertilizer production this quarter, hitting record volumes. Our exploration teams have drilled more than 100 km in the quarter and are ramping up even further. At our aluminum smelter, the pot relining is on schedule and will be complete before the end of June. Ammonia-3 has reached nameplate capacity and our new gold mine, Mansourah-Massarah, is on schedule. Also, the Phosphate 3 project is accelerating towards a final investment decision later this year. Our partnerships with the PIF Shareek Program and the Ministry of Investment are playing a crucial role in supporting the infrastructure of this project. Now let's pivot to our strategic highlights.
We've completed the strategic investment of $126 million in Ivanhoe Electric and now own 9.9% of the company. We are concluding the 50/50 partnership with Ivanhoe to explore the kingdom. Ma'aden will provide exploration licenses, and Ivanhoe will contribute their proprietary Typhoon technology and exploration expertise to accelerate our program by over 6 x. We've also expanded our partnership with Barrick so that we have nearly 9 x more area under exploration around our existing copper joint venture. Finally, we're advancing our partnership with the PIF to invest in global mining assets. These agreements are all intended to maximize long-term value for our shareholders as well as wider stakeholders. ESG obviously is a key area for me, our executive team, and the board. We've committed to be carbon neutral by 2050 with a clear roadmap to get there, including interim milestones.
We're currently tracking ahead of our 2025 milestones with some quick wins, including foundational agreements for carbon reduction and groundwater usage reduction. We have redesigned our operating model to create a strong foundation for future success. We're seeing real positive changes across all our operations with efficiencies and a flatter organization structure, reducing layers from 12 to six to enable 50% faster decision-making. We're also driving increased diversity and freeing up opportunities for young people that will become the leadership of the future. To this point, we have doubled the number of females in our workforce this year, but admittedly, we still have a ways to go. Our all-injury frequency stands at an all-time low of 0.12, but given the fatality, obviously much more needs to be done. We are moving away from lagging indicators and focusing more on risk elimination and cultural change.
We're revising our HSMS management system to ensure that our practices are top-tier across our operations, and we don't have to suffer further needless tragedies. I'll now hand it over to Louis to take us through the financials.
Thank you, Bob, and welcome to you all. As Bob highlighted, we are coming off a peak year for the prices. In aluminum, the impact of higher raw materials was also felt, and this together with the final industrial utility settlement, impacted our overall performance. Let me now take you through some additional details. Looking at our year-on-year EBITDA bridge, it is worth noting that the drop is to be viewed in the context of three major elements. Firstly, lower prices had a SAR 1.8 billion real price effect, which was partially offset by increased volumes as we ramped up phosphate and ammonia production. In terms of cost of sales, SAR 605 million was as a direct result of phosphate and aluminum running off inventories during this period.
We also continued to invest in our broader business transformation strategy, as well as increasing our value proposition to employees, as previously reported. As mentioned at the year-end, these initiatives will help us to deliver through the cycles on a sustainable basis and realize more of the price and volume effects into EBITDA. Lastly, the final settlement amount for the utility charge is included in the one-off. We generated healthy cash flows from operations of SAR 3 billion during the quarter. The rundown of inventories referred to earlier, along with other working capital optimization initiatives, generated SAR 900 million in the quarter. SAR 7 million was reinvested into the business through growth and sustaining CapEx. The Base Metals and New Minerals business received the largest share, 40%, mainly attributable to the Mansourah-Massarah project, followed by phosphates at 35% and the aluminum business at 25%.
Close to SAR 1 billion of debt was repaid in the quarter, further de-leveraging the balance sheet in line with our capital allocation framework. Overall, we increased cash by 4% since the year-end. Our focus on financial discipline is seeing a consistent lowering of our gearing. Both long-term borrowings and net debt decreased from the year-end, with lower net debt balancing the lower EBITDA for the period. We previously guided to 2x-3x net debt to EBITDA and are currently well below that at 1.4x . We now move on to our business units, starting with our largest segment. Granulated fertilizer sales volumes increased 59% year-on-year, which, coupled with increases in ammonia sales volumes, partially offset the year-on-year drop in ammonia and DAP prices of 29% and 27% respectively.
