Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

today's call, Kate Walsh, Director, Investor Relations for ADM. Ms. Walsh, you may begin.

Welcome to the third quarter earnings conference call for ADM. Our prepared remarks today will be led by Juan Luciano, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and Manish Patilawala, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer. We have prepared presentation slides to supplement our remarks on the call today. which are posted on the investor relations section of the ADM website and through the link to our webcast. 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 numerous risks 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 and the materials. Unless otherwise required by law, ADM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements due to new information or future events. In addition, during today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP or adjusted financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are available in our earnings press release and presentation slides which can be found in the investor relations section of the ADM website. I will now turn the call over to Juan.

Thank you, Kate. Hello, and welcome to all who have joined the call. Please turn to slide four. Today, ADM reported adjusted earnings per share of 92 cents and total segment operating profit of $845 million for the third quarter. Our trailing four-quarter adjusted ROIC was 6.7%, and cash flow from operations before working capital changes was $2.1 billion year-to-date. With a challenging industry-wide operating environment, we remained flexible, adapting plans where needed, taking action on what is in our control, and investing for long-term growth. A key part of this dynamic environment relates to the status of highly anticipated U.S. biofuel policy. We believe progress on this front will drive significant biofuel and renewable diesel demand and lead to elevated pricing, volumes and margins across several of our key operating areas, which we expect will set up a constructive environment over the long run. But based on the current short-term environment, our ASNO business is significantly impacted. Against this backdrop, we have made good progress with our self-help agenda. We made the strides in improving our plant efficiency. We've entered into numerous strategic transactions which advance our portfolio optimization objectives. And we are accomplishing cost savings through several targeted streamlining initiatives. These actions have generated robust cash flow this quarter and strengthen our business going forward. Our strong balance sheet, driven by a disciplined capital allocation process, give us flexibility to invest for growth and continue to return value to shareholders. Following our second quarter earnings call, we announced our 375th consecutive quarterly dividend. Please turn to slide five. Let me share some specific examples of how our team continues to drive simplification, optimization, and execution excellence across our segments through our self-help agenda. For our services and oilseeds, results for third quarter were sequentially in line and aligned to the expectations we set out in our second quarter earnings call. The team continued to focus on operational excellence which was reflected in crash volumes increasing 2.6% sequentially and 2.2% compared to the third quarter of last year, elevating a lower-than-expected margin environment. Our Ag Services subsegment executed a robust export program during the quarter, supported by strong corn and meal programs. We achieved the best total export volume for the month of September since 2016, which helped offset some of the weakness we experienced in our crash business. For carbohydrate solutions, the business delivered sequentially steady results overall, with lower global demand for sweeteners and starters, offset by strength in ethanol pricing and exports. We achieved a key milestone in our decarbonization strategy, connecting our Columbus, Nebraska dry cornmeal plant into tall grass dry blazer CO2 pipeline and are commencing CO2 injections. This marks the second ADM facility that is reducing its carbon footprint by CO2 sequestration. And for nutrition, the team drove another quarter of sequential improvement led by our flavors and animal nutrition portfolios. Flavors North America achieved record quarterly revenue in the third quarter And Flavors internationally recently won a notable contract that is connected to a deep ASNO customer relationship. We're engaging directly with major customers of ASNO and carbohydrate solutions on our nutrition portfolio, highlighting the power of our interconnected value chain. Our specialty ingredients subsegment is expected to benefit from the Decatur yeast plant being back online and consistently producing white flake. During the quarter, we announced network amplification in specialty ingredients to streamline our production footprint, and we expect results to improve as this takes hold and we build back our third-party sales business. Within our animal nutrition portfolio, our turnaround continues to deliver better results with more progress to come. In Q3, we announced plans for a North American animal feed joint venture with Alltech to further transition our animal nutrition business into higher margin specialty ingredients. And we expect this JV to commence operations in 2026. Through these efforts and several other initiatives we have undertaken this year, we remain on track to achieve our targeted $200 to $300 million in cost savings in 2025, as well as our aggregate cost savings of $500 to $750 million over the next three to five years. Strong cash management allows us to continue to invest in areas of innovation where we see attractive growth potential. For example, we are developing the next generation of flavor systems for our growing energy drinks portfolio. Our cutting edge energy emulsion technology provides enhanced product stability, consistent quality, and a simplified supply chain. Additionally, There is a strong demand momentum behind our natural colors portfolio, and we are exploring accretive opportunities to expand both products and geographies in this business. Another area of attractive growth for us is postbiotics, where ADM is investing in innovation. Recently, we were honored with an innovation award at the global premier trade event for our proprietary postbiotic formulation designed to support human immunity and digestive wellness. We also launched our second pet-focused postbiotic. These are examples of the diverse in-house research and development expertise we've developed in the biotics space. We're also underway with advancing ethanol production performance improvements. Through close collaboration between R&D and operations, We've implemented advancements that are delivering improved yield gains. Rollout to additional plants is in progress, and further enhancements are in testing, designed to drive ongoing optimization across our facilities. We're also investing in side stream valorization as part of our continuous efforts to optimize our production processes and add value to our byproducts. As we close out 2025, we will continue to action our self-help agenda, while adapting to evolving trade policy and remaining flexible to accept the impact of challenging dynamics to the best of our ability. Given the deferral in US biofuel policy and other global movements, it is difficult to predict the timing of when we will see a structural increase in biofuel demand. The result we are lowering our expectations for full year 2025. We now expect adjusted earnings per share to be between $3.25 to $3.50, down from the approximately $4 per share as we discussed last quarter. Manish will review this in more detail. Overall, the recent progress with the trade deal with China coupled with our expectation of gaining U.S. biofuel policy clarity within the next several weeks or months is an encouraging setup for next year. We expect 2026 will offer a more constructive environment for both the industry and the American farmer, and that should create both positive economic opportunities and drive additional long-term investment throughout our business and the agricultural sector. With that, let me hand it over to Monish to share a deeper dive into third quarter financial results and our full year 2025 outlook.