Nickel Industries Limited (NIC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of Nickel Industries, welcome to this Annual General Meeting. I'm Norman Seckold, and I'll be chairing today's meeting. It's 11 a.m. and clearly, we have a quorum. So I declare the meeting open. Today's meeting has been convened in accordance with the Corporation Act. The Notice of this Meeting has been sent to shareholders and is taken as read. All resolutions today will be decided by way of a poll, including valid proxies submitted before the meeting. Computershare has been appointed as scrutineers for each poll. The blue voting cards will be collected after the business of the meeting has been completed. The formal results of the poll will be notified to the ASX after the meeting and will be posted on the company's website. As Chairman of the meeting, I've been appointed as proxy for shareholders entitled to vote, as stated in the Notice of Meeting, I will vote all directed proxies in accordance with the directions provided by shareholders. And where authorized, I will vote all undirected proxies in favor of each resolution, which is to be put before the meeting today. I would like to introduce your Board of Directors with us during the meeting today is really on -- Okay. Okay. Joining us either in person or webcast, my fellow directors, Managing Director, Justin Werner; CFO, Chris Shepherd; Emma Hall; Muliady Sutio; Haijun Wang; and Yuanyuan Xu; as well as Company Secretary, Richard Edwards; Chief Development Officer, Rachel Zhao; and Investment Relations Manager, Cameron Peacock. Also with us on the Zoom is James Crombie. We have an apology from William Shangjaya. Also with us on Zoom is the company's auditors KPMG and represented today by Adam Twemlow and Jessie Rutherford. When you registered your attendance this morning, you were issued with an attendance card. People with a blue card are shareholders entitled to speak and vote at the meeting. Your blue card will serve as your voting form and will be collected at the end of the meeting. People with a yellow card are shareholders entitled to speak but not vote at the meeting. People with the white card are visitors. I now propose to deal with the formal business of the meeting. There will be a pause for members to ask questions about the business of the meeting and later about the company's activities. If we can now move to the slide summarizing the proxies received. The first item of business is set out in the Notice of Meeting is to receive and consider the annual report and statutory financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024. Are there any questions in relation to the financial statements or the report? Okay. If there are no further -- if there's no further discussion, we can record that the annual report and statutory accounts have been received and adopted. Resolution 1, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is to consider a nonbinding ordinary resolution, the adoption of the remuneration report as set out in the company's annual report. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxies received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 1. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 1 on the blue card provided. As resolution 2 concerns my own reelection, I'll hand the chair to Justin Werner.

Thank you, Norm. Resolution 2, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to consider and, if thought fit, to reelect Norman Seckold as a director. Norm is required by the corporation's law and the company's constitution to retire and offer himself for reelection. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 2. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstained box for resolution 2 on the blue card provided. I'll now hand the chair back to Norm.

Thank you, Justin. Resolution 3 is for the reelection of director, James Crombie. Resolution 3, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution and, if thought fit, to reelect James Crombie as a director. Jim is required by the corporation's law and the company's constitution to retire and offer himself for election. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 3. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 3 on the blue card provided. Resolution 4, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to consider and, if thought fit, to reelect Emma Hall as Director. Having been appointed during the year, Emma is required by the corporation's law and the company's constitution to retire and offer herself for reelection. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 4. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 4 on the blue card provided. As resolution 5 concerns the issue of performance rights to myself, I will again hand the chair to Justin.

Thanks, Norm. Resolution 5, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to approve for all purposes, including ASX Listing Rule 10.14 to grant performance rights to Norman Seckold under the company's performance rights plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 5. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 5 on the blue card provided. I'll hand the chair back to Norm.

Thank you, Justin. Resolution 6, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to approve for all purposes, including ASX Listing Rule 10.14 to grant performance rights to Justin Werner under the company's performance rights plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 6. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 6 on the blue card provided. Resolution 7, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to approve for all purposes, including ASX Listing Rule 10.14 to grant performance rights to Chris Shepherd under the company's performance rights plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? Proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 7. Please record your vote by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 7 on the blue card provided. Resolution 8, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is an ordinary resolution to approve for all purposes, including Listing Rule 10.14 to grant share rights to Chris Shepherd under the company's performance rights plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 8. Please record your votes by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 8 on the blue card. Resolution 9, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, is a special resolution that pursuant to, in accordance with Article 15.13 of the company's constitution, Listing Rule 10.17 and for all other purposes, the maximum fees payable to nonexecutive directors be increased from $1,050,000 to $1.7 million on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen, and I declare the poll open for resolution 9. Please record your votes by placing a mark in the for, against or abstain box for resolution 9 on the blue card provided. In a couple of minutes, I'll close the polls. So please ensure you have cast your vote on all resolutions that you're -- and you hand your blue voting card with the registry personnel now coming around to collect them, might be to fill them in. [Voting]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, voting is now closed. The results will be made available on the ASX later today. And I now declare the formal business of the meeting closed, but your questions are very welcome. Well, thank you, everyone, for attending. Look forward to seeing you next year.

