Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

Good morning, and welcome to the ADM Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode to prevent background noise. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Victoria Delawerga, Vice President, Investor Relations for ADM. Ms. Delawerga, you may begin.

Thank you, Shelby. Good morning, and welcome to ADM's Fourth Quarter Earnings Webcast. Starting tomorrow, a replay of today's webcast will be available at ADM.com. For those following the presentation, please turn to slide two, the company's safe harbor statement, which says that some of our comments and materials constitute forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance, and financial results. These statements and materials are based on many assumptions and factors that are subject to risk and uncertainty. ADM has provided additional information in its reports on file with the SEC concerning assumptions and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in this presentation, and you should carefully review the assumptions and factors in our SEC report. To the extent permitted under applicable law, ADM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events. On today's webcast, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Juan Luciano, will provide an overview of the quarter and the year and highlight some of our accomplishments from 2020. Our Chief Financial Officer, Ray Young, will review financial highlights and corporate results, as well as the drivers of our performance. Then, Juan will make some final comments, after which they will take your questions. Please turn to slide three. I will now turn the call over to Juan.

Thank you, Victoria. This morning, we reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.21, up 49% year over year, if we exclude the prior year impact of the retroactive biodiesel tax credits. adjusted segment operating profit was $1.15 billion, 12% higher than the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year, we delivered record adjusted EPS of $3.59, $3.4 billion in adjusted segment operating profit, 12% higher than 2019, four straight quarters of year-over-year segment operating profit growth, and trailing four quarter adjusted ROIC of 7.7%, almost 200 basis points above our weighted cost of capital. We maintain our strong balance sheet and generating strong cash flows. The team managed a wide variety of risks superbly, and we achieved our strategic initiatives exceeding our $500 to $600 million guidance and driving our ability to deliver steady, sustainable earnings growth. I'd like to thank our team for this tremendous performance and highlight for you some of our many achievements in 2020. In our optimized pillar, around the globe, amid lockdowns, rapidly shifting demand patterns, and extreme weather events, Our colleagues fulfilled our purpose by adapting and innovating to keep our work environment safe from COVID-19, maintaining our operations to support the global food value chain, and delivering for our customers to provide nutrition around the world. Beyond that, for the year, our ag services and oilseeds team delivered more than $300 million in capital reduction initiatives. and we are focusing on new ways to enhance the return structure of that business, from digital technologies like our Greenbridge joint venture to differentiated products and services that add shared value for growers, customers, and ADM. In our drive pillar, our new organizational structures and business processes, like our Centers of Excellence and our OneADM business transformation project, are helping drive better decision making and operational excellence. We continued our work to support our planet and its natural resources. We achieved our 15 by 20 environmental goals ahead of schedule and launched STRIVE 35, an even more ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water, and waste by 2035. And we're partnering with farmers in their efforts to for better outcomes supported by the 6.5 million acres we had in sustainable farming programs over recent years. In our growth pillar, our nutrition team exceeded our energy targets and delivered them ahead of schedule. We expanded our plant-based protein capabilities including the launch of our Plant Plus Foods joint venture. And amid an incredibly dynamic demand environment, we utilized new innovative technologies and continued launching new products to ensure we were meeting our customers' needs. Our carbohydrate solutions colleagues moved quickly to meet changing customer needs for retail flour, industrial starches for cardboard, and USP-grade alcohol for hand sanitizer. And the ADM team show its innovative spirit by partnering and supporting companies that are making food out of air, spider silk out of corn, and animal feed out of insects. Finally, I'm proud to say we surpassed by about 10% our stretch goal of $1.3 billion in readiness run rate benefits by the end of the year. Readiness is driving our strategic initiatives, enabling us to be more efficient, empowering our growth. Perhaps most importantly, today we can say that readiness is truly embedded in our culture. It's how we work. Thanks to these impressive achievements, I'm pleased to announce a quarterly dividend increase of 2.8% to 37 cents per quarter. This dividend will be our 357th consecutive quarterly payment and an interrupted record of 89 years. It's been a remarkable year with achievements and results that truly demonstrate the strategic work we've been doing over the years to optimize, drive, and grow. Even more important is how we're building for the future. we've created and are now strengthening the strategic foundation to deliver steady, sustained earnings growth for years to come. I'll be talking about that shortly, but first, let me turn the call over to Ray to take us through our business performance.