Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Neppl: Yes, and maybe just one other thing to add to, as you’re thinking through this share buyback, certainly as we’ve done more of that than we had in our original baseline model, I think we modeled $250 million a year in our baseline assumption. And of course, we’ve accelerated that with the Viterra transaction coming.

Andrew Strelzik: Okay, great. That was super helpful. And I guess maybe my other question. I’m used to thinking about the guidance in terms of plus and you being asked about upside opportunities, you’ve discussed a lot of the risks here. And I appreciate the change in kind of the guidance presentation to the approximately $9. But can you talk about where there might be upside opportunities if we’re looking for those, where you think the greatest opportunities might lie throughout the year? Thanks.

Gregory Heckman: Yes, I think probably the same key ones. China always a big factor, their economy and if it would speed up from a demand and then how China is going to think about any stock building because they can definitely make a change on these markets that are really still pretty close in the supply and demand balance, any type of weather situation at all. The balance sheets are pretty tight. We could see increased volatility. And that would also probably drive not only more farmer selling, but it would also drive the consumers to be farther out on the curve and do more purchasing and they’ve gotten comfortable again where we had some just in case inventory building, everyone’s kind of forgotten the supply chain problems and we’ve definitely seen customers pulling down stocks in that just in time inventory again.

So if you saw any concern on S&Ds or supply chain problems and saw a build back that way, the overall growth in demand from the lower prices, whether that’s the animal industry adding capacity and/or the consumer responding across feed, food, or fuel more quickly to the lower prices. And then Argentina always a very big driver, of course, the size of their crop, how the farmer is going to commercialize that. And of course, a lot of that will be driven by the government policy and their ability to put the incentives out there in the way they want to with what they’re trying to accomplish. And then of course, importantly biofuels in general globally, how that continues to develop policy and how the different feedstocks are weighing off in the global oil balance with keeping palm in mind as well.

So those are a few of the flags that we’re watching carefully. And it should be a really interesting 12, 18 months here going forward as we have a number of things transitioning.

Andrew Strelzik: Great. I appreciate the thoughts. Thank you very much.

Gregory Heckman: Thank you.

John Neppl: Thank you.

Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Greg Heckman for any closing remarks.

Gregory Heckman: I’d like to thank everyone for joining us today and for your interest. And I guess I’d just like to wrap up by saying you know we try to reflect in our outlook what has changed for 24. But I sure want to also reflect what has not changed and what hasn’t changed right is there’s long term growth in demand for the things we make and the services that we provide with them. And that is across all three food, feed, and fuel markets. The growth in biofuels, that’s a near term issue and that trend is in place. The improvements in our operating model, those continue, and we’ll continue to focus on how to make sure that we don’t stop with our focus on continuous improvement. Our ’26 baseline target remains unchanged.

We continue to have a great pipeline of projects and investments with good returns. Our pending acquisitions are on track and our share purchase commitment is ongoing. So those are things that haven’t changed. We feel good about what we’re doing, very proud of our team, and we’ll continue to stay focused. So thanks for your interest. Look forward to speaking to you again soon. Have a great day.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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