Canadian Pacific Kansas City

Good afternoon. My name is David and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to CPKC's third quarter 2025 conference call. The slides accompanying today's call are available at investor.cpkcr.com. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, you can press star and two. I would now like to introduce Chris DeBruin, Vice President, Capital Markets, to begin the conference call.

Thank you, David. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to remind you this presentation contains forward-looking information and actual results made from materials. The risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described on slide two in the press release and in the MD&A filed with Canadian and U.S. regulators. This presentation also contains non-GAAP measures outlined on slide three. With me here today is Keith Creel, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Nadeem Balani, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, John Brooks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, and Mark Redd, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The formal remarks will be followed by Q&A. In the interest of time, we'd appreciate if you limit your questions to one. It's now my pleasure to introduce our President and CEO, Mr. Keith Creel.

Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone, for joining us here on the call to discuss our third quarter results. As I always do, I'm going to start by expressing heartfelt gratitude and respect for the 20,000 strong family of railboaters across these three none of us sharing. with you today. So speaking of the results, the team delivered strong volume growth in the quarter of 5%. Revenues were up 3.7 billion up 3%, operating ratio of 60.7, which was a 220 basis points improvement in earnings per share of $1.10, an increase of 11% versus a year ago. Most importantly, we saw a strong performance from a safety perspective with improvements in both our FRA personal injuries as well as our industry-leading train accident frequencies. Despite what has been consistent macro and trade policy headwinds, The team continues to generate a diverse, profitable growth across a number of areas. We produced a continuing trend of differentiated performance in our automotive franchise with another record quarter. It strengthened our bulk franchise with strong growth both in grain and potash, another strong quarter in intermodal growth and domestic and international, which included two before in the quarter with the opening of the new AmeriCo facility here at our terminal in Kansas City. This is a first of several facilities that will be co-located on the CPKC, and again, it's a perfect example of our ability to be market makers with our unique industry network. Mark and the team delivered a very strong execution on the operating side with results, with improvements across a number of our key metrics. The network overall is performing well. We have a lot of operating momentum. heading into the end of the year to close out, and we'll remain on track and fully expect to deliver on our guidance of 10% to 14% earnings growth versus a year ago. That said, while there's certainly a lot of focus currently on potential industry consolidation, we remain focused on executing this unique growth opportunity that CPKC represents. A couple of comments on UP&NS. As it pertains to the proposed merger, I think we've been very clear about our views. We strongly believe further consolidation is not necessary at this time and is not in the best interest of the industry, the shippers, or the U.S. economy. As we said before, we remain and will be active participants throughout the regulatory process to ensure that the facts are known and understood about what a merger of this size and scale means. Just for reiterating the obvious, the proposed merger would result in one single-line railroad handling about 40% of the freight rail traffic in the United States. This proposed merger, in spite of what's been said, represents overlapping key markets such as Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, and New Orleans. This is not a simple end-to-end merger. A merger of this magnitude introduces unprecedented risk. by heavily concentrating much of the decision-making for our national rail network with undeniable implications on the entire supply chain. That said, while this is certainly driving a lot of focus, we will remain seized, even if this consolidation happens, on maintaining an industry-leading position to continue delivering industry-leading results. A direct threat from a trans-cott merger to CPKC is minimal. This is a proposed east-west merger. Our network is primarily north-south. By no means does merger impair or change our unique growth prospects that our three-country network has created for us for years to come, and I'm confident. For the merger to meet the regulatory standard it will have to meet, the conditions will have to be meaningful. So while much is still to be determined, our story remains unchanged. We have a unique network and a nobly approved team and a differentiated growth opportunity in front of us that will continue to set us apart in growth and execution for years to come. We're well positioned to finish the year strong. to produce another year of double-digit earnings growth. This network, this team, this opportunity is unique, and we're going to continue to deliver value for all stakeholders. So with that said, I'm going to hand it over to Mark to speak to the operation. John's going to bring a little color on the markets, and they deem the numbers, and then we'll open it up for questions.