Amcor plc

Good evening. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the AMCOR first quarter 2023 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again press the star one. Thank you, Tracy Whitehead, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining AMCOR's Fiscal 2023 First Quarter Earnings Call. Joining today is Monsalia, Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Casamento, Chief Financial Officer. Before I hand over, let me note a few items. On our website, amcor.com, under the Investors section, you'll find today's press release and presentation, which we will discuss on this call. Please be aware that we'll also discuss non-GAAP financial measures and related reconciliations can be found in that press release and the presentation. Remarks will also include forward-looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions. The second slide in today's presentation lists several factors that could cause future results to be different than current estimates, and reference can be made to AMCOR's SEC filing including our statements on Form 10-K and 10-Q for further details. Please note that during the question and answer session, we request that you limit yourself to a single question and one follow-up, and then rejoin the queue if you have any additional questions. With that, over to you, Ron.

Okay. Thanks, Tracey. Thanks, everyone, for joining Michael and myself today to discuss AMCOR's first quarter financial results for fiscal 2023. We'll begin with some prepared remarks before opening for Q&A. And I'll start with slide three, which covers our first and most important value, which is safety. The first quarter showed continued progress on our long-term objective of eliminating injuries across our global operations. Our teams are doing a good job proactively identifying and addressing potential risks, and the results are evident with a further 31% reduction in the number of reported injuries globally compared to last year. This good work has also led to a solid increase in the number of our sites that have been injury-free for the past 12 months or more, which stood at 63% at the end of the quarter. Our top priority will always be the well-being of our 44,000 global employees and achieving our goal of zero injuries. Turning to our key messages for today on slide four. First message to leave you with is the business has delivered another strong quarterly result, highlighting the relative stability of our end markets our relentless focus on recovering higher raw material costs and staying ahead of inflation, and our proactive approach to driving costs out of the business in a volatile and challenging operating environment. The result was another quarter of strong operating leverage with 10% growth in adjusted earnings per share on a comparable constant currency basis. Second, we're confident in our ability to sustain solid organic earnings growth from the underlying business in fiscal 23. We've reaffirmed our guidance ranges for comparable constant currency EPS growth and free cash flow, while updating our reported EPS guidance to reflect further strengthening of the U.S. dollar. We assume the macroeconomic environment will remain challenging. However, our continued focus on sustainability, innovation, and higher growth, higher value-add segments, combined with our proactive approach to managing costs, supports our confidence in delivering against our expectations for the year. Third, our attention to sustainability is unwavering. We understand our role in supporting the circular economy, and we continue to improve the sustainability profile of our products. And finally, we want to leave you with a good understanding of why we're confident that Amcor's strong, resilient business will drive long-term shareholder value creation. Moving to some of the first quarter financial highlights on slide five, we've had a strong start to the year. On a constant currency basis, net sales growth was 15%. which includes approximately $400 million of price increases related to higher raw material costs. Excluding this pass-through impact, organic sales grew 3%. Both the flexibles and rigid segments generated price-mixed benefits and have done an excellent job recovering general inflation of approximately $75 million as a result of non-material costs increasing at double-digit rates. Overall volumes were marginally lower, reflecting somewhat softer and variable customer demand through the quarter. As I mentioned earlier, operating leverage was strong with solid top line growth and proactive delivery of cost efficiencies in both businesses, driving EBIT up 9% and adjusted earnings per share up 10%. We continue to expect to deliver strong cash returns to shareholders this fiscal year through approximately $400 million of share repurchases and a growing dividend which increased to 12.25 cents per share this quarter. And our financial profile remains strong, with return on average funds employed at 16.5%. We're pleased with our first quarter financial performance, and we'll now turn over to Michael to cover more of the specifics, including our fiscal 23 outlook. Michael?