Albermarle: 2023 Strategy Update

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), hosted its virtual 2023 Strategy Update on January 24th. The company provided details on corporate strategy, preliminary and unaudited fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 results and highlights, 2023 guidance and five-year outlook.

Key Themes for the 2023 Strategic Update:

• Building on durable competitive advantages to accelerate growth and deliver long-term value
• Reshaping the company’s core portfolio with a stronger focus on growth opportunities to enable mobility, energy, connectivity and health
• Reinforcing Albemarle’s commitment to advancing sustainability and building a more resilient world
• Expanding capacity while maintaining financial flexibility and a disciplined approach to capital allocation
• Adding new leadership to reinforce relationships with external stakeholders
• Delivering on the company’s comprehensive operating model to drive operational performance

Albemarle CEO Kent Masters made some comments:

“We delivered record results in 2022, exceeding our previous projections, and our updated outlook and long-term targets reflect further growth acceleration.  Albemarle is a leading producer of critical ingredients for some of the most powerful trends transforming the modern world, and we are partnering with other industry leaders to provide secure supply, innovative technologies and improved sustainability. Our virtual strategy event will give investors a deeper understanding of who we are, where we are headed and how we plan to manage our growth to balance short- and long-term opportunities.”

Outlook

Albemarle is introducing full-year 2023 guidance and 2027 long-term financial targets. The company projects accelerated growth in revenue and EBITDA based on expanded capacity, strategic contracting agreements, ongoing efficiency improvements and innovation in products and processes. The 2023 guidance and five-year outlook reflect the company’s new segment structure – Energy Storage, Specialties, and Ketjen.

Preliminary Results

Below results are preliminary and unaudited and reflect our estimated financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2022. In preparing this information, management made complex and subjective judgments and estimates about the appropriateness of certain reported amounts and disclosures. Our actual financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2022 have not yet been finalized by management and remain subject to the completion of management’s final review and our other closing procedures, as well as the completion of the audit of our annual financial statements.

These preliminary estimated results do not represent a comprehensive statement of all financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2022. We are required to consider all available information through the finalization of our financial statements and their possible impact on our financial conditions and results of operations for the period, including the impact of such information on the complex judgments and estimates referred to above. The preliminary estimates above are based solely on information available to us as of the date of this release, and subsequent information or events may lead to material differences between these preliminary estimated financial results and the results of operations described in our subsequent SEC reports.

Fourth Quarter 2022 Highlights

(Unless otherwise stated, all percent changes represent year-over-year comparisons)

• Net sales of between $2,590 million and $2,650 million, up 190% to 196%
• Net income in the range of $1,107 million to $1,157 million
• Diluted EPS of between $9.30 and $9.80
• Adjusted diluted EPS of between $8.35 and $8.75, up 727% to 766%
• Adjusted EBITDA of between $1,210 million and $1,260 million, up 429% to 451%