Raviv Zoller
Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Thank you, Peggy, and welcome everyone. To be certain 2020 was an unusual and challenging year for everyone. While the second and third quarters of this year were impacted by COVID-19, we ended the year with strong fourth quarter results. For the fourth quarter, consolidated sales rebounded back to the first quarter levels and came in at $1.3 billion, an increase of 19% year-over-year. Adjusted operating income of $143 million exceeded first quarter results and was up more than 60% year-over-year. All divisions contributed to the strong quarter as these significantly improved results were achieved despite the negative impact from lower commodity prices and COVID-19. In addition, adjusted EBITDA of $268 million was up more than 30% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was nearly $1 billion and down 17% versus 2019. On slide three, we included some highlights for each division, including the following. Industrial Products delivered record fourth quarter operating income of $80 million, up 33% year-over-year and reflective of continued a strategic shift to long-term contracts, and as the effect of COVID-19 began to wane for most end markets. The Potash division reported both sales and operating income growth up 2% and 82%, respectively, and delivered record fourth quarter annual production. Increase production at The Dead Sea is compared to the fourth quarter of last year when we shutdown production for three weeks for the facilities upgrade. This increase managed to more than offset reduced production from Spain due to the accelerated closure of the Vilafruns mine and a production shortfall of Polysulphate as a result of a power outage at Boulby, U.K. in November. Phosphoric Solutions saw significant increase in fourth quarter operating income up $20 million year-over-year with both Specialties and YPH delivering record operating income. Innovative Ag Solutions sales were up 9% year-over-year with Specialty Agriculture and Turf and Ornamental both showing double-digit improvement. Operating income turned positive in the fourth quarter, coming in at $5 million. In addition, just after the New Year, we closed on our acquisition of Fertiláqua in Brazil and increased our exposure to the world’s fastest growing agricultural market. If you’ll turn to slide four, you can see our key consolidated financial metrics over the past five quarters and the improvement as 2020 progressed. The fourth quarter was clearly a strong finish to a tough year and we’re coming out well positioned for 2021 with commodity prices in our favor. Before we move on, I’d like to highlight our healthy operating cash flow on slide five. For the fourth quarter, it was up approximately 22% year-over-year. We also saw nice strength in free cash flow for both the quarter and the year, and despite unexpected cost challenges related to COVID-19. On slide six, we have our Industrial Products overview where we saw record sales and operating income in the fourth quarter, with growth of 15% and 33%, respectively. This also kept our second best year ever in Industrial Products. We reported EBITDA of $103 million, up more than 30% year-over-year. During the quarter, we saw recovery from COVID-19 pressure in some end markets, such as consumer electronics, components and construction and these drove sales of bromine and phosphorous-based flame retardants. Unfortunately, the automotive and oil and gas end markets are still weak. While automotive is starting to show signs of recovery, which should benefit certain brominated flame retardants, we do not expect oil and gas explorations to recover quickly. This will continue to negatively impact sales of Clear Brine Fluids in 2021. In addition to end market recovery, we also continue to benefit from our strategic shift to long-term versus spot agreements. Part of this strategy includes the additional TBBA capacity we added at our plant in Neot Hovav, where production trials began during the fourth quarter. This new capacity is already sold out for most of 2021. In the fourth quarter, we saw improvement across all product categories, excluding Clear Brine Fluids and I would like to specifically mention our magnesium and calcium products, where we saw higher fourth quarter sales and delivered record 2020 sales and operating income. The improvement was due to increase demand from the pharmaceutical and supplements end markets and higher selling prices. We expect those trends to continue into 2021. I’m also proud to share with you that an ICL ingredient is included in a vaccine for COVID-19 that has been approved by the FDA for use around the globe. While the contribution to our results is still not very significant, we are proud of our small part in the efforts to mitigate the virus. Finally, the year ended with elemental bromine prices hitting a 12-month high in China, putting Industrial Products in a good start position for 2021. On slide seven, we have an overview of our Potash operations. We saw year-over-year improvement in both sales and operating income, up 25% and 82%, respectively in the fourth quarter. EBITDA also improved and increased nearly 40% to $83 million. In terms of pricing momentum, there was an improvement in market conditions, especially grain prices in the fourth quarter. Our average realized price per ton for potash was up 4% on a quarterly sequential basis, but still down 17% year-over-year. Pricing continued to improve considerably into the New Year. Looking to 2021, I’m sure all of you have already read or heard that BPC in Belarus and IPL in India have settled the first Indian potash contract for 2021 at a rate $17 higher year-over-year. Prices remain on a positive trajectory in all markets. Turning to production, where as I mentioned earlier, we set a production record at The Dead Sea not only in the fourth quarter, but also for the full year, reaching 3.96 million tonnes. These records helped offset the lower production in Spain related to the accelerated closure of our Vilafruns mine, which was originally scheduled for 2021. As a reminder, the optimization of our mining operations in Spain will help us improve our cost per tonne and we expect to be at an annual run rate of 1 million tonnes by the end of 2021 at ICL Iberia. However, production in Spain in the first half of 2021 will be impacted by the final integration efforts of the ramp project. For the full year, our Boulby facility in the U.K. had record production of Potash Plus and Polysulphate are one of a kind organic fertilizer. Our Potash division achieved all these records despite