Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Eduardo. Thank you, Ed. This is Eduardo Menezes. Thank you for joining us. Please turn to slide 3. We have brought a keen, deliberate, solid fiscal third quarter results. Our adjusted earnings per share of $3.09 exceeded our guidance and were higher than last year on a comparable basis, excluding the impact of the LNG's business sales. We saw positive base business results, despite significant global season headwinds and continue to see positive cost savings across the organization from our productivity actions. Their product has a solid core industrial gas business with significant potential. The results this quarter show the strengths and the limits of our base business. I'm confident we can continue to improve margins and unlock value through systematic cost productivity, pricing, and operational excellence. Let me share some examples of how we are executing our solid duty commitments. We continue to review and optimize our portfolio. The previously announced global cost reduction plan remains on track and will generate significant savings. Once all actions under the plan are fully executed, we expect to realize annual savings of $185 to $195 million. Our product has the lowest FGMA as a percentage of sales in the industry and we are continuing to improve on this measure. We are investing to bring additional AI and digital transformation tools to the majority of our employees for use in today's -to-day work. I expect the combination of the AgressLOOCH project and large ongoing AI corporate initiatives in areas like energy management will significantly change the way we work and open many new quality opportunities for our products. We are committed to project execution in several disciplines. We expect to finalize the current energy transition projects in line with our previous guidance and to continue investing growth to build density in our core industrial gas business. We intend to take full advantage of our leading on-site positions in hydrogen and electronic and our two-discipline capital allocation. Now please turn to slide 4. We presented this slide for the first time last quarter and I thought it would be helpful to talk about it one more time. This is AirProduct's five-year roadmap to unlock our own potential. We have a strong team growing the core business and I am confident all our leaders are personally committed to take AirProduct through this journey. Our objective for the next five years is starting in fiscal year 2026 is to consistently achieve high single-business or better adjusted EPS growth rate while maintaining or reducing our financial leverage. By doing that and maintaining the capital discipline I mentioned a few times during this presentation, we should achieve operating margins of 30% and ROCE in the niche to high teams by 2030. Now I will turn it over to Melissa to discuss our quality results. Melissa?

Thank you Eduardo and good morning everyone. Please turn to slide 6 to review our results. Our third quarter adjusted earnings per share of $3.09 exceeded the upper end of our guidance of $2.90 to $3.00. Compared to last year, sales volume was down 4%, mainly due to the sale of the LNG business last year, lower helium demand and project edges, while a target offset by favorable onsite across the region. The sale of the LNG business drove volume lower 2%. Total company price was up 1%, which equates to a 2% improvement for the merchant business. Adjusted operating income was unchanged as strong-based business performance, including continued pricing strength in non-helium products across all regions, with margins offset by the sale of the LNG business and edited projects. Adjusted operating margin was flat, but improved about 300 basis points sequentially due to the favorable volume and productivity improvements. Now please turn to slide 7 for the details of our third quarter earnings per share. Third quarter adjusted earnings per share of $3.09 decreased $0.11 from prior years. This was negatively impacted by $0.14 from the sale of the LNG business and $0.12 impact from project exits. Without these headwinds, EPS would have improved $0.15 versus prior years. Volume added $0.06, better fitting from strong onsite volume. This volume growth was partially offset by lower helium demand and project exits in the Americas. Price was positive $0.05, driven by strong non-helium pricing actions across all regions. Costs were $0.03 favorable due to productivity and lower maintenance, partially offset by higher depreciation and inflation. The tax rate this quarter was $0.05 unfavorable compared to last year, which benefited from several one-time items. Interest expense was $0.02 higher as project exits reduced the interest eligible for capitalization. Now please turn to slide number 8 for an update of our fiscal 2025 guidance. Our fiscal full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance is now in the range of $11.90 to $12.10, keeping the midpoint unchanged at $12. We remain cautious in our outlook, recognizing the significant economic uncertainties around the world. Our guidance for capital appendages stays at approximately $5 billion for the year. We've included additional details on the segment results in the appendix section. Now we will turn the call over for questions. Operator?

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