Amcor plc

Hello, and welcome to the ANCOR first quarter 2024 results conference. 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 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the conference over to Tracy Whitehead, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining AMCOR's fiscal 24 first quarter earnings call. Joining today is Ron D'Elia, our chief executive officer, and Michael Casamento, our chief financial officer. Before handing over, a few items to note. On our website, amcor.com, under the investor 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 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. Reference can also be made to AMCLAW's SEC filings, 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.

Thanks, Tracey, and thanks, everyone, for joining Michael and myself today to discuss AMCOR's first quarter results for fiscal 2024. We'll begin with some prepared remarks before opening for Q&A. As seen on slide three, Amcor continues to be an industry leader in safety with a recordable case frequency rate that has trended significantly downwards over many years. In our first quarter, 65% of our sites around the world were injury-free for the past 12 months, with more than 30% injury-free for three years or more. Safety is deeply embedded in Amcor's culture, and providing a safe and healthy working environment is the number one focus for our global teams. Turning to our key messages on slide four. First, we delivered a first quarter result in line with our expectations despite a challenging demand environment characterized by continued weak consumer demand and ongoing customer destocking. Against this backdrop, our teams executed well and remained focused on managing the areas under their immediate control. Second, the first quarter performance puts us on track to deliver against our full year guidance, which we are reaffirming today. Our expectations for phasing through the two halves of the fiscal year have not changed, and we continue to expect adjusted EPS for the second half of fiscal 24 to grow by mid single digits over last year on a comparable constant currency basis. As a reminder, there are several reasons why we expect a stronger second half, including continued benefits and increased earnings leverage from ongoing price and cost actions, additional benefits from structural cost initiatives building through the year, a reduction in interest expense headwinds, and favorable comparisons to the prior year's volume performance. Our third key message is we're making significant strides in our sustainability efforts within our own operations and in the design of our products. Our commitment to sustainability and the creation of a circular economy for packaging represents one of our most promising avenues for growth as we enable our customers to meet consumer demand for more responsible packaging. And fourth, we remain confident in our long-term growth and value creation strategy. The strength of our market positions and underlying business, our proven execution capabilities, and our consistent capital allocation framework collectively make a compelling case for investment in Amcor. Moving to slide five for a summary of our financial results. September quarter financial performance was in line with our expectations as we continued to take proactive cost and price actions to align the business with market dynamics, including ongoing inflation and continued weak and volatile volumes. Sales were 6% lower than last year on a comparable constant currency basis, which reflects price mix benefits of approximately 2% offset by an 8% decline in volumes, which was within the range we anticipated for the first half of fiscal 24. As expected, volume weakness persisted and was broad-based through the September quarter due to a combination of lower consumer demand and continued customer inventory destocking. Fiscal first quarter adjusted EBIT of $358 million was 5% lower than last year on a comparable constant currency basis. Benefits from ongoing cost actions and price and mix benefits were more than offset by the weaker volumes. And our teams drove working capital improvements, which resulted in free cash flow being well ahead of the same period last year. We expect to deliver strong cash returns to shareholders this fiscal year, with returns of approximately $200 million in the first quarter, up more than 10% over last year, through a combination of share repurchases and a growing dividend, which the board increased to 12.5 cents per share. I'll turn it over now to Michael to provide some further color on the financials and our outlook. Thanks, Ryan, and hello, everyone.