Sylvamo reports Q1 2024 net income of $43 million, compared to $49 million in Q4 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $118 million (13% margin) vs. $117 million (12% margin) in Q4 2023.
Operating profits in the Q1 2024:
Europe - $(4) million compared with $(23) million in the Q4 2023. Earnings were higher due to higher price and mix, slightly higher volumes, lower planned maintenance outages, lower operating costs and lower economic downtime.
Latin America - $14 million compared with $48 million in the Q4 2023. Earnings were lower due to lower volumes, lower price and mix, higher operating and input costs and higher planned maintenance outages.
North America - $62 million compared with $52 million in the Q4 2023. Earnings were higher as higher volumes, lower economic downtime and lower planned maintenance outages more than offset lower price and mix and lower operating and input costs.
Management Summary from Chairman and CEO Jean-Michel Ribiéras: “As uncoated freesheet conditions improved in the first quarter, we experienced strengthening order books, resulting in less economic downtime. Price and mix were better than expected while input costs stabilized. That momentum is expected to continue in 2024, and we are well positioned to capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead.
We are making good progress with Project Horizon, our structural cost reduction program to streamline overhead, manufacturing and supply chain costs. Before inflation, we are on target to meet run rate savings of $110 million by the end of 2024.
This year, we repurchased $20 million of shares, including $15 million in April, and have $130 million remaining on our $150 million share repurchase authorization from September 2023. Our board of directors declared a second quarter dividend of $0.30 per share, which we paid April 29.
Since the spinoff, we have repurchased $170 million in shares or 8% of our initial shares outstanding. This use of cash resulted in a 35% return on investment based on a $65.00 share price.
We continue to allocate capital to generate long-term shareowner value. Since our inception, we have reduced gross debt significantly and will maintain a strong financial position to operate and invest throughout industry cycles. We remain committed to reinvesting in our business. We have identified a pipeline of more than $200 million of high-return capital projects, which will allow us to grow our earnings and cash flows as we invest in these projects in the future. We also plan to continue returning substantial amounts of cash to shareowners through dividends and share repurchases at attractive prices.”
Sylvamo Corporation is the world's paper company with mills in Europe, Latin America and North America.
