Ball Corporation

Greetings, and welcome to the Ball Corporation second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brandon Potthoff, Director of Investor Relations Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone. This is Ball Corporation's conference call regarding the company's second quarter 2024 results. The information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are in the company's latest 10-K and other company SEC filings as well as company news releases. If you do not already have our earnings release, it is available on our website at ball.com. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may also be found in the notes section of today's earnings release. In addition, the release includes a summary of non-comparable items, as well as a reconciliation of comparable net earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations. References to net sales and comparable operating earnings in today's release and call do not include the company's former aerospace business. Year-to-date net earnings attributable to the corporation and comparable net earnings do include the performance of the company's former aerospace business through the sale date of February 16, 2024. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Fisher, CEO.

Thank you, Brandon. Today, I'm joined on