Green Plains Partners LP

As prepared remarks, instructions will be provided for Q&A. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host, Phil Boggs, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Boggs, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Green Plains, Inc. and Green Plains Partners Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Participants on today's call are Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Stark, Chief Financial Officer. There is a slide presentation available and you can find it on the investor page under the events and presentations link on both corporate websites. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results can materially differ because of factors discussed in today's press releases and the comments made during this conference call and in the risk factor section of our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Todd Becker.

Thanks, Phil, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. This morning we reported $52 million in EBITDA for the third quarter and an ethanol operating rate of 93.9% and very strong ultra-high protein production and sales. These results begin to demonstrate our platform's capabilities, and we believe we can and we will build on these record rates moving forward and start to see the real benefits in Q4 and beyond. The team was focused on bringing our platform back to consistent operations after our first half headwinds, some of which continued into July of this quarter, but we really started to gain positive momentum as the quarter progressed and as it continued into Q4. We executed on the market opportunities that were and continue to be available. As I just said, we have continued the same focus in the fourth quarter and have positioned ourselves based on current market dynamics to perform better across every product we produce. We remain largely open to the expanded margins in the fourth quarter, although we were able to lock in our veg oil pricings higher than the current market and now own our winter gas at or below market. In addition, corn basis, which has been a significant headwind for the past two years, has moderated significantly on the forward look And while we still have some needs to buy in for the quarter, we are generally covered at or below market as well as on a physical corn basis. In Q3, for reference, the corn basis in our areas was 44 cents higher than the five-year average during Q3 as we finished up bringing in the last of the old crop. In addition, as ethanol remains inverted slightly on the curve, and as we always try to reduce our inventories, this always is a slight negative when the market is and was set up like that against the end of the quarter. During the quarter, we restarted our Wood River MSC protein system late in July and operated at consistent rates across the entire platform. We achieved new record production levels for ultra high protein in the third quarter and are on pace to set new highs in the fourth quarter. Not only did our entire platform operate more consistently, but we continue to see higher average yields per bushel. We continue to refine our process and apply learnings across our five locations. For example, last month in Shenandoah, we averaged over four pounds per bushel. And you will recall that our original investment thesis was based on three to three and a half pounds per bushel. So we could achieve our 2025 targeted volumes with fewer locations, but with investments that we, and lower than we originally anticipated. Although we are continuing to roll this out through our platform. Our JV with Errolson, which will be the largest MSC facility ever built, is slated to come online in Q1 of 2024. And later in the call, I will dive more deeply into protein economics, production, 60Pro, current dynamics, and some other exciting ingredient opportunities that are coming our way. I will also update you on our decarbonization, clean sugar launch, and veg oil marketing. Our liquidity improved in the third quarter with our platform turning to free cash flow generation and also benefiting from the sale of our Atkinson plant above that. With strong margins on paper today, we expect even better free cash flow in the fourth quarter and to end the year stronger yet. Last month, we executed a definitive merger agreement with Green Plains Partners. We are continuing to work through the process and anticipate completion before the end of the year. We expect that the proposed transaction will simplify our corporate structure and governance, generate near-term earnings and cash flow accretion, reduce SG&A expense related to the partnership, improve the credit quality of the combined enterprise, and align the strategic interests between Green Plains shareholders and the partnership unit holders. There will be some one-time deal expenses that will hit in Q4 and Q1, but we will call those out for you after the close. And now I'll hand the call over to Jim to provide an update on the overall financial results.