The Andersons, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Anderson's 2022 First Quarter Earnings Conference call. My name is Matthew, and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. Later, we will facilitate a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I will now hand the presentation over to your host today, Mr. Mike Holter, Vice President, Corporate Controller, and Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Thank you for joining us for the Anderson's first quarter 2022 earnings call. We have provided a slide presentation that will enhance today's discussion. If you are viewing this presentation via our webcast, the slides and commentary will be in sync. This webcast is being recorded. and the recording and the supporting slides will be made available on the investors' page of our website at andersonsinc.com shortly. Please direct your attention to the disclosure statement on slide two of the presentation, as well as the disclaimers in the press release related to forward-looking statements. Certain information discussed today constitutes forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views with respect to future events, financial performance, and industry conditions. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially as a result of many factors which are described in the company's reports on file with the SEC. We encourage you to review these factors. This presentation and today's prepared remarks contain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure are included within the appendix of this presentation. On the call with me today are Pat Bowe, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Valentine, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. I will now turn the call over to Pat.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call this morning to review our first quarter results. We're saddened by the news and images coming from the war zone. and our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Ukraine and those who have family impacted by this unfortunate conflict. Global ag markets in the first quarter were significantly impacted by the war in Ukraine. We saw an extreme run-up in grain futures prices, which also drove basis values lower. Global fertilizer supplies remained tight, with prices up further due to the conflict in Ukraine. I'm very proud of our team for managing through these resulting unprecedented price volatility and logistical challenges while maintaining focus on serving our customers. Our trade group results declined from last year in large part due to the decline in corn and soybean basis values. While our inventories needed to be reduced to mark these lower basis values to market, we want to note that this pricing environment has allowed our teams to enter into new ownership positions at improved basis values. This, we believe, will position us well for the remainder of this year and into 2023, as these are historically good ownership values. Last year, we accumulated solid wheat positions in our Midwest grain assets and expect it will provide storage income moving forward. Growth in our international supply chain business contributed to our results in spite of the impact of Ukraine war on supply and logistics. Our renewable segment performed well in the quarter. Ethanol board crush margins were improved from the first quarter of last year and higher commodity prices kept feed and corn oil values high. Third party merchandising of low CI renewable feed stocks and other co-products was up significantly from the first quarter of 2021 as that business continues to grow. Our results also include an $8.3 million mark-to-market hedge loss, most of which is expected to reverse in the second quarter. We've now completed our spring maintenance shutdowns on all of our five ethanol facilities, and we're well-positioned to meet the seasonal increase in driving demand. Nutrient reported a record first quarter. Our strong results reflect well-positioned inventory in this much high priced and limited supply market. Improved margins more than offset lower volumes across most product lines. I also wanted to provide a brief update on the divestiture of our rail repair business. You may have seen our announcement last night on the sale of this business to Cathcart. With this transaction expecting to close this summer, it will finalize our previously announced strategic exit from the rail segment. with the larger rail leasing business sale closing back in August. I'm now going to turn things over to Brian to cover some key financial data. When he's finished, I'll be back to discuss our outlook for the balance of 2022. Brian?