We made the decision to bring forward essential warranty maintenance at the Ammonia-3 plant during the period which impacted ammonia production volumes. The phosphate unit remains the main contributor to sales and EBITDA, unchanged since year-end. This bridge breaks down the EBITDA performance in the phosphate segment. We can see that the lower realized prices were offset by the increased sales volumes. As mentioned before, the higher cost of sales relates to the inventory run-off during the period, as well as higher production volumes and associated production costs. Turning to aluminum. The business unit was affected by lower production and sales of primary aluminum due to the pot relining program, as well as higher raw material costs, as we have consistently reported on during the course of last year. The non-recurring one-off charge is reflected in the performance of the business unit this quarter.
In summary, the provision made at full year of SAR 317 million was based on ongoing discussions and was the best estimated outcome of the claim at that point in time. Subsequent to the year-end, we reached the final settlement. Accordingly, we recorded an additional amount of SAR 493 million in the first quarter as a full and final settlement covering 2021 and 2022, which were affected by a change in regulation introduced in January 2021. Turning to the breakdown of EBITDA. The drop in commodity prices was compounded by the higher raw material prices, with caustic soda up at 40% and carbon materials at around 15% year-on-year. On a positive note, we have seen a softening in caustic soda prices of around 20% quarter-on-quarter, and carbon materials remain in line with the previous quarter.
The drop in volume due to the pot relining program was balanced by inventory runoffs of SAR 235 million. During the quarter, we experienced high maintenance costs driving our operating costs higher. Base Metals and New Minerals remains a relatively small contributor to group sales and EBITDA. However, the unit remains a key driver of our growth ambitions going forward. Mansourah-Massarah remains on track to begin commercial production during the second half of this year. Margins were in line with the prior year, but somewhat offset by higher exploration costs. Gold prices are receiving good support from central banks and as a safe haven in the current uncertainty. The drop in volumes resulted from lower grades coming through from some of our older assets. However, I note that our full year guidance remains unchanged. Finally, I want to reiterate the capital allocation framework presented at full year.
We have previously guided that we are spending SAR 3 billion on CapEx and SAR 500 million on exploration as part of our strategy of developing the third pillar of the Saudi economy. Additionally, we have made an initial commitment for international opportunities with the PIF of up to SAR 6 billion. As stated before, we will maintain financial discipline by targeting a 2x-3x net debt to EBITDA ratio throughout the cycles. We believe that this is an adequate, sustainable framework to deliver long-term value to shareholders. I'll now hand you back to Bob to close off.
Thanks, Louis. Relative to near-term growth projects, we are pushing ahead with the project pipeline that extends out the next couple of years to 2027. Beyond Phosphate 3, we also have three other projects that are in early study stage. Like other miners, we're seeing increases in the cost of major capital projects. Thus, as mentioned by Louis, we will actively review all of these opportunities in line with our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our exploration program is accelerating, and during the quarter we've drilled over 100 km. We're continuously adding resources and have 36 active projects at present. We are also deploying next generation technologies with our partners such as Ivanhoe, to accelerate our exploration program and unlock opportunities faster. Our production and CapEx guidance will maintain production guidance as previously outlined.
We will achieve nameplate capacity across all of our operations by year-end. We'll also maintain CapEx guidance as we maintain our operations and grow the business. Looking ahead, our landscape remains uneven and uncertain. We're focused on what we can control, and we'll balance our decisions with our financial position in line with our targets. We've got a growth mandate, and we will continue to execute profitably and responsibly. Our long-term vision will not be swayed by short-term factors or events. With that, I'll hand it back to Abdulaziz for questions and answers.
Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Louis, for the enlightening presentation. Now we'll open the floor for the questions. Please, if you have any question, raise your hand and I'll unmute you to ask. Until we receive few of these questions, I received two in the chat box, so maybe this is a question for Bob. Can you elaborate more about Ivanhoe Electric joint venture? Where, what's the area targeted to explore, and what's the timeline?
Certainly. Yeah, that's obviously very exciting news for us. You know, we've announced the deal at the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh and we consummated it here in the last couple of weeks. The basic framework is we will acquire 9.9% of U.S.-based Ivanhoe Electric. They will basically pour half of those proceeds in cash into the 50/50 joint venture in the kingdom, along with three of their Typhoon exploration units and a cadre of trained geologists to operate them. We will contribute about 48,000 square kilometers of exploration licenses located mostly in what we call Zone Four, which is the area between the well-explored Arabian Shield and the totally unexplored Arabian Platform. We're gonna deploy the Ivanhoe technology in vast areas that have heretofore been unexplored and take advantage of that technology.
