Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

Good morning and welcome to the ADM third quarter 2022 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, Megan Britt, Vice President, Investor Relations for ADM. Ms. Britt, you may begin.

Thank you, Alex. Good morning and welcome to ADM's third quarter earnings webcast. Starting tomorrow, a replay of today's webcast will be available at ADM.com. 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 uncertainties. 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. To the extent permitted under applicable law, ADM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information from future events. On today's webcast, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Juan Luciano, will provide an overview of the quarter and how we're continuing to advance our strategy. Our chief financial officer, Vikram Luther, will review the drivers of our performance, as well as corporate results and financial highlights. Then Juan will make some final comments, and he and Vikram will take your questions. Please turn to slide three. I'll now turn the call over to Juan.

Thank you, Megan. This morning, we reported a strong third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.86. Adjusted segment operating profit was $1.6 billion. Our trailing four-quarter adjusted EBITDA approached $6.6 billion, and our trailing four-quarter of average adjusted ROIC was 13%. Throughout the quarter, our 40,000 colleagues around the globe continued to deliver on our purpose by supporting the global food system and providing needed nutrition to billions. Global demand for our products remained robust. And our ability to meet customer needs demonstrated our team's expertise in managing dynamic market conditions, as well as the unique benefits of our integrated global value chain and product portfolio. We continue to generate strong cash flows, which support the continued advancement of our strategy, including investments in new capabilities and growth engines across our three businesses, and the return of capital to our shareholders. Next slide, please. Even as the team demonstrated superb day-to-day execution in the third quarter, we continued to make great progress on driving our strategic growth priorities. In each of our business segments, we've created and are continuing to build new growth engines that are aligned with enduring global trends. As demand for more sustainable produced Low carbon intensity products continues to drive growth across our portfolio. Our ASNO team signed a groundbreaking long-term strategic agreement with PepsiCo to enroll up to 2 million regenerative agriculture acres over the next seven and a half years. I'll be talking more about our RegenAg efforts in a moment. Sustainability. from demand for sustainable packaging to the ongoing energy transformation supported by policies like the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., is also driving the evolution of our carbohydrate solutions business. In the third quarter, for example, we formally signed two joint ventures with LG Chem for U.S. production of lactic acid and polylactic acid for a variety of applications, including bioplastics. Both sustainability and food security are powering our growth in nutrition, including our continued investment in alternative proteins. In Q3, we advanced several alternative protein enhancements and expansions, including an agreement with Benson Hill for the exclusive rights to process and commercialize a portfolio of proprietary ingredients derived from their ultra-high protein soybeans. Each of these investments is aligned with global trends, and each demonstrates how we are advancing new avenues of growth across all three of our business sections. Slide five, please. Our strategic work remains focused on two pillars, productivity and innovation. As we discussed at our Global Investor Day last December, we are targeting $1.1 billion in benefits from our productivity efforts, which improve our long-term returns profile while helping us mitigate the impact of market forces, including inflation. Strong returns means focusing on both the numerator and the denominator. That is why, around the globe, our team is continuing to identify opportunities to monetize assets and optimize working capital as part of our billion-dollar challenge. As of last week, we had realized cash generation in excess of $1 billion from this initiative. On the numerator side, we're investing in new technologies to enhance our efficiencies. Last quarter, I highlighted the operational transformation of our core facility in Marshall, Minnesota, and discussed how we hope to emulate that success more widely across our production footprint. We are now advancing an ambitious plan to install enhanced automation, more sophisticated control systems, and the increased use of analytics at more than 50 production facilities globally, with further expansion possible as we evaluate and size the opportunities. These investments will enable us to unlock capacity, improve reliability, and enhance safety. We are currently evaluating partners to support us in this important work, which we intend to execute in a phased approach, focusing on eight to ten facilities per year. We anticipate investing more than a billion dollars over this period, and we expect double-digit returns on this investment, as we are seeing in Marshall. We'll be updating you on our progress toward these goals and other productivity efforts on upcoming calls. Next slide, please. Turning to innovation. Sustainability is the driving force of both of our purpose and our growth strategy. And one great example is the scaling up of our regenerative agricultural efforts. Region Act practices include cover cropping, improved nutrient management, and conservation tillage. The environmental and climate benefits associated with region ag can include greenhouse gas emissions reductions, increased soil carbon sequestration, water quality improvements, and biodiversity promotion. With global scale and a value chain that reaches from 220,000 farmers to customers ranging from multinational CPGs to startups, ADM has a unique opportunity to live in this area. I already mentioned our strategic partnership with PepsiCo, which we believe is truly groundbreaking in its scope and long-term vision. We're working with other partners as well. For example, in the spring, we announced an agreement with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that includes a commitment of $20 million to sign up more region ag acres. And we're partnering with Farmers Business Network to make their gradable farm management platform available as a RegenAg technology enabler for our North American farmer base. We've signed about 750,000 unique RegenAg acres in the U.S. so far this year. We expect this number to grow with every passing year. These programs are getting us closer to farmers and closer to our customers. And we anticipate that within the next five years, our annual operating profit impact from this work will reach more than $100 million, while continuing to help lead our industry to a more responsible, sustainable future. While we are on the subject of sustainability, I'm very proud that some of the good work we've done in this arena is being recognized. Just yesterday, ADM was included on the Investors Business Daily annual list of 100 best ESG companies. And in July, Environment and Energy Leader Magazine recognized our Illinois-based indicator carbon capture and storage partnership as a top project for energy and environmental management. We posted a new update on our website that details our progress in advancing our STRIVE 35 goals, including our commitment to reduce our Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2035. And because STRIVE 35 isn't the end of our sustainability journey, that update includes our aspiration to work towards net zero emissions by 2050. We'll have more to say about this as we continue to evaluate and develop our path forward. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Vikram to talk about our business performance. Vikram?