Sylvamo Corporation (NYSE:SLVM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

John Sims: I think there’s two things on that, George. One is there’s no outages in the first quarter. So, I do — there’s a page in the appendix that shows our outage and the two highest outage quarters is the second and the fourth quarter. So that’s — you got to factor that into it. But we — I will say that there is a lot of economic uncertainty that our outlook, we’ve taken into account. That’s why we do have the range we’re confident in it given that what we’re projecting both the good and the bad. I mean there are some things that we think — we just talked about it potentially imports in North America, could be in Western Europe. But then there’s the positives where an example would be China opening up that could have a positive impact on us.

The other thing that we didn’t mention is — but Jean-Michel alluded to it, is we’re really seeing really strong demand in Brazil. In fact, Brazil’s uncoated freesheet demand is now above pandemic levels. And I think your year-over-year increase is almost 19%. We’re seeing cut size to be very strong as offices — we’re starting to see reports that the U.S., where returning to the office now at 50%, as that continues to increase, that’s supportive. So, our outlook has both the positives and the more challenging scenarios incorporated into it.

George Staphos: Thank you, John.

Operator: Our next question comes from Paul Quinn with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Paul Quinn: Yes, thanks. I just wanted to follow up on this new priority of returning cash to shareholders that you’ve got and just talk about some of the alternative solutions you’ve got on trying to (ph) some of the restrictions from your payment basket to shareholders.

John Sims: Well, Paul, I’d love to be able to share that with you, but I think on — because some of these options could involve confidential information, we really can’t discuss it right now. And we — also, we need to make sure we’ve got — our Board has approved it. But suffice to say, we’re looking at all options — yes, we’re looking at a high level. And I would say that we also are confident that we’re going to be able to do something about increase to $90 million this year.

Paul Quinn: All right. That’s all I have.

John Sims: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Adam Ritzer, private investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, thanks for taking my call. I just had — most of your questions I had were covered. But in terms of your debt stack, right now, you’re about 1x levered roughly. Is there any reason why you would need to go below that or would want to in terms of cash deployment?

John Sims: No, I think the short answer to your question, Adam, is that we’re really comfortable with where we are. I mean, we’ve set the target of $1 billion, and that’s gross debt, because we want to be able to have the financial flexibility through the cycle to invest in our business, either in high-return projects or what not. And so that’s where we are. Now, could we reduce our debt? We may, but not because of the payment restrictions that we have, but that’s not the plan right now.