Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Sanjiv Lamba: Sure, Stephen. So both of those wins recently announced. So our entities in India obviously did a really good job in winning a large hydrogen supply scheme to Indian Oil at Panipat. That’s a premier refinery in India. As you know, the Indian market is growing and most of the infrastructure projects as well as large refineries are kind of running hard to keep pace. So good to see that full holistic package. We’re providing the atmospheric gases as well as hydrogen to that refinery as they go into their expansion plans. And again, given our strong relationship with IOCL or Indian Oil, we are seeing continued kind of momentum from the technology that we’re providing to them and their appreciation of the package of technology and operating capabilities that we bring to bear.

We also supply them at [indiscernible] already for a number of years now. As far as South Australia is concerned, it was an interesting project. We work very closely with the government of South Australia. I have to give them some credit for kind of doing some past-breaking work over here. What they’re trying to do is to build a hydrogen-fired peaking power plants, essentially moving hydrogen into the power sector. And really, as a result of that, we are now doing a FEED study for them. It is a paid FEED study to provide 250 megawatts of electrolysis and a lot of hydrogen storage to support that peaking plant. Now as you know, a peaking plant really is a bit more discretionary in the hydrogen that’s provided. We’re doing a FEED study to assess what is required for a successful project to happen.

We’re working with a reputed power player in developing that project jointly. And once the FEED is completed, we will work together with the partners to ensure that we can take that to a final investment decision.

Operator: We will take our next question from Duffy Fischer with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Duffy Fischer: Yes. Good morning, guys. Two quick questions. First, when you look forward into next year, how additive should new projects be to next year? And then, the second is the $15 billion buyback is very large relative to history, and you already had 2 remaining. So what should we read into that as far as pace of buybacks and maybe cash flow generation? Just anything, why such a large size, I guess?

Sanjiv Lamba: Duffy, I’ll let Matt cover those.

Matt White: Sure. So first, as you know, Duffy, we’ll give next year guidance next year, when we give that. But I will say that and we’ve said this in the past, when you kind of look at the backlog, we’ve always felt and stated that with $3.5 billion to $4 billion backlog should be giving us close to 2% of EPS growth. We’re now at $4.5 billion, so we’re a little above that, so I see no reason why that would continue. And we always want to focus on EPS growth of the backlog because the revenue impact can vary based on whether it’s tolling or pass-through, right, on the energy. Sometimes it will pass through the energy which makes higher revenue, as you know. Sometimes we take it totally, and it will be lower revenue. But the returns are consistent in how we look at it, the terms and conditions are consistent.

And so from an EPS perspective, we fully expect the 2% or so on top with that backlog. As far as the buyback, we’ve also grown. We have to remember that and how I think about the $15 buyback is the pace at what it should be consistent with how our use of the prior programs have been. So as you know, we’ve been $1 billion-ish per quarter already. We are growing. Our cash flow continues to be quite strong. And so while we did not give any explicit date on this, I would expect that the timing for us to go through this will be consistent with what we’ve seen in our prior program, for example, the $10 billion that we announced in the beginning of last year. But again, our priority will always be growth and investing in the business. It just has to meet our criteria.

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