ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Raviv Zoller: And maybe one more thing I would add is that, you see we created free cash flow of $1.3 billion this year and we just distributed about $1.2 billion. The realistic free cash flow was a little more than that because we used over $250 million to take care of some previous year items, namely the tax dispute that we had for many years, the (ph) profit levy in Israel, as well as we closed some environmental issues that we had from 2017 and before. So we had some other use for cash in 2022. And at the same time, we’re starting 2023 in a much better place, very, very strong balance sheet and also clean slate with some challenges that we had in the past. Hope that answers.

Alexander Jones: Thanks, Raviv. Just maybe to follow-up on the buyback discussions you’re having, do you have any timeline that we should bear in mind for hearing about that either way? Thank you.

Raviv Zoller: Yes. The timeline is before we report — well, let me put it another way. Latest we will report back to you on this when we report our first quarter results. Latest.

Alexander Jones: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question today comes from the line of Ben Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Ben Theurer: Yes. Good morning. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Raviv Zoller: Yes.

Aviram Lahav: Yes. Hi, Ben.

Ben Theurer: Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you very much. And first of all, congrats on a record year in 2022. As well, two questions, if I may. First, just looking into 2023 and some of the demand drivers you’re seeing out there and what you’re seeing on the contracting side. Can you share a few insights or maybe anecdotes what you’re seeing for demand in the different segments. You’ve laid out a little bit of a trajectory on the industrial side, but also more on the commodity piece, but also just the seasonality you used to have, how should we think about the cadence into 2023 from a demand perspective? That would be my first question.

Raviv Zoller: Okay. Thanks for the question. Since I discussed industrial products, I’ll say that on phosphate specialties and growing solutions, we’ll see the same kind of seasonality that we have every year, which means pretty flat all through the year with a little bit of softness on the fertilizer side in the fourth quarter of next year. In terms of commodities, lately I would say since November, we see healthy demand in some markets, namely in Brazil, there’s very strong demand. And even now, which is the 15 of February, we already sold over half of the annual allocation of potash to Brazil to be delivered in the first half of the year, which means that there’s ample room to sell a lot of commodity. We’re pretty sold out for first quarter, we’re sold out on potash for the first quarter, we’re sold out on phosphate until the end of the second quarter.