Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jason Gabelman: Yes. Hey. Good morning. I just wanted to extend my thoughts and hope everyone’s families are safe. I wanted to ask first about the supply and marketing line item. And I know you provided some incremental guidance around that new line item last quarter to help us forecast something that was perhaps more ratable. It’s been a bit volatile last quarter to this quarter and not necessarily in line with what was forecast. And I’m wondering how much of that is just around trading. And it seems like I think 2Q was a stronger trading quarter in that line and 3Q was weaker. So should we expect to see that in this new line item where the trading impacts kind of offset quarter-to-quarter and the underlying results trend in line with what you’ve guided to? And I have a follow-up. Thanks.

Avigal Soreq: Yes. Thank you for the question and thank you for the warm words. First of all, we all understand that wars changed the world of marketing and not trading because of the reason. We are looking on that as a risk reduction tool and not adding risk to the table. So we need to remember that. Obviously, when oil prices goes up, there is a bit of a volatility to reduce risk and take this off the table. And as Joseph mentioned a few times on the call, wholesale has a volatility and especially asphalt with the prices goes up. So we are looking on that line, how to reduce risk and how to deploy product and how to get as long a sustainable income as much as we possibly can. It’s going to be more volatile than pure capture it, as you can imagine. But we are not deploying just a huge trading position into the market. We are trying to see how we can reduce risk.

Jason Gabelman: Okay. And to be clear, it’s not necessarily that the derivative impacts in one quarter will tend to reverse in the subsequent quarter because that’s what seemed to happen in 2Q to 3Q?

Avigal Soreq: Right. So when we talk derivatives, we talk about hedging what is outside of the natural inventory range, right? Above or under. When we haven’t been reliable like in the third quarter in Big Spring, we spoke about the outages and the fact that we are fixing it the future will be much better there. What happens is when you build inventories and oil price is going up, we are having very good dynamics on the cost of goods side, right? We are making money on the physical side. The hedging go there to keep you on the crack of the day. This is what we are asked to do by our investors. And these are the type of derivatives.

Jason Gabelman: Okay.

Avigal Soreq: And also its makes sense to you, right?

Jason Gabelman: Yes. All right. Yes. That’s really helpful color. And my follow-up is — sorry, I’m going to go back to the strategic unlock of value. If I look on your slide, you say you have a clear strategy or on plan to meet our objectives. When I think about what your objectives were when you put the strategic unlocked forward. It was primarily around deconsolidating DKL’s debt. Is that still the objective as we shut it one year later? And when you say you’re on plan, it’s been a year since you laid out kind of the plan and — just wondering, it implies perhaps there is some time line that you have in mind. So I just — I’m going to push again to see if you can elaborate on what you’re thinking in terms of time line. Thanks.

Avigal Soreq: Yes. So you’re absolutely correct. That’s the goal, and we’re going to achieve it. I’m not going to commit to a time. Committing to a time impact the deal and you don’t want me to do that. You want me to make the right deal on the right timing and to bring value to shareholders. There is no — we are not just going to rush for a deal, but we are decisive. So our state of mind is not wavered, and we’re going to make it, and we’re going to make it right.

Jason Gabelman: Yes. Okay. Understood. I wasn’t asking quite to commit to a time as much as it says your own plan, which implies there is some internal time line that you have in mind? And just I was wondering if that was a fair read. But I’ll leave it there. Thanks.

Avigal Soreq: Thank you. Appreciate it.

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

Avigal Soreq: Yes, Sara, thank you for leading us today. I want to thank my colleagues around the table here for a great quarter, to our Board of Directors and for most our employees, an investor for being with us. And we’ll go back next quarter and report again. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

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

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