Thank you, everyone, for your attendance today. I'd just like to give a quick company presentation and update on the company's activities. So just to -- for those who are not familiar with Nickel Industries, we've been a long-term investor in Indonesia for over 15 years. And over that period of time, we've gone to the point where in partnership with our largest shareholder, Tsingshan, we're now the world's largest listed pure diversified nickel producer. We've, in fact, invested USD 3 billion into Indonesia, and that makes us Australia's largest foreign investment into Indonesia. So we've actually surpassed the ANZ Bank. We are diversified and integrated, which is the key to -- the key that underpins the performance of our business. We have the mining side of the business, where we produce limonite and saprolite ore, and then we have the processing side. Starting with the limonite ore goes through a high-pressure acid leach process, which produces a number of end products, mixed hydroxide precipitate, nickel sulfate, nickel cobalt and nickel cathode, and that's material that goes into the EV battery market as well as super alloys for aerospace and other industries. Higher grade saprolite ore goes through a different process, which is a rotary kiln electric furnace. That produces nickel pig iron. The only market for that is for the stainless steel market. We're a leader in ESG in Indonesia. We have the top ESG rating for any Indonesian metals and mining company as scored by MSCI. We achieved an ESG score of 37 in 2024 as ranked by S&P against the mining industry average of 29. So again, these are independent third-party valuations. We're involved in a number of different programs from the community to funding of university scholarships. The environment, we have a 197-hectare biodiversity area, which has been established to not only protect fauna and flora, but also to act as a place for education. In terms of safety, our LTIFR was 0.12 in 2024 against 17.4 million work hours worked, so a very large number. And that's considerably lower than the world's steel average, which is 0.65 and our TRIFR was 1.43 in 2024. One of our proudest achievements is the awarding of a Green PROPER rating, which is issued by the Indonesian Environment Department. We're 1 of only 2 nickel mining companies to achieve a Green PROPER rating, and we actually achieved the highest score of any nickel mine in Indonesia. In terms of carbon reduction initiatives, we're also leading the way there. We were the first company to successfully trial electric vehicle haul trucks, and we now run about 1/3 of our fleet on these electric vehicle haul trucks. We're an off-taker of Indonesia's largest solar project to date. That's 250-megawatt peak plus 80 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system. Off the back of our ESG track record and some of these carbon initiatives, we were invited to present at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, and we were 1 of only 2 Indonesian mining companies that was asked to present. And it was there that we took the opportunity to announce a 50% reduction in our carbon intensity by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050. Full year 2024 highlights. Adjusted EBITDA of USD 296.8 million, gross profit of USD 186.7 million. There was a loss after tax that was related to an impairment of 2 of our assets, HNI and RNI. Total dividends for 2024 was AUD 0.04 per share, and we currently have net debt of USD 827.5 million. In terms of the performance of our processing plants, $212.6 million in adjusted EBITDA, 135,000 tonnes produced. And our ENC HPAL, which I'll touch on a little later on in the presentation, is currently ahead of schedule and looking to commission in July of this year. Corporately, it was another busy year for the company. We made payments of USD 696 million to increase our ownership in the ENC HPAL to 44%, and we have the option to continue to 55%. We signed a definitive agreement to acquire 60% of the Sampala Project. This is an exciting project for us. It's a world-class nickel deposit in very close proximity to IMIP and to our operations. We also completed a 51% in the Siduarsi Project, which is another nickel project that we're developing in a very underdeveloped province, West Papua, but we see opportunity there for nickel and particularly nickel at a very attractive price. And we also were able to establish and syndicate a new USD 250 million bank loan. In terms of Mining, USD 100.9 million in adjusted EBITDA, 9 million tonnes of nickel ore sold. 4 years ago, that was 2.3 million tonnes. So we've seen a significant increase in our mining operations. And you can see the strong EBITDA there. We averaged about $10 to $11 per tonne of ore sold. And the good news is, is that ramp-up from 9 million is set to continue up to a target of 19 million, which I'll touch on a little bit later on. You can see that our operations have been resilient despite a challenging nickel price environment. The blue line there is the LME nickel price over the last 4 years. And if you look at our EBITDA starting in 2021, it was USD 243 million, $339 million in 2022, $407 million in 2023 and then $297 million in 2024. Across that period of time, we've been a consistent dividend payer. So you can see every year, $0.04 except for '23, which was $0.045. And we've been able to maintain that strong EBITDA profile despite the declining nickel price and how we've been able to achieve that has been the investment that we've continued to undertake throughout the cycle. And you can see there in our process nickel in '21, that was 40,000 tonnes; by 2024, that was 136,000 tonnes. I mentioned our mine in 2021, it was 2.3 million tonnes. 2024, it was 9 million tonnes. So if you look there in December '22, when nickel prices were 30,000 and where we sit today at about 15,500, we've had a 50% reduction in the LME nickel price. But despite that, you can see the volume growth that's come through and the strong EBITDA profile that we've been able to maintain when many in the business have gone out of business. And unfortunately, we've lost pretty much all of WA nickel and it's not just confined to WA. It's globally, it's places like New Caledonia, Colombia, Brazil. The good news is, is that growth isn't stopping there, and it's set to significantly increase from this point. And that growth is fully funded, and it sets us up with a pipeline to USD 1 billion EBITDA on a consolidated basis on an annual consolidated basis, which is very exciting for the company. Corporate highlights. I mentioned the acquisition of the Sampala Project, syndication of a USD 400 million Indonesian Bank Loan and $250 million bank loan successfully syndicated out amongst a group of global banking institutions. So