Linde plc

a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Juan Pelayas, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Juan Pelayas, Head of Investor Relations. Abby, thank you. Hello, everyone, and thanks for attending our 2025 Third Quarter Earnings Call and Webcast. I'm Juan Pelayas, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined this morning by Sanjeev Lamba, Chief Executive Officer, and Matt White, Chief Financial Officer. Today's presentation materials are available on our website at lindy.com in the investor section. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosure on page two of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during the teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are in the appendix to this presentation. Sanjeev will provide some opening remarks and then Matt will give an update on Lindy's third quarter financial performance and outlook, after which we will wrap up with Q&A. Let me now turn the call over to Sanjeev.

Thanks, Juan, and good morning, everyone. Once again, the third quarter has proven the strength and resilience of our model. EPS of $4.21 grew 7%. Operating cash flow grew 8%, and we generated $1.7 billion of free cash flow. The backlog remains at 10 billion, contractually securing long-term EPS growth while increasing our network density. Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, Lindy employees continue to generate shareholder value while maintaining industry-leading results across key metrics that matter most to our investors. This culture of ownership, deeply ingrained throughout our organization, is a foundation of our performance culture. And it serves us well in both good times and bad. Given the current economic uncertainty, I thought it would be helpful to provide you an overview of what we're seeing around the world. Slide three provides the end market trends for organic sales, which include both price and volume. Starting with consumer-related end markets, which make up about a third of global sales, healthcare encompasses both institutional and home care sales, primarily for respiratory ailments. You may recall last year we proactively pruned certain parts of the U.S. home care portfolio, which lapsed by the end of this year. Going forward, I expect healthcare to remain a stable and steadily growing segment. Food and beverage continues to grow low to mid single digits, driven by a combination of consumption trends and innovative application technologies that enhance food quality and preservation. This is a workhorse of the portfolio that may not get a lot of the spotlight but it provides consistent growth and is remarkably resilient. Electronics, at 9% of sales, was the fastest-growing end market this quarter. Note this 9% does not include an additional 2% of electronic sales in Taiwan through our non-consolidated joint venture, which is also growing well. The 6% growth we achieved is evenly split between on-site project startups and demand for processed gases and advanced material. Growth was fueled primarily by high-end chip production in Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S., and some lower-end chips in China and Southeast Asia. We observed increased fab activity in Q3, spurring merchant and package gas demand, as well as new on-site bidding opportunities, particularly for cutting-edge advanced nodes. I expect this end market to provide robust growth for some time, and serve as an important part of our project backlog growth. Turning to industrial air markets, which account for about two-thirds of our sales, as many of you know, this is an area we've been cautious on for several quarters in a row, so recent macro trends have not been a surprise. Starting with metals and mining, which were slightly up, largely due to inflationary price increase, while base volumes were mostly negative. Metals trends were region-specific and also impacted by tariffs. China is up well into benefits from supplying Tier 1 customers, but I believe the trends for Tier 2 and Tier 3 steel mills are considerably more stressed, but we do not supply them. The U.S. has been a bright spot for metals, not just production levels, but also new capacity opportunities as they've been supported by the new tariffs. Europe, by contrast, is the weakest as demand continues to drop, led by weak industrial activity. We've been supplying steel mills for many decades, and we've seen the cycles. We have confidence in the competitiveness of our customers, but also the opportunity to deploy our applications that enable our customers to either reduce energy consumption, de-bottleneck, and enhance efficiency. Chemicals and energy are up 1% driven by inflationary price increases. Overall, base volumes are down as chemicals is one of the most challenged end markets today. The U.S. and China saw flat volumes. India continues to see moderate growth, while the rest of the world is seeing volume decline as they adapt to trade policies and lower demand. Europe remains the weakest with continued broad-based demand challenges. Fixed payments are being made, so the profit impact for us is therefore limited. Despite the current challenges, I expect this cycle to rebound, as all prior ones have, especially given our confidence in the cost position of our top-tier customer base. Manufacturing, which grew at 3% year-on-year, was the fastest-growing industrial end market. Let's start in the Americas. We're seeing solid volume growth, especially in the United States. We seem to have lapped some of the tariff concerns, and this has translated into a healthy uptake in manufacturing activity. In addition, I'm pleased with the momentum in our commercial space business. Growth has been strong as we remain the trusted supplier of fuel for rocket launches and satellite propulsion systems. This sector continues to present exciting opportunities for Lindy as we invest in additional capacity. Turning to APAC, Manufacturing volumes are holding steady. China's numbers appear to be leveling off while India remains on a strong growth trajectory. Europe again continues to face challenges with widespread softness in manufacturing activity. Summarizing these trends, consumer markets are performing as one would expect. Pricing continues to track inflation. And despite some of the volume challenges from the ongoing industrial recession, Lindy is well positioned to supply as industrial activity and volumes recover. In other words, it's business as usual. Finally, more recently, I've heard some talk of a potential recession and the possibility of an economic contraction. As far as I'm concerned, we've been in an industrial recession for more than two years. And here at Lindy, we've taken proactive steps while navigating contractions across several industrial end markets. We've been making our model recession-resistant for many years now, stressing on productivity and efficiency within our business, focusing on targeted high-quality growth while maintaining disciplined capital management. Our operating model is designed to plan for the worst and be ready to capitalize on opportunities as they come. When things get tough, there is no group in the world I'd rather have in my corner than this Lindy team. I'll now turn the call over to Matt We'll throw up financial results. Thanks, Sanjay.