Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Alpha Metallurgical Resources Third Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Emily O'Quinn, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. You may begin.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, let me remind you that during our prepared remarks, our comments regarding anticipated business and financial performance contain forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. For more information regarding forward-looking statements and some of the factors that can affect them, please refer to the company's third quarter 2022 earnings release and the associated SEC filing. Please also see those documents for information about our use of non-GAAP measures and their reconciliation to GAAP measures. Participating on the call today are Alpha's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Stetson, President, Andy Edson, Todd Muncy, our Chief Financial Officer, Jason Whitehead, our Chief Operating Officer, and Dan Horn, our Chief Commercial Officer. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thanks, Emily, and good morning, everyone. Today, we're pleased to report another strong quarter thanks to the dedication and excellence of the Alpha team. Today also marks my final earnings call as CEO before turning over the reins to Andy Edson at the end of the year. At that time, I will transition to the role of executive chairman, which will allow me to continue to work with the management team as well as the board on strategic initiatives. We're excited to have Todd Muncy joining us today in his new role of chief financial officer. The coal industry has certainly been on an interesting journey these past 18 months. And that has been true whether you produce thermal or metallurgical coal. As a metallurgical coal producer during this period, we've seen highs in pricing that no one could have imagined or predicted. The markets have experienced geopolitical events, supply and capital constraints, and most recently, challenging economic conditions and issues here in the United States as well as abroad. Through this tumultuous time, Alpha has remained disciplined. and focused on our core fundamentals, and it is this discipline and focus that has made Alpha a leader in the coal industry. It wasn't long ago that $300 million of EBITDA on a quarter would have been considered a pipe dream, so Alpha is very proud of this quarter's performance and over $14 of earnings per share that we have reported today. As Todd will discuss with you shortly, and from the press release we issued this morning, In a quarter, we sold approximately 44% of our exported MET production into markets that are priced on Australian indices, which resulted in realizations of $161 per ton. As 65% of our production is shipped into the export markets, our revenues and realizations are based on multiple variables, including the timing of vessels departing, quality and rank of the coal being shipped, destinations for our products, and the corresponding indices for those destinations. Todd and Dan will provide you with much more detail on this topic, but those same Australian indices that average $250 per metric ton in the third quarter are currently reflecting $300 in the recent time. Each year, our team has robust conversations and discussions on how much of our diverse product offerings we will allocate into domestic versus international markets. We examined multiple variables from qualities and ranks of our coal anticipated for the 2023 timeframe, economic conditions, demand through the markets in which we participate, and logistic and transportation costs. Based on those assessments, we announced in September that we committed approximately 4.5 million tons of metallurgical coal for shipment into the domestic markets for the upcoming calendar year 2023. Today, we released the average pricing of those domestic tons, which came in at $192.72. We are also building out the export side of our business and completing our budget for presentation to the board in coming weeks. And we will be providing 2023 guidance after input and approval from our board. With strong markets this year, our primary goal was to eliminate our long-term debt and provide alpha with stability for years to come. However, I was thrilled that we had the ability to not only pay down our debt, but to successfully execute on our capital return program. At the end of October, Alpha has bought back over $450 million worth of common stock, exhausting more than three-quarters of the board's prior $600 million share repurchase authorization. Todd's going to provide you with more granular details, but as of October the 31st, Our balance of common shares outstanding was approximately 15.9 million shares. We continue to believe that our shares are undervalued by the markets. In this past week, our board increased the program by another $400 million, bringing the total authorization to $1 billion. Additionally, the board declared a one-time special dividend of $5 per share be paid on January the 3rd, 2023. to holders of record on January the 15th, 2022. This is in addition to the increased fixed dividend in the amount of 41.8 cents per share. As I've said many times before, our goals have been clear, to pay off our long-term debt, increase our cash balances, and meaningfully return capital to shareholders. I remain proud of the collective efforts of the Alpha team to deliver on these objectives. With that, I will turn the call over to Andy.