Arcosa, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ARCOSA, Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Shelby, and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Aaron Drabeck, Director of Investor Relations for ARCOSA. Mr. Drabeck, you may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining ARCOSA's first quarter 2023 earnings call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO, and Gail Peck, CFO. A question and answer session will follow their prepared remarks. A copy of yesterday's press release and the slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our investor relations website, ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next two weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year on our website under the news and events tab. Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. In addition, today's conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties, including the press release we filed yesterday and our Form 10-Q expected to be filed later today. I would like to now turn the call over to Antonio.

Thank you, Erin. Good morning. Thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter results and our updated outlook for 2023. I will start with a few key messages. ACOSA delivered outstanding first quarter results driven by strong financial and operational performance from all three business segments. In what remains a challenging macroeconomic environment, the entire ACOSA team executed exceptionally well, operating efficiently and generating record-adjusted EBITDA. Over the past several years, we have undertaken several strategic actions to simplify our portfolio and position our businesses to achieve sustainable long-term growth. Our first-quarter results demonstrate the success of our strategy, with both our growth and cyclical businesses generating strong results. Construction products led the performance in the first quarter, Excluding the gain on a land sale, adjusted EBITDA increased 32%. Robust pricing, more than offset lower overall volumes, and contributed to impressive unit profitability gains. We plan to remain focused on value over volume, staying disciplined on price, and effectively combating inflationary pressures. Our first quarter results also highlighted the potential of our cyclical business. In transportation products, we improved margins by 450 basis points as volumes increased, and created significant operating leverage. Our backlog for our barge business at the end of the first quarter is at the highest level in three years and now provides production visibility into 2024. Likewise, in wind towers, our backlog is expanding, and this sets the stage for significant upside potential in 2024 and beyond due to the multi-year tailwinds provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. During the quarter, we signed a multi-year agreement to produce wind towers and announced an investment in a new brownfield facility in New Mexico, which should start production in mid-2024. Looking ahead to the balance of the year, our COSA remains well positioned for continued solid financial performance. Even as we increase our investment in organic initiatives, the strength of our balance sheet enables us to pursue potential acquisitions that meet our financial criteria and are complementary to our existing operations. We recently closed on two Bolton acquisitions that further expand our construction products portfolio. a recycled aggregate producer in Arizona, and a shoring manufacturer in Houston. These acquisitions, while relatively small individually, are significant in that they broaden our presence and capabilities in two major southern markets. With our market-leading positions and opportunities across our portfolio to capitalize on increased infrastructure spending, I am very optimistic about our future. Gail will now provide detail on our financial results for the first quarter, and I will return to discuss our updated outlook.