Fertiglobe, the Abu-Dhabi-based Middle Eastern joint venture partnership between OCI NV, Amsterdam, and Abu Dhabi’s state-energy company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Corp. (ADNOC), reported a big jump in adjusted net income attributable to shareholders of the company to $361.0 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, up from the year-ago $83.6 million. Diluted earnings per share were $0.158 versus the prior year $0.038.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 171% to $624.6 million versus $230.8 million, while revenue was up 118%, to $1.18 billion from $543.4 billion.
Fertiglobe cited higher selling prices, which it said more than offset lower sales volumes due to a re-phasing of some deliveries into the second quarter at better netbacks.
Total own-produced sales volumes were down 17% in the quarter, to 1.254 million mt versus the year-ago 1.504 million mt, which the company attributed as mainly due to a re-phasing of ammonia and urea shipments to the second quarter at higher prices. But it noted first-quarter own-produced sales volumes were 2% higher than in fourth quarter 2021.
Own-produced ammonia sales volumes declined by 46% to 223,000 mt in the first quarter, while own-produced urea sales volumes fell by 5% to 1.031 million mt.
However, traded third-party sales volumes increased 78% year-over-year to 276,000 mt, up from 155,000 mt.
“We look forward to an even better performance in the second quarter, as we benefit from strong in-season demand, the phasing of volumes from the first quarter to the second quarter, and higher selling prices,” said Fertiglobe CEO Ahmed El-Hoshy.
He said the majority of the company’s volumes are already committed for the second quarter, “which provides good visibility ahead and sets us up for a strong third and fourth quarter.”
Based on the continued favorable market dynamics and resulting free cash flows, and in line with the company’s dividend policy of distributing excess free cash flows to its shareholders, OCI management now expects a cash distribution of at least $700 million for the first half of 2022 (payable in October 2022), compared to the previous guidance of at least $200 million. The exact dividend amount will be announced with the second-quarter 2022 results in August.
Fertiglobe Product Sales Volumes (‘000 mt)
| 1Q-2022 | 1Q-2021 | % change | |
| Own Product | |||
| Ammonia | 223 | 418 | (46) |
| Urea | 1,031 | 1,087 | (5) |
| Total own product sold | 1,254 | 1,504 | (17) |
| Third-party traded | |||
| Ammonia | 52 | 35 | +48 |
| Urea | 224 | 120 | +87 |
| Total traded third-party product | 276 | 155 | +78 |
| Total own product and traded third-party | 1,530 | 1,659 | (8) |