Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

Good morning and welcome to the ADM second quarter 2023 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'd 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. Hello and welcome to the second quarter earnings webcast for ADM. Starting tomorrow, a replay of this webcast will be available on our investor relations website. Please turn to slide two. Some of our comments and materials may 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 or future events. On today's webcast, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Juan Luciano, will discuss our second quarter results share progress highlights on our first half accomplishments, and provide perspective on our outlook for the second half. Our Chief Financial Officer, Vikram Luther, will review segment level performance for the quarter and first half and provide an update on our cash generation and capital allocation action. Juan will have some closing remarks, and then he and Vikram will take your questions. Please turn to slide three. I'll now turn the call over to Juan.

Thank you, Megan. And thanks to those who have joined us for today's call. Today, ADM reported second quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.89 with an adjusted segment operating profit of $1.6 billion. Combined with first quarter results, this equates to a first half adjusted earnings per share of $3.98 and an adjusted operating profit of $3.4 billion. Our trailing four-quarter average adjusted ROIC was 13.8%. The first half of 2023 has broadly unfolded as we expected, and our financial performance nearly replicates the record results from the first half of last year, even as we face a more challenging macroeconomic and demand environment to start the year. Through active positioning, strong margin management, and leveraging our geographically diverse end-to-end supply chain network, we maintain our earnings power and a strong ROIC performance, bolstered by key strategic accomplishments across the enterprise. Please turn to slide four. Let me highlight just a few across the business. In our services and oil seeds, our team leveraged, excuse me, past investments in port capabilities to produce record origination volumes out of our Brazilian facilities, expanded our regenerative agriculture partnerships, and leveraged our ability to flex crash capacity to capitalize on higher canola crash margins. In the latter instance, we flexed more than 300,000 tons of capacity and captured an additional $40 per metric ton of margins. In carbohydrate solutions, strategic investments in optimization and modernization allowed our team to manage increased demand for liquid sweeteners, drive growth in biosolutions revenue and operating profit, and produce record results in our milling and international corn businesses. In nutrition, Our unique go-to-market strategy continues to drive a larger sales pipeline and deliver double-digit growth in the flavors business, thanks to an impressive performance in EMEA and new wins in North America. When you combine all of these aspects across ADM's full business portfolio, it's clear how we are able to convert challenges in one geography, product, or business segment into value drivers in another. Next slide, please. Let's review the factors that we see as important drivers for a strong second half finish in 2023. We expect continuous strength in Brazil origination for the remainder of the year. Our past strategic investments in port facilities in Brazil, optimized origination network, and deep connection to our global trade and destination marketing teams will allow us to export strong volumes. capitalizing on the record Brazilian soybean and corn crops. Biofuels demand continues to remain strong. Through the first half of the year, we saw robust margins from biodiesel, strong demand for ethanol, and an increasing demand for vegetable oil from renewable green diesel. And we expect these trends to continue in the second half. Our Spiritwood North Dakota processing facility is scheduled to start up in Q4. adding 1.5 million metric tons of annual soil crash capacity to our portfolio and producing low carbon intensity soybean oil for our JV partner marathons nearby renewable diesel facility. Projects like this will support growing demand for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel throughout the industry. We also see continued resilience in food demand for core products. We expect a continuous solid margin and volume environment for sweeteners, starches, and flours. We are beginning to convert our pipeline of wins in human nutrition into operating profit. While there are some factors that have hindered growth in the portfolio, we believe positive momentum from flavors is a predictor of a healthy rebound. We also see continued commodity market dislocations in the second half. ADM has the unique ability to execute with agility in a dynamic environment. Our team utilizes our unparalleled global asset footprint and end-to-end supply chain to adapt to evolving market conditions and meet global food security needs while driving strong returns. Lastly, our balance sheet remains healthy, and we are flexing it toward organic investments and opportunistic share buybacks. We continue to deploy capital to drive organic productivity and innovation-oriented programs such as Spiritwood, Valencia, and Marshall, as well as invest in our plant automation efforts and our broad decarbonization initiatives. And our $1 billion in share repurchases in the first half highlights our confidence in the strong cash generation and growth potential of our company. As we look at the back half of the year, we intend to continue our share reported product. We feel that these factors are fundamental drivers of our strong second half performance. I am proud of how our team has delivered halfway through the year and even more excited about the opportunities presented in the second half and what our team can deliver. Taking collectively, we are raising our earnings expectations for full year 2023. With that, let me turn it over to Bikram, who will go into more detail on the results of operations. Bikram?