AptarGroup, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Aptar's 2024 fourth quarter and annual results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Introducing today's conference call is Mrs. Mary Scafidis, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Hello, everyone, and thanks for being with us today. Joining us on today's call are Stephan Tanda, President and CFO, and Vanessa Kanu, Executive Vice President and CFO. Our press release and accompanying slide deck have been posted on our website under the Investor Relations page. During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and the reconciliations are set forth in the press release. Please refer to the press release disseminated yesterday for reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed during the earnings call. As always, we will post a replay of this call on our website. I would like to now turn the conference call over to Stefan. Stefan, over to you.

Thank you, Mary, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us on the call today. I will begin my remarks by highlighting our fourth quarter results as well as our performance for the full year. Later in the call, Vanessa Canu, our CFO, will provide additional details on key drivers for the quarter. Starting on slide three for the fourth quarter, I'm pleased to report that APTA achieved core sales growth of 2% and delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.52. We exceeded the top end of our guidance range due to both better-than-expected operational performance and a lower-than-anticipated effective tax rate. The positive results in the quarter were driven by strong, ongoing demand for our pharma proprietary drug delivery systems, especially for allergic rhinitis, emergency medicines, and central nervous system therapeutics, as well as royalty revenues and increased demand for our food closure technologies. In addition, we benefited from productivity gains across the entire company. This quarter, Upstar's adjusted EBITDA margin was at the top end of our long-term range at 23%. Vanessa will give you more details on the quarter, so now I will focus on the full year. Our pharma segment achieved 8% core sales growth within its raised long-term target range. Additionally, pharma achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin for the year of approximately 35% driven by increased sales of higher value products and royalties. Often when asked about pharma's future growth potential, my answer is clearly that pharma is a pipeline driven business. And the continued expansion of our pipeline over the last five years is a major reason why we raised our core sales long-term target in 2023 to 7 to 11%. And we see the pipeline continuing to grow. Pharma performance this year was driven by continued growth in emergency medicines, allergic rhinitis, and central nervous system therapeutics. Our proprietary drug delivery business is the core profit engine of our pharma segment, creating and manufacturing innovative, safe, and highly reliable technologies that support our customers and improve the lives of patients around the world. We anticipate continued strengths for this important franchise. For our injectables business, we saw growth in antithrombotics, GLP-1 drugs, small molecules, and vaccines. Injectable component sales grew 10% in 2024, but the growth was offset by lower tooling and service revenues. The team has done a tremendous job of completing a large capacity expansion project and industrializing our higher value offerings, voting well for the future. Active material science sales were up 13% for the full year 2024 due to increased demand for diabetes diagnostics, probiotics, and all solid dose solutions. Since we acquired CSP in 2018, the sales of that business have grown at the compound annual growth rate of almost 10%. Looking at our beauty segment for the year, we had good growth across a number of end markets, including personal care, Mustiche Beauty, and Home Care. However, growth in these end markets could not offset the decline in Prestige Beauty. The beauty segment saw unit growth in 2024, and sales of personal care technologies grew nicely. Overall core sales declined, however, due to the unfavorable mix. Beauty remains a highly regional business. Europe, our largest region, maintained its adjusted EBITDA margin within the segment's long-term target range. North America continued to recover progressively, with indie brands leading the growth. China remained challenged for most of the year. However, towards the end of the year, the country had a better-than-anticipated 11-11, which is China's equivalent to Black Friday, and we see some green shoots with local brands. We saw good growth in India, albeit from a low base. Looking ahead, new project activities encouraging across most regions and we anticipate progressive improvement for the segment in 2025. In the second half of the year, our closure segment returned to its core sales long-term target range driven by increased demand around the world for food and beverage dispensing and food protection technologies. A focus on converting end markets to higher value dispensing closures and a reinvigoration of innovation globally helped to improve top-line sales. The segment's increased margins were also positively affected by the higher value mix, as well as a consistent focus on reducing costs and a steady improvement in plant utilization, supported in part by the mid-year closing of a loss-making plant in France. The segment improved its plant utilization by over 12% in 2024. Closures adjusted EBITDA margins were also within the long-term target range in the second half of the year, and improved by more than 110 basis points for the full year. Now turning to slide four, we are very proud of our long record of returning capital to shareholders. Over the last five years, we have returned nearly $800 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. 