we've now diversified from the bond market to the bank market. And the ENC project, as I mentioned, we've moved to 44%. In terms of the key catalysts that are upcoming for the company, commissioning of ENC cathode plant is on track to start commissioning in July of this year. That's well ahead of the schedule of October. And then the sulfate and MHP plants will follow that in October of this year. At a nameplate capacity of 72,000 tonnes and applying last year's HPAL margins from our interest in our HNC of $7,000 a tonne, that will deliver us USD 0.5 billion in EBITDA when fully ramped up. As with every project that we've done with Tsingshan, it comes with a unique set of guarantees, a CapEx guarantee, a nameplate guarantee and a time frame guarantee. As with every project that we've done with Tsingshan, I mentioned it will commission early. And if we look at the performance of HNC, that's currently operating at 40% above nameplate capacity. We are in the process of increasing our Hengjaya Mine ore sales quota to 19 million wet metric tonnes a year. There's 2 key steps to achieving that. It's approval of a feasibility study and then approval of an environmental study. The feasibility study is already approved. The environmental study is well advanced, and we're confident of receiving that approval in the next 2 to 3 months. That additional 10 million tonnes of ore sales requires no additional CapEx to get to that 19 million. And what it will do is that additional 10 million and again at a $10 margin, that's another $100 million in EBITDA that will be added to the bottom line. That ramp-up will start around October of this year. And then finally, development of the Sampala Project. So we're targeting first ore sales at the end of the first half of next year. Initially looking at 6 million tonnes per annum, moving to 19 million tonnes per annum, so same size as Hengjaya. Again, at a $10 margin, that's an additional USD 190 million in EBITDA. So taking the $0.5 billion from ENC, the $190 million from Sampala and the $100 million from Hengjaya along with the $297 million of EBITDA that we delivered last year, that gets us to well in excess of that USD 1 billion. And it's important to note that this is all on today's margins. So that number doesn't take in or doesn't rely on any higher nickel price that's higher than where we currently sit today. And today, we are in cyclical lows. We're in sort of 5-year lows for the nickel price. But pleasingly, our margins are still robust and the business is still performing strongly. The Hengjaya Mine, which I've talked about, we're in the process of ramping that up to 19 million tonnes, and we look forward to providing updates in the coming weeks as we move through that approval process. And then our Sampala Project, which is a very exciting project. It has an initial JORC resource of 187 million tonnes, contains about 2.3 million tonnes of nickel metal. That's just in a small area that's 900 hectares of an area of 4,700 hectares, which is prospective for nickel laterite. We believe, and there's an exploration target there of about 1 billion wet metric tonnes. Again, applying that margin, last year's margin of $10 to $11 a tonne. You can see the value of the Sampala Project, and at 1 billion wet metric tonnes, assuming 19 million tonnes a year, that's over 50 years of mine supply for our operations. And what the Sampala Project will do will make us self-sufficient -- our operation self-sufficient in terms of the supply of ore. That's very important. Recently, we have seen shortages of ore throughout Indonesia, which has resulted in some NPI operations cutting production, some even becoming loss-making because they've had to go out in the market and pay premiums of up to $25 over the market price. So as I said Sampala, an exciting project, and we look forward to providing further updates as we develop that. We've already actually started work on 8 kilometers of haul road of a total of 22 kilometers of haul road that's required to be built to link the project up to the industrial park and our existing operations. Our ambition is to sit on the largest known nickel resources globally. And you can see where we sit now with the various projects that we have. I should add that our Sampala Project, where we sit today at around 500 million dry metric tonnes. We think that the -- there's an exploration target of probably somewhere up to another 500 million to 700 million dry metric tonnes. So that takes us up to about that 1.3 billion mark of -- in terms of dry metric tonnes. And so you can see where that positions us globally in terms of nickel ore resource ownership. And as I said, it's certainly our goal and intention is to sit on the largest known nickel resources. What's also attractive about mining operations is they're very low CapEx, talking less than USD 50 million to develop a mine and a payback in most instances of less than a year. And in the case of Sampala, a very long and profitable mine life. This is, again, just the 3 catalysts that I touched on earlier. ENC at 72,000 and a $7,000 a tonne margin, delivering $0.5 billion in EBITDA. Hengjaya Mine ramp up another 10 million -- delivering another 10 million tonnes, delivering another $100 million in EBITDA, again, starting in October and then the Sampala Mine development starting from the end of the first half of next year. All of this growth is fully funded. So where we are now and where we are headed. At the current share price, and this is yesterday's close of AUD 66, a market cap of USD 1.9 billion and EBITDA last year of USD 300 million. But with the pipeline to get to USD 1 billion, we think that we're currently undervalued and very good value in terms of buying. Our current EV EBITDA multiple is about 9x. If you look at our forward CAGR growth, and rank that against other ASX 200 companies, we actually sit right at the right-hand side of the chart. Taking in that forward CAGR, our EV EBITDA multiple sits about 1.9x. So again, that growth, which is starting as early as July of this year, we're not seeing that factored into our share price. And at today's price, assuming dividends in line with what we paid in previous years, it's a dividend yield of 6.1%. So there's a number of near-term catalysts, which will drive significant shareholder returns. We have a very strong track record of delivering production volume growth. Every project that we've done in partnership with Tsingshan has been delivered early. One as early as 8 months ahead of schedule. All are operating above nameplate capacity ranging from 20% to 40%. And at this nickel price, we're still making very strong margins, any improvement in the nickel price is significant upside to the company. So with that, I'll hand over to any questions.

