Alcoa Corporation

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Alcoa Corporation third quarter 2024 earnings presentation and 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 phone. 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 Louis Langlois, Senior Vice President of Treasury and Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good day, everyone. I'm joined today by William Wappinger, Alcoa Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, and Molly Bierman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will take your questions after comments by Bill and Molly. As a reminder, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations that are subject to various assumptions and caveats. Factors that may cause a company's actual results to differ materially from these statements are included into this presentation and in our SEC filings. In addition, we have included some non-GAAP financial measures in this presentation. For historical non-GAAP financial measures, Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the appendix to today's presentation. We have not presented quantitative reconciliation of certain forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures for reasons noted in this slide. Any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. Finally, as previously announced, the earnings press release and slide presentation are available on our website. Now I'd like to turn over the call to Bill.

Thank you, Louie, and welcome, everyone, to our third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Alcoa had a strong third quarter. We maintained our fast pace of execution on our strategic priorities while progressing operational excellence with safety, stability, and continuous improvement. Underlying the strength of our performance are positive market trends in both the near and long term. Let's start with safety. First and foremost, we had no fatal or serious injuries in the third quarter. I firmly believe that a strong safety culture supports operational excellence. We've continued our positive trend in both leading and lagging indicators by focusing on the behaviors that drive safety performance. Operational stability is evidenced by our aluminum production increasing for the eighth straight quarter, starting in the fourth quarter of 2022 with year-to-date production records for our Mugen and Canadian smelters. In fact, the Musion smelter in Norway achieved its fourth consecutive quarterly production record. We also steadily improved stability at the Aliamar smelter in Brazil, currently operating at nearly 80% capacity. We are working through the approval process for the next major Australian mine regions, Maiar North and Holyoke, with the Western Australia Environmental Protection Agency and the Australian Federal Bilateral Assessment Process. Additionally, we have continued to deliver on our strategic actions during the quarter. We completed the acquisition of Illumina Limited on August 1st, and we are already realizing benefits from this transaction on several fronts. The acquisition resulted in increased economic exposure to the Illumina market, which is currently experiencing the highest pricing since 2018. The transaction was accretive to third quarter results, with the elimination of net income attributable to non-controlling interest after the closing date. Alcoa also benefited from the absence of related cash distributions. The consolidation of the tax structure of the two companies will result in cash tax savings of approximately $100 million over the next 12 to 18 months. The added flexibility in our financial decision-making enabled us to move quicker on the sale of our 25.1% stake in the modern joint ventures, which we expect to close in the first half of 2025. The modern transaction is consistent with our ongoing strategy to optimize and simplify our current portfolio and business. It highlights significant value for a non-core asset. Additionally, the sale of the JV interest allows Alcoa to avoid any future capital calls for their growth. The transaction also provides us with enhanced financial visibility and flexibility. With modern publicly traded shares, our shareholders will be able to see the changing value this investment represents on our balance sheet. If needed to avoid volatility, we may explore alternatives to hedge the value of our investment within the parameters of our contractual lockup periods. Now I'll turn it over to Molly to take us through the financials.