Perfect. Thank you both. Now I have a question from Sashank Lanka from Bank of America. Shashank, you are unmuted. Please ask your question.
I have two questions from my side. Just looking at the presentation. When I look at the inventory drawdowns you had both in the aluminum and the phosphate segment, can you just give us some more details on that? I think in the aluminum segment you mentioned around SAR 235 million. Is that mainly because caustic soda prices in Q4 were much higher than Q1, and you sold some of the aluminum produced in Q4 and Q1? A lso the same thing for phosphate. What led to these inventory drawdowns? And just tying into that, I think the aluminum segment margins were quite weak this quarter as well as the last quarter. You did mention that you don't expect these one-off charges to the utility provider to reoccur again.
How should we be looking at margins going forward? Because historically, I think, you were making around 30% or 40% margins in this segment, even at these aluminum prices. Would appreciate some guidance there. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Those are very good questions. Let me deal with the inventory movements first. In the case of the aluminum business, essentially, we ran down bauxite inventories as our refinery, we undertook an extensive maintenance shutdown of the calciner that saw that unit out for 64 days. Essentially, we're running down bauxite inventories as a result. That was the main driver there. Then, you know, we also negotiated better terms with some of our customers internationally off-take terms. With regards to the phosphate business, essentially what we had was a fairly large buildup in inventory during the first quarter of last year as we had shipping challenges and we had delayed shipments in the first quarter of last year.
The way that these EBITDA bridges come across is you've got a big variance when you're capitalizing, holding more inventory on balance sheet during the first quarter and then a lesser amount. The delta results in the big swing. In any event, we were running down inventories as well during the third quarter and the first quarter of this year. With regards to the Aluminum segment, yes, you know, I think our results were definitely impacted by these one-off settlements. I don't think we were that explicit to say that we didn't expect any more. You know, at the end of the day, it was ongoing discussions between three parties at that point in time.
If you think of it this way, we booked SAR 317 during the fourth quarter of last year. It's slightly higher at SAR 493 this quarter. That explains some of the movement, the consistency and the variance, and the aluminum prices were higher during the first quarter relative to the fourth quarter of last year. You know, I think, as we said now in our presentation, that should be behind us. That pertained to 2021 and 2022. We have an agreement in place. Our tariffs haven't changed. We understand the rules of engagement and we move forward.
Another thing I would add, Louis, is we've also had the extensive pot relining program that will conclude this quarter.
Yes.
I think going forward, you can expect our margins to be in line with first quartile performance.
Yeah. Very good point.
Thank you, Robert. Thank you, Louis. Please go ahead, Shashank, if you have any.
Yes. I just had a follow-up to Louis. I mean, I just realized you were talking about year-over-year inventory draw down. But how about Q4 versus Q1? Was there any inventory movement both for the aluminum and the phosphate segment?
Just give me a second. Not to the same extent. Just give me one second, I'll give you the answer to that now. Quarter-on-quarter, the movement in inventory was around SAR 260 million at the group level. I don't have the breakdown per.
Okay.
Per business unit now.
Okay, that's fine. Thank you. Thank you so much for that.
Pleasure.
Thank you, Sashank. Now I have a question in the chat box. This is to Bob. Can you elaborate more on the joint venture with Barrick and the target products and expectation on this joint venture?
Sure. The Barrick joint venture is another exciting strategic opportunity. Since the middle part of last decade, we've had a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Barrick around our Jabal Sayid copper mine. They're the operating partner. The license areas surrounding Jabal Sayid, we already had some exploration licenses adjoining that. In conjunction with the new mining law and the new auction process through the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, they auctioned off another block next to Jabal Sayid that Barrick and Ma'aden went in on and were the successful bidder. When you look at all that, you had an existing joint venture, a Ma'aden exploration license, and an exploration license recently acquired by Ma'aden and Barrick.
We've combined all of those under one umbrella to basically increase the size of our footprint by over 8x or 9x with Barrick around Jabal Sayid. Not exclusively looking for copper, but mostly looking for copper.