2025 is expected to mark our 32nd consecutive year of paying an annually increasing dividend. Now I would like to highlight our products and technologies on slide five. which feature examples from both the year and the quarter that exemplify our focus on innovation and the value that we bring to our customers and their end users. In pharma, you've heard us talk about our nasal by-dose system for Johnson & Johnson's Spravato medication to treat treatment-resistant depression. Recently, the FDA approved Spravato as a moment treatment meaning it can now be used alone and not requiring additional ORID solid dose drugs. Also, as shared during our last earnings call, the FDA and European Medicines Agency approved NEFI and Euronefi nasally delivered epinephrine, which is now on the market. In consumer healthcare, we continue to increase capacity for our previously highlighted patented lateral control system technology with a one push button dosage actuation providing convenience, efficient relief, and ease of use for halions or trivial nasal mists. We also continue to grow our pharma innovation pipeline. As previously mentioned, during the year, we acquired all technology assets from Cipnos, increasing our proprietary portfolio of intranasal delivery platforms. We also entered into an exclusive agreement with Cambridge Healthcare Innovations for its Quattri dry powder inhaler platform where we see opportunities for this platform in delivering larger amounts of medication to the lungs. In addition, our agreement regarding PulmoTree's Colibri non-propellant liquid inhaler platform will further strengthen our leadership in the respiratory space. In Aftar Digital Health, the MigraineBody app continues to be the number one migraine app with a community of over 3 million users. The latest release of the app optimizes the way users can share migraine reports with doctors, including sleep records and more. Finally, in active material sciences, our NSORB technology, which is part of the FDA's emergency technology program, delivers an active packaging-based solution to mitigate the risk of nitrosamine impurities. Our technology can enable pharma companies to meet the FDA's August 2025 deadline for full compliance with nitrosamine regulations, while avoiding costly and time-consuming reformulation processes. Turning to beauty highlights from the year, our new Prestige Fragrance Dispensing Technology features a more lightweight design and gentle actuation and is the dispensing solution for Lancôme's refillable version of Idole Eau de Parfum. We also adapted our pump technology to meet the growing demand for alcohol-free fragrances. Alcohol-free fragrances are typically oil and water-based, making the formulation more difficult to dispense. Our pump is highly compatible with these formulations, providing consumers with the same optimal gentle mist fragrance experience and is now featured on Guerlain's first alcohol-free fragrance. Also in 2024, our custom beauty plant in Ollonnais, France, supported the launch of a major beauty customer's reformulated facial serum product, which features our patented dual pump technology and locking feature using post-consumer recycled resins. Fusion PKG, our beauty turnkey packaging solution business, supported indie brands Saïd and Anastasia with full pack solutions. In our fourth quarter, Hermès selected our Prestige Fragrance pumps for its line of Barrenia Perfense and the Aven brand Sun Care Mist is featuring our e-commerce capable locking pump with components made from post-consumer recycled resin where no overcap is required. Turning to closures, throughout the year, we continue to partner with a major dish care brand on their Easy Squeeze inverted packaging with flow control. allowing for single-hand operation without any leakage. Positive consumer feedback has led to major category expansion due to this innovation. If you are planning to watch the big game in the U.S. this weekend, you will see commercials for condiments that feature APTA solutions, including our Simply Squeeze Valve enclosure, as we continue to bring convenience and cleanliness to consumer products that line the grocery store shelves. During the quarter, our custom flip-top was featured as the dispensing solution for McCormick's grill-made spices and holiday sugars in the U.S. Finally, in Asia, Nestle introduced a new adult-powered milk product featuring our Lighter Weight custom closure. Now turning to recognitions on slide six, we recently received confirmation that we have secured a place on the prestigious Climate A-list with the global environmental nonprofit CDP for our leadership in corporate sustainability, environmental transparency, and efforts to tackle climate change based on our 2024 disclosures. Also during 2024, APTA was named World's Top Companies for Women by Forbes for the fourth consecutive year and is ranked 41 out of the 400 companies who were evaluated in three categories, including employer brand, public opinion, and leadership. For the sixth consecutive year, we were named one of America's most responsible companies by Newsweek, ranked number 71 out of 600 companies. We are proud to continuously raise the bar on sourcing renewable energy, certifying sites as landfill free through our internal program, and developing products that are more recyclable, reusable, refillable, and incorporate more sustainable materials. Now I would like to turn the call over to Vanessa.