Gevo, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the GVO, Inc., first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star then 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star then 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Jeffrey Williams. Sir, please begin.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining GVO's first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. I would like to start by introducing today's participants from the company. With us today is Patrick Gruber, GVO's chief executive officer, and Carolyn Romero, GVO's vice president and controller. Earlier today, we issued a press release that outlines the topics we plan to discuss today. A copy of this press release is available on our website at www.jivo.com. I would like to remind our listeners that this conference call is open to the media and that we are providing a simultaneous webcast of this call to the public. A replay of today's call will be available on Jivo's website. On the call today and on this webcast, you will hear discussions of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is contained in the press release distributed today, which is posted on our website. We will also make certain forward-looking statements about events and circumstances that have not yet occurred, including but not limited to projections about GVO's operating activities for the remainder of 2020 and beyond. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including those disclosed in GVO's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC. and in subsequent and other filings made with the SEC by GVO, including GVO's quarterly reports on Form 10Q. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date, and GVO disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. On today's call, Pat will begin with the discussion of GVO's business developments. Carolyn will then review GVO's financial results for the first quarter of 2020. Following the presentation, we'll open up the call for questions. I'll now turn the call over to Pat.

Thanks, Jeff. In the first quarter, we engaged Citigroup Global Markets to assist us in exploring project financing for our planned plant build-outs. City will be working with us on both project equity and debt for these buildouts. We envision that we're going to need 60 to 70 million gallons per year of capacity in 2024. That's way more than the 17 million gallons per year we currently have under contract. The project economics look attractive. We all believe that oil pricing is expected to come back to reasonable prices by the time the buildouts are online. And value for low fossil carbon products are expected to increase. It is with this background that our customers continue to negotiate additional offtake agreements, even in spite of the recent crazy oil market and COVID. I hope to get these contracts for renewable gasoline and jet fuel done soon. That would help us in the project financing. We see the opportunity for building out three projects. One, of course, is to expand the La Verne plant to make renewable premium gasoline and renewable jet fuel. We currently believe that we will need two additional plant production sites. The discussions to secure those sites are already underway. Now COVID-19 has provided for an interesting and challenging backdrop for everyone. As previously announced, we shut down ethanol production at La Verne in the first quarter. Initially, we suspended ethanol production operations as we've done in the past, simply because the margins were too low. but this time we ultimately shut down the ethanol production for the foreseeable future due to the impacts of COVID. In particular, we did this considering that A, ethanol prices are too low, B, ethanol margins for our plant would have been very negative, C, and this is really important, we don't have a line of sight to a strong ethanol turnaround, D, ethanol isn't strategic for us, and, importantly, we can conserve cash by doing so. Unfortunately, though, to conserve cash, we had to lay off members of our team. The plant in Sillsby, Texas, continues to make renewable premium gasoline and renewable jet fuel, and we continue to sell products. That demand hasn't slowed down. It's been encouraging to see that even in the midst of COVID, we actually have new inquiries to buy our jet fuel. It's clear that customers are looking beyond COVID. Thank you for joining us. and Low Emissions for the pollutants that cause air pollution. We are busy working with our advisors to raise the money that we're going to need. Clearly, we're going to need to refinance White Box again. We are also working on the project financing for Citigroup. And as we do these things, we also need to work on financing for GEVO at the corporate level. Many people have pointed out that as we work on these financings for the projects, additional doors For strategic options, Regiva, Inc. could open, especially given the attractiveness of our build-up projects. It seems that we hit a lot of key points with what ESG investors talk about. We need to continue to catalyze these things. Now I will turn it over to Carolyn who will take us through the financials. Carolyn?