Thank you, Bob. Now, again, I'll open the floor for a question from Dr. Awad Al-Zahrani. You are unmuted. Please go ahead, ask your question. Unmute yourself and ask your question, please. Yeah, you gotta unmute yourself.
When you say cyber and labor, I mean, it is supposed that you are selling it in the accounts and it votes. I mean, if it becomes, for example, a certain percentage. Secondly, I don't know. I mean, the talk is a lot, and the explanation, frankly, is not convincing.
Brother Awad, you can send your question on email, and we will respond to you with all the details.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
Thank you. I'm going back. He's just going to comment about the performance. That's it. No questions. We have also another question about the joint venture with PIF. Could you elaborate on the joint venture with the PIF? What's the target product and what's the timeline?
Certainly. Last quarter, recall, we announced the establishment of a new joint venture company with a PIF, Ma'aden at 51%, the PIF at 49%, with the explicit goal of going out and sourcing the critical minerals required for downstream development in the Kingdom's diversification program associated with Vision 2030. As the Kingdom progresses towards developing an automotive sector, an aerospace sector, renewable energy sector, we are charged with going out, securing equity positions in assets or companies of minority positions where we can also enjoy the offtake of critical transition minerals associated with EV, you know, cobalt, lithium, nickel, as well as things required for the development of a steel sector in the Kingdom. Iron ore is on that list as well. We've got a very targeted list of essential minerals associated with EV transition and iron ore.
We are looking globally, but specifically focusing on Africa and Southwest Asia, where we have a logistical advantage. More news to come on that front as we progress this year. We've announced we've got SAR 6 billion earmarked for our share of the investment first year. More to come on that front.
Thank you, Bob. Again, I'll open the floor for question. We have Anoop Fernandes. Please go ahead. Unmute you. Please unmute yourself and ask your question. Go ahead, Anoop.
Yeah. Can you hear me?
Yes, very good. Go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions related to your aluminum business. Firstly, on the legacy aluminum charge, you know, can you please give us some more color on what this charge was related to? Was it capacity payments of the past? Because I think at a couple of years ago, there was this issue about the power costs. The company was supposed to pay capacity charges as against not paying it earlier. I mean, is it related to that? And are you paying capacity charges to Saudi Electricity now, you know, in the current setup? That is question one, and question two is on your aluminum expansion over the long term. We see a 90 KTPA addition.
Are you adding new pot lines, or is this, you know, expansion from creep capacity? Considering your cost structure, which is so competitive, you're at the lowest decile, what are the challenges in, you know, expanding your integrated aluminum complex? Why aren't we adding, you know, integrated aluminum capacity both on the alumina and the aluminum side, given that, you know, the longer term undercurrents because of, you know, this green infra program is sort of very bullish?
I'll answer the second one, and I'll let Louis answer the first one. Certainly, yeah, you've got very good memory or good notes. We've got a brownfield expansion of lines one and two on the drawing board. That project is under consideration. As a matter of fact, I have the FEL-3 document on my desk right now. Recall what I mentioned about the escalation of capital charges and capital costs. We wanna be responsible in when we invest. Right now, that project is marginal. We're gonna give it further scrutiny, value engineer it a bit more. Yeah, we'll certainly, we want to expand the existing smelter.
As we look toward our 10x growth target by 2040, there's an additional pot line and additional alumina refinery in the pipeline at some point in the next decade.
Okay. With regards to the legacy contract, essentially, it came about as a result of the change in the regulation that I referred to earlier in the presentation. In terms of the changes in the regulation, companies are required to, all companies in the Kingdom are required to elect their consumption and how that consumption will be used, which in fact ties back to your question around capacity. There was a difference of opinion in terms of how Ma'aden's rights were being exercised. As I said to you, that has now been resolved and settled. Going forward, we know what the arrangements are, and our power tariff remains unchanged. It was just how the contracts were interpreted, and how demand was costed.
Thank you.
Hello?
Go ahead.
Yeah, you know, just a follow-up on this. Don't you own the power assets? Why is it that you're paying a capacity charge to Saudi Electricity if you own these captive power assets?
We don't own them. We don't own the assets.
Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you, Anoop. Again, going back to the chat box, I have one question that's maybe mixed between you, Robert and Louis. It's asking about the Phosphate 3 progress and what's the expected financing structure of the Phosphate 3.
