DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc.

Welcome to the Dent Supplies Sirona First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andrea Daly, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Anthony, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter earnings call. Joining me for today's call is John Grodelars, our Chief Executive Officer, and Barbara Bodum, our CFO. I'd like to remind you that an earnings call press release and slide presentation related to the call are available in the Investors section of our website at www.densplicerona.com. Before we begin, please take a moment to read the forward-looking statements in our earnings press release. During today's call, we may make certain predictive statements that reflect our current views about future performance and financial results. We base these statements and certain assumptions and expectations on future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our most recently filed Form 10-K and any updating information in subsequent SEC filings lists some of the most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. In today's conference call, our remarks will be based on non-GAAP financial results. We believe that non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with useful supplemental information about financial performance of our business, enable the comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independently of business performance and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business. Please refer to our press release for the reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results. And with that, I will now turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Andrea, and thank you all for joining us this morning for the Q1 earnings call. Today we will cover four items. I'll start with an overview of the first quarter. Barb will cover the quarter's preliminary financial results and our updated 22 outlook. And then I will finish by providing a strategic operating update. Before we begin, let me start with why I'm excited to be here and why I took the role as interim CEO. I joined Dentsupply Sirona's board because of the value I believe the company can create for its shareholders over the near, medium, and long term. First, the company plays in an attractive category with real growth opportunities. Macro trends are supportive, and those who can innovate, leverage global scale, and execute judiciously will emerge as long-term winners. Second, Dentsupply Sirona has a strong foundation. The company's plan has allowed it to focus its innovation efforts, strengthen its demand generation capabilities, and simplify the operating structure. Third, we are approaching the interim period with a sense of urgency and a focus on execution, and we are not coming from a standing start. Barbara and I have been working together for many years, and we have vast public company experience where we have grown the business while focusing on costs and pursuing disciplined capital allocation strategies. With that opening, Q1 was a challenging quarter which led to disappointing results. Quire will share more with you about how the key drivers of underperformance impacted the quarter's financial results, including the weaker sales performance in the U.S., global supply chain challenges, and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. While we have challenges, we also have areas of the business performing quite well. Our European region delivered organic growth of 7%, and our strategic growth categories, including the implants and Sure Smile business, grew high single digits and double digits respectively. Additionally, this quarter we were pleased with the double-digit sequential growth of our total clear aligner business. We have updated the 2022 outlook, which further considers the significant macroeconomic headwinds that are unfolding, including impacts from prolonged supply chain challenges, COVID-related restrictions in China, Russia-Ukraine-related disruptions, and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. We are committed to returning cash to shareholders in Q1, and we announced a double-digit dividend increase and completed a $150 million ASR program. Lastly, an important point to highlight is that innovation is vital to our growth, and we continue to invest for future growth despite the challenging macroeconomic environment. Moving now to slide six, As I mentioned, Q1 was a challenging quarter with revenue of $965 million, which represents a decline of 1.4% on an organic basis versus the prior year. Our operating margin was 15.9%. The rate was impacted by lower manufacturing volumes and inflationary pressures, while SG&A and R&D investments were maintained to support innovation and the expected volume recovery. Before I turn the call over to Barb to provide more details on our financial performance, I would like to address the form 12B25 we filed with the SEC this morning. As a result of an ongoing investigation by the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board of Directors, Dentsply Sirona has not been able to finalize its financial statements or its assessment of the impact of the investigation on its financial statements for the three months ending March 31st, 2022. And we are therefore unable to file the Form 10-Q on a timely basis. For additional information, please refer to our SEC filings. Needless to say, we're eager for the Audit Committee to complete its work and for the company to be able to file the 10-Q as expeditiously as possible. We will provide updates as there is more information to share. With that, I'll turn the call over to Barb.