HOUSTON and LONDON, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) capped off a series of external events to mark its fifth year as a publicly-traded company. In 2010, LyondellBasell set a goal to become the top performing petrochemical company in the world. Today, its strong operational and financial performance puts LyondellBasell in a position to make that goal a reality.
Last Friday, April 24, the Company announced first quarter 2015 diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.54, excluding the impact of a lower of cost or market (LCM) inventory adjustment, the highest diluted quarterly EPS in the Company's history. In addition, the Company's EBITDA has averaged approximately $2 billion in each of the last four quarters when the LCM adjustment is excluded.
On Tuesday, April 28, LyondellBasell Chief Executive Officer Bob Patel and other executives were on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to ring the closing bell. The stock is now trading over $100 per share, a greater than 500 percent increase in the trading price over the five year period.
Activities continued on April 29, with about 100 analysts and investors joining LyondellBasell for its 2015 Investor Day at the NYSE. During the meeting, Patel discussed the foundational elements that helped deliver the Company's strong results in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. He also discussed his vision for the Company and the benefits of continuity and consistency in positioning the Company for future success.
Other LyondellBasell executives highlighted the Company's differential performance as compared to global chemical peers, as well as the outlook for the industry's future. Also addressed were the Company's multi-billion dollar growth projects that could generate up to $1.5 billion of additional EBITDA once completed, based on recent market economics.
"The strong foundation built by LyondellBasell over the last five years has positioned us to perform well despite the recent volatility in crude oil markets," Patel told the analysts. "Our focus on safety, operational reliability, and cost discipline are the hallmarks of LyondellBasell," he continued. "I am extremely proud of what our team across the world has accomplished during these last five years. Our employees' continued focus on everyday excellence is really what defines us."
In 2014, LyondellBasell had revenues of $45.6 billion and more than $6 billion in cash flow from operations. Capital expenditures totaled approximately $1.5 billion.
Slides from Investor Day and an audio replay are available at www.lyb.com/investorpresentations.
LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500 Index. LyondellBasell (www.lyb.com) manufactures products at 58 sites in 18 countries. LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.
This news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to the company's planned growth projects. The illustrative results or returns of growth projects are not in any way intended to be, nor should they be taken as, indicators or guarantees of performance. The assumptions on which they are based are not projections and do not necessarily represent the Company's expectations and future performance. You should not rely on illustrated results or returns or these assumptions as being indicative of our future results or returns. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to, availability, cost and price volatility of raw materials and utilities; supply/demand balances; industry production capacities and operating rates; uncertainties associated with worldwide economies; legal, tax and environmental proceedings; cyclical nature of the chemical and refining industries; operating interruptions; current and potential governmental regulatory actions; terrorist acts; international political unrest; competitive products and pricing; technological developments; the ability to comply with the terms of our credit facilities and other financing arrangements; the ability to implement business strategies; and other factors affecting our business generally as set forth in the "Risk Factors" sections of our Forms 10-K and Forms 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found at www.lyondellbasell.com on the Investor Relations page and on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov.
This release makes reference to certain "non-GAAP" financial measures as defined in Regulation G of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The non-GAAP measures we have presented include diluted earnings per share excluding LCM, EBITDA and EBITDA excluding LCM. LCM stands for "lower of cost or market," which is an accounting rule consistent with GAAP related to the valuation of inventory. Our inventories are stated at the lower of cost or market. Cost is determined using the last-in, first-out ("LIFO") inventory valuation methodology, which means that the most recently incurred costs are charged to cost of sales and inventories are valued at the earliest acquisition costs. Market is determined based on an assessment of the current estimated replacement cost and selling price of the inventory. In periods where the market price of our inventory declines substantially, cost values of inventory may be higher than the market value, which results in us writing down the value of inventory to market value in accordance with the LCM rule, consistent with GAAP. We report our financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, but believe that certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as EBITDA and EBITDA excluding LCM, provide useful supplemental information to investors regarding the underlying business trends and performance of the company's ongoing operations and are useful for period-over-period comparisons of such operations. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.
EBITDA, as presented herein, may not be comparable to a similarly titled measure reported by other companies due to differences in the way the measure is calculated. We calculate EBITDA as income from continuing operations plus interest expense (net), provision for (benefit from) income taxes, and depreciation & amortization. EBITDA should not be considered an alternative to profit or operating profit for any period as an indicator of our performance, or as alternative to operating cash flows as a measure of our liquidity.
Quantitative reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found on our website at www.lyb.com/investorrelations.
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