Sucro Limited (SUGR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. My name is Jester, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Sucro Limited Fourth Quarter 2024 Results conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Mr. Jonathan Taylor, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Sucro's Q4 2024 and year-end earnings release, financial statements and MD&A are available on the Investors section of our website at sucro.us and under Sucro's profile on SEDAR plus at sedarplus.ca. I want to remind listeners that management's comments during this call may include forward-looking statements. These statements involve various known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to the text in Sucro's earnings press release and financial filings for a discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements. All dollar figures referred to today are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise. 2024 was a pivotal year for Sucro. Despite ongoing market volatility and macroeconomic headwinds, we achieved strong operational execution and delivered solid results across our business segments. The year was marked by continued growth in our refining capacity, expanded customer relationships and improvements in our logistics and supply chain capabilities. Our refining network remains a key differentiator. We completed another full year of operations at our Hamilton, Ontario and Lackawanna, New York refineries, delivering higher throughput and enhancing our presence in the Canadian and U.S. markets. All this while also making significant progress at our new refinery construction projects in Illinois and Southern Ontario, which remain on track and within budget. On the commercial side, we deepened our relationships with industrial customers and continue to demonstrate our ability to provide reliable, cost-effective refined sugar solutions. We are also growing in new areas, further highlighting our significant operating synergies between our sugar refining operations and our wholesale distribution business. This year, we also strengthened our presence in the food and beverage sector with increased volume under long-term contracts, an important strategic milestone. At the same time, our team maintained a disciplined approach to capital allocation and cost management. We continue to scale the business while building the foundation for long-term profitability and resilience. Now I'll hand it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Stefano D'Aniello, who will walk you through our financial highlights and capital strategy for the year.

Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin with the full year financial results for 2024. We reported revenue of $654 million, an increase of approximately 32% year-over-year, driven by 36% higher volumes, mostly from our refinery output and CIF deliveries in Latin America, a business that enhances our profitability through scaling of our freight operations. Adjusted gross profit came in at $56.6 million compared to $49.6 million in 2023. This improvement reflects our strategic focus on higher-margin business in our U.S. and Canada refining operations. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was $35.7 million, up from $34.7 million in 2023, representing a modest year-over-year increase explained by the increase in selling, general and administrative expenses of $8.5 million. These expenses as a percentage of revenue saw a slight increase in fiscal 2024, 5% compared to 4.7% in 2023, and we expect them to remain stable going forward as we believe we have now built the infrastructure to support the significant growth that is ahead of us. Hence, as our operations continue to grow and scale, we expect selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue to decrease over time. Our company's ongoing strategy to optimize working capital, especially inventory, saw significant milestones in 2024 to it. During 2024, we incurred interest expense of $24.7 million, an increase of $1.9 million or 8.1% compared to 2023, which is significantly lower than the percentage increase observed in revenue during 2024. We ended the year with almost $120 million in working capital. This is a $10 million year-over-year rise in working capital that is once again relatively modest relative to the overall growth of our business. Cash flow provided by operating activities for 2024 increased by $60 million compared to 2023 due to both higher operating cash flows before changes in working capital and higher reported changes in noncash operating assets and liabilities. Likewise, free cash flow of $10 million saw a 60% increase year-over-year. Putting all this together, we saw our cash conversion cycle drop by almost 40 days. We are excited to see this strategy further developing in 2025 and going into 2026, which will be a pivotal year as we anticipate bringing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes into the market from our new refineries. Our leverage remains manageable, and we continue to be supported by our strong working capital program and committed credit facilities. As of year-end, our ratio of adjusted net debt to capitalization was 29.2% compared to 26% a year earlier. Likewise, our adjusted leverage ratio was 2.2x compared to 1.6x in 2023. These increases are driven by a nearly $53 million increase in long-term debt incurred to finance the development of our refineries. Capital expenditures with totaled $62.4 million for the year, primarily related to our Southern Ontario refinery development as well as development of our Illinois refinery and enhancements to our existing Lackawanna refinery. We expect 2025 CapEx to be approximately $25 million with a focus on completing and commissioning our new Hamilton and University Park refineries. In terms of liquidity, we're in a strong position. Our Trade Finance Program remains active and flexible, allowing us to support both working capital and growth initiatives. The successful expansion of our customer base also improved collections and reduced our average day sales outstanding year-over-year. Overall, 2024 was a year of operational and financial progress. Our results demonstrate the scalability of our model and the long-term potential of our platform. Back to you, Jonathan.

Thank you, Stefano. To wrap up, 2024 was a year of continued growth, execution and positioning for the future. We've proven our ability to operate effectively in dynamic markets, and we've laid the groundwork for sustainable, profitable growth in the years ahead. We are currently in a volatile and uncertain period, and the risk of tariffs creates potential headwinds that are under constant examination, but Sucro is very well positioned to manage these challenges. Looking forward, we are focused on so far, Canada and Mexico have been spared the worst of the tariff impacts, which is clearly favorable for Sucro. The expected opening of the Hamilton and University Park refineries and ramping up production is an exciting catalyst to Sucro's growth. Sucro's commercial agreement with Beta San Miguel announced in November 2024 as part of BSM's share purchase agreement in Sucro is now expected to be even more beneficial based on the favored access Sucro now has on sugar from Mexico. Our continued active management of our integrated supply chain and the synergies between our refining assets and our wholesale distribution business, including growth in new emerging markets with both new and established global customers. And lastly, we will continue to optimize our logistics and operations platform for greater efficiency and margin optimization. Most importantly, I want to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication. They are the driving force behind our success and continue to embody the values of innovation, integrity and customer focus. We remain committed to delivering value to our shareholders, partners and customers as we enter the next phase of growth for Sucro. Thank you all for joining us today.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect..