Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. (NYSE:LICY) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Osborne: I was just wondering if you could comment a little bit further. You mentioned that you will need some additional financing before to meet DOE conditions. Could you maybe just elaborate a little bit more about how much may be required?

Ajay Kochhar: Sure. Jeff, it’s Ajay here. So, we just wanted to make sure that it’s clear how the structure works. So, let’s be very clear. The DOE has always had the phase equity commitment, and it’s actually, I believe, a programmatic feature for them in much like usual project financing, which means as of the overall project size, you have to put in a certain amount of equity first then followed by the debt coming in. As you can imagine, if the capital cost is different, then the project size is bigger. And with an existing commitment remaining at $375 million, there’s an additional funding it. And so, on Page 8, we went over indicatively initially where those capital costs would be, depending on the actions, options selected and proceeding with the same approach on the upper end with respect to contracting strategy.

I think it’s early for us to say precisely what that is. You can do that based on this. But I think what we’d like to do is complete the work, the refined level of these numbers, which could change and then come back and be able to talk about all of that together comprehensively in concert and as — and when appropriate with other financing alternatives that we’re going to be working on.

Jeff Osborne: Okay. And just on the cash preservation plan, it’s helpful to provide where you stand on cash in terms of November 10 versus the end of the quarter? Just wanted to see if you could maybe provide a little bit more detail on where you see the cash burn being on a monthly basis once you’ve like fully implemented the cash preservation plan?

Ajay Kochhar: I’ll give it to Debbie to address.

Debbie Simpson : Jeff, I appreciate the question. I think what we need to do, and I think you read in some of the materials, heard us say that we’re working with some advisers to help us with that. I think what we really need to work through that front and then circle back to that in conjunction with the comprehensive review, they are still really working in parallel. As an initial step, you saw in the details we’ve downsized our workforce. We’re slowing production at other plants and we’re also looking at opportunities to maximize liquidity under working capital position. So, we’re working with suppliers. We’re looking at selling black mass versus the path that we were on, which was to build inventory for the opening of the Hub. And that work will continue and we’ll get deeper into that as it progresses.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. We’ll take our next question from Adam Jonas with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Adam Jonas : I was going to ask about the minimum about the pro forma burn as well, but I appreciate you’re not going to answer that right now. But maybe you could answer if is there any remaining CapEx commitment? Or what financial cash commitments are like near term for the Rochester Hub even with the pause. And then I was curious, as a follow-up, what — if you had an assessment of minimum cash on the balance sheet to kind of run working capital payroll and your other operational needs with the pause?

Ajay Kochhar: Yes. Yes, your question is both for Debbie.