Just a question about -- just a question -- was it the net debt was about $827 million. Justin, I'm excited about the growth. I really am, very ambitious and really leveraging on so many advantages, I think, for our situation there. In terms of the debt going forward, how do you see the company positioned in terms of reducing that debt given, I guess, the low market rates at the moment comparatively to the past, and the possibility that we not against growth by any means, but are we potentially shooting ourselves in the foot with all of this additional growth and production of nickel when the market seems to be stagnating. What's your thoughts on that?

Yes. I'll start with the debt stack. At the moment, we have $650 million in bank loans and a $400 million bond. Both the bond and the bank loans will start amortizing next quarter. We've actually just come back from a 2-week roadshow where we met with about 40 names in the credit space, non-deal roadshow. And our view is, is that we are looking to potentially go to the market at the end of this year or first quarter of next year. The reason we're waiting until that point in time is we would like to go to the market when we have the commissioning of ENC, when we have the ramp-up of the Hengjaya Mine approved. And also our bond comes out of the noncore period in October of this year. So even though, look, we're being told by bankers that the market is certainly open at the moment, we are taking the view of -- we're looking at sort of fourth quarter of this year, possibly first quarter of next year depending on market conditions. I think what we've been able to do successfully is diversify from the bond market to bank debt, and we've been able to do that twice now. And the syndication across both loans is about 15 to 16 banks within that syndicate. And that's a mix of Asian, European banks. And so I think we -- as I said, that's the view on the debt. And then in terms of -- when you look at the EBITDA profile moving forward, and unfortunately, we don't have it in this presentation, but it is in presentations that we've been using. When you look at the various covenants and metrics, they reduced significantly with this EBITDA that is coming down the pipeline. So we're comfortable in terms of the level of debt that we're currently carrying at the moment.

Justin, looking at ENC and production of cathode, nickel cathode, nickel sulfate. I'm wondering who the customers are likely to be for that. But -- what can you tell us about the potential for like an offtake agreement with a Tesla, for example? And sort of strategically, is there a bigger plan, a foot to go into battery production?

Yes. So I'll start with nickel cathode because that's the simplest. What's attractive for us about nickel cathode is that we can sell everything into the London Metals Exchange. So there's an active market that's available 24/7, and we'll receive the market price. In terms of nickel sulfate, that's very much targeted for the EV market. We are currently talking to a number of potential parties in regards to offtake, and so we will hope to sort of put out an update on that over the coming months. And -- in terms of -- we started a process looking for strategic investors into ENC. And we do have a Korean group who is quite interested. In fact, we'll be going to site next week. And so again, hopefully, if that closes, then we should be able to announce a strategic investment into ENC by a Korean group, who will be looking to offtake some of the product that we produce. Okay. Well, if that's it, thank you, everyone, for your time, and I appreciate it.