Atkore Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to Accor International Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants will be in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone today should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. At this time, I will turn the conference over to John Deitzer, Vice President, Investor Relations. Mr. Deitzer, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With me today are Bill Waltz, President and CEO, as well as David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind everyone that during this call, we may make projections or forward-looking statements regarding future events or financial performance of the company. Such statements involve risk and uncertainties such that actual results may differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings and today's press release, which identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. In addition, any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. With that, I'll turn it over to Bill.

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that ACORD delivered excellent financial results for both the fourth quarter and the 2019 fiscal year. Let me begin with our highlights for the full year, and David will go over the fourth quarter in more detail. As I mentioned, 2019 was a very strong year for Accor. We increased the justity of a DAH by $53 million, or approximately 20%, compared to 2018, a remarkable achievement by everyone in our organization. and a credit to the results that can be achieved by following the ACWR business system. In addition to the growth in EBITDA, free cash flow increased 63% and we increased our adjusted EPS by 30% up to $3.62. We also made significant progress this year on improving our leverage position. We ended 2019 with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.2 times, down considerably from where we were at this time last year. In summary, 2019 was a year of great financial performance and EBITDA growth driven by the Accor business system. We were able to convert those earnings to cash, which allowed us to both improve our leverage position and acquire four companies that will enhance our competitiveness in the marketplace. We plan to build upon that success from 2019 and continue to grow the company. For 2020 specifically, we expect to increase our adjusted EBITDA to between $335 million and $345 million and use the Accor business system to drive that growth even further in the future. With that, I want to thank all the employees in Accor for their tremendous efforts this year. I'll turn the call over to David, who will walk us through our financials for the fourth quarter in more detail.