Freightcar America, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Freight Car America's fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Stephen Poe with Alpha IR. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you and welcome. Joining me today are Jim Meyer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Reardon, Chief Financial Officer, and Matt Ton, Chief Commercial Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call relating to the company's expected future performance, future business prospects, or future events or plans may include forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Participants are directed to Freight Car America's Form 10-K for a description of certain business risks, some of which may be outside of the control of the company that may cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any duty to provide updates to our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. During today's call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release issued yesterday afternoon. Our earnings release for the fourth quarter 2022 is posted on the company's website at greatcaramerica.com, along with our 10-K, which was filed yesterday aftermarket. With that, let me now turn the call over to Jim for a few opening remarks.

Thank you, Stephen. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Freycar America finished another very important year in its transformation and transition from a turnaround story to a growth story. Here are some of our most important accomplishments for the full year. We delivered revenues of $364.8 million, an increase of 80% year over year, and above our previously provided outlook. on deliveries of 3,184 rail cars, an increase of 84% year-over-year. We delivered full-year adjusted EBITDA of $8.4 million versus a loss of $7.2 million in 2021, an improvement of $15.7 million. We delivered our first positive full year of operating cash flow since 2017, generating $11.5 million versus a use of $55.4 million in 2021, an improvement of $66.9 million. Including orders received shortly after the end of the year, our current production schedule for 2023 is essentially full. and we are now focused on our 2024 order book. While we continue to watch the rail industry with cautious optimism, the fact is that demand for rail cars built by Freight Car America is strong. We continue to invest in and build a world-class manufacturing campus located less than three hours by car from Texas. We now have three production lines, a paint shop, and fully capable fabrication and wheel and axle shops. By late summer this year, we expect to have four production lines and to double our paint shop capacity. In total, we will then have a facility fully able to produce 5,000 plus units per year without undue stress. Also, as announced yesterday, we entered into a very important refinancing which, when closed in May, will extinguish all of our term debt and replace it with a non-convertible preferred stock with our current financing partner, an affiliate of Pacific Investment Management Company. Here are several of the more important aspects of this financial transaction. First and foremost, this transaction demonstrates the confidence of our financial partner, PIMCO, which has continued to support the growth and future potential of the business. This confidence is especially true given the state of the capital markets, uncertain economy, and current volatility in banking. Next, This transaction provides us with additional capital to invest in new initiatives to accelerate the next phase of growth. The additional capital is provided by excess cash at the closing of the deal, a significant reduction in fees tied to our ABL facility, and we will have the option to pay the dividend on the preferred stock on a payment in kind or pick basis. This equates to approximately $15 million in additional cash at closing, plus an additional approximately $10 million per year in expected improvement in operating cash flows. We will also move from a variable rate loan structure on the extinguishing term loan to a fixed dividend on the preferred, which is obviously expected to be helpful in the current market environment. Finally, by eliminating most of the debt from our balance sheet, this financial transaction places us in a better position for further and lower cost refinancings in the future. While we are happy with this important first step to reshape our capital structure, we are still intently focused on achieving more conventional and lower cost financing in the future. I will talk about our views on 2023 in a few minutes. But first, I'll turn the call over to Matt and Mike, starting with Matt, for a few commercial comments. Matt?