shutdowns and delays related to COVID-19, and also delivered approximately $30 million in recurring cost savings and efficiencies for the year. Now turning to slide eight, where we have an overview of our Phosphate Solutions division. Fourth quarter sales were up $84 million year-over-year, with operating income up $20 million, a significant increase with improvements in commodities and record operating income from specialties. EBITDA was up more than 65% coming in at $75 million. While we saw improvement in the fourth quarter from sales of food-grade phosphate salts, white phosphoric acid and dairy proteins, we also saw contribution from some of our innovative new products, such as alternative protein and SCRATCH-X, among others. Phosphate fertilizers also saw sales growth in the quarter despite seasonality due to higher sales volumes. While our Phosphate Solutions division suffered from record low commodity prices for most of 2020, this trend started to turn around in the third quarter and continued to improve in the fourth quarter, leaving us well-positioned for 2021. Not to be outdone by our Potash division, Phosphate Solutions also delivered production records, eight [ph] in total for the year and spanning the globe from Israel to Brazil and on to Australia, Germany and China. I would like to turn your attention now to slide nine and an update on Innovative Ag Solutions. For the fourth quarter, we saw a 9% increase in sales and a shift to positive adjusted operating income despite seasonality and the strong fourth quarter helped drive annual operating income growth more than 90%. EBITDA of $11 million for the quarter showed exceptional improvement year-over-year. This division has benefited from our repositioning and is delivering results with successful new product launches. In the fourth quarter, cost efficiencies, lower raw material costs, higher sales volume and favorable exchange rates also contributed to the improvement. Specialty Agriculture experienced strong demand across all regions, while our Turf and Ornamental business bounced back from a COVID-19 decline earlier in the year, with growth in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. With positive momentum and a strong X cycle predicted for 2021, as well as new presence in Brazil, we expect to see additional significant growth from this business going forward. I would like to begin to wrap up my portion of today’s call with slide 10, which highlights some of the 2020 key events. These events span the entire year, beginning with the acquisition of Growers back in February and capped by the acquisition of Fertiláqua, which was announced in October and closed during the first week of January. We added Growers and innovative in-process and data driven farming to our family to help enhance our digital service offerings and accelerate our market reach. Fertiláqua is another very exciting acquisition, which helps us expand our presence in Brazil, one of the world’s fastest growing agricultural markets. The addition of Fertiláqua gives ICL a significant foothold in a major market with rapidly increasing demand for specialty plant nutrition products and also provides a seasonal sales balance between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Going forward, we expect to continue to grow in the specialty fertilizers market and to expand our reach in Brazil via both M&A and organic growth. In order to get the most out of our commodity, Specialty Agriculture and Turf and Ornamental fertilizers, we consolidated our crop nutrition sales and marketing efforts in 2020. This integration is already driving internal synergies, optimizing our sales and marketing channels, and allowing us to leverage our market knowledge, product development capabilities, logistics and production assets across all of our agriculture-related businesses. Other key 2020 achievements included several production related initiatives. I’ve already mentioned the record production at The Dead Sea, which followed an investment in facilities upgrades in the fourth quarter of 2019. We also expanded our TBBA production at Neot Hovav and ramped up production of white phosphoric acid at our YPH joint venture in China. YPH had a great year with record operating income. Not only did our team continued to shift from commodity to specialty offerings, but they also executed successful cost reduction initiatives. We also gained efficiencies at our ICL Iberia and Rotem facilities. As you know, we discontinued unprofitable phosphate rock sales and save costs across multiple areas, including labor, raw materials, energy, maintenance, among others. In Spain, we accelerated the closure of our Vilafruns mine and began the work to connect our Cabanasses mine with our Suria plant. Despite a COVID-19 related delay, the ramp is nearly completed and operations are expected to commence in the first half of 2021. Moving on, we maintained our solid capital structure, which I know Kobi will address in his comments. We continue to focus on our ESG efforts and we once again listed in a number of prestigious rankings, including the Bloomberg ESG Index and the Bloomberg 2020 Gender Equality Index, which we joined once again in 2021. We were also included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, the MAALA ranking for corporate responsibility and the Carbon Disclosure Project. In addition, ICL Iberia was certified as the first sustainable European underground mining company by the Spanish Standardization Association in the fourth quarter. Before I turn the call over to Kobi, I’d like to share a few final thoughts from slide 11. Out of the adversity of 2020 came strength. We are seeing good momentum with all divisions contributing to fourth quarter sales and operating income growth. We’re starting 2021 on solid footing and expect the worst of COVID-19 to be behind us and for commodity prices to continue to rally in the upcoming months. The strategic actions we’ve taken have helped to set the stage for the New Year. In addition, we intend to continue to innovate in 2021. Last year, we added approximately $40 million run rate of operating income, which was directly related to our new internal innovation program. This year I plan to share more about our innovation efforts and successes during our quarterly earnings calls. I would like to wrap up this challenging year with words of thanks for our employees. Every day their efforts helped make ICL the company it is. This year they triumphed over so many obstacles and help the company to persevere and for this, I must thank them. And with that, I’d like to turn the call over to Kobi.