That's a great question. Obviously, this is one of the cornerstone expansions in the kingdom and for Ma'aden. As we mentioned, we're moving forward with final investment decision later this year. We've appointed Worley as our EPCM lead. The preliminary engineering, a lot of the upfront work is being done as we speak. We've got some incentives from the PIF Shareek program, as well as Minister of Investment, relative to infrastructure required around the project to make it even more attractive. We'll make that decision post September board meeting, most likely. How we're financing it, that is a subject that Louis and I and others are discussing, you know, the most appropriate way to fund that.
Yeah. Thank you, Bob. Now, again, I'll open the box. Faisal AlAzmeh , you are unmuted. Please ask your question.
Anas Aljefri from Goldman Sachs. Just two questions, if I may. Just thinking about your net debt to EBITDA target, in the context of the declining product price environment, where do you see or what's your target generally over the cycle, if we are to kind of take into consideration that the prices are normalizing this year and next year? Do you see yourself working on reducing your leverage profile, and how does that go hand-in-hand with the expansion programs that you're currently thinking about? If you can shed some color on that would be quite helpful.
My second question more relates towards how do we think about generally the you know Ma'aden as a group. Do you see room for any divestments or these things in the future? Do you see ways to extract more value from some of these assets versus how they are today? Thank you very much.
Yeah. I'll tell you, it's a good question, and I'll let Louis elaborate on his capital allocation framework, but I'll give him the credit for bringing a sense of discipline to the organization, doing significant benchmarking work to find out best-in-class operators where we need to be in net debt to EBITDA targets through the cycle. That's why we've established 2x-3x throughout the cycle. Certainly we're at a great position end of last year and currently, but there's some room to deteriorate further and still be in our target range of 2x-3x . How that goes hand-in-hand with our expansions is why we continue to talk about our capital allocation framework. We're gonna do it responsibly.
We wanna maintain the proper gearing and leverage so that we don't get into a position where we were five, six, seven years ago. We were 7x, and the biggest concern about Ma'aden was our balance sheet.
Yeah.
Louis, elaborate if you care to.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Bob. Faisal, great question. Yeah, I think what I would say to you is, I mean, yes, we have growth aspirations, but we don't have to write the check all today. We have the ability to prioritize our capital spend over the business plan period and beyond that as well. I think we're in a very fortunate position in terms of, you know, the rights to the assets we have at the moment. They are long life assets, and they give us a lot of flexibility and optionality. Yeah, we're gonna obviously. We can address funding and net debt to EBITDA ratios through controlling our spend on capital, especially the growth capital.
Our focus will always remain on sustaining the businesses and to ensure that they're running efficiently and safely. Clearly, you know, we would like to delever the balance sheet. That's how I think about it in terms of prioritization. Sustaining the businesses, servicing our debt, and then prioritizing our capital.
Relative to your second question about divestments, I'd broaden that aperture out a little bit and just talk about, you know, our portfolio reviews. You know, I'd tell Ma'aden is 25 years old this year, but essentially for the first half of that period, we were operating legacy gold mines. And we've really only been operating our core phosphate and aluminum businesses for the last decade or so. We've got a fairly new fleet of world-class baseload assets in phosphate and aluminum. We're very happy with that portfolio that we wanna grow on.
The legacy gold mines, you saw where we were positioned on the cost curve and our gold and our Base Metals and New Minerals business is undergoing a strategic asset review to find out at what point we retire some of those assets and bring new assets online based on our exploration success. As far as divestments or closures or retirements, I think the only thing you could expect to see in the near term would be some legacy gold mines.
Thank you, Bob. Again, one more question from the chat. Basically asking about the Aluminum Line one, two expansion. From where you're gonna procure the feedstock, is there a plan for expansion of the refinery upstream?
We actually are long in alumina right now, so we can absorb, you know, internally or we can source ourselves internally from our existing refinery for a line one and two expansion. If we would go to line three, we would need to, you know, have another solution. Apart from line expansion of the existing assets, we can source internally.
Thank you, Bob. I don't see any more questions or hand raised. With this, I would be concluding this presentation. Thank you all for joining us. If you have any follow-up questions, do not hesitate to send us a follow-up email on invest@maaden.com.sa and follow up on Ma'aden app on Android and on the Apple iPhone. Goodbye.
Thank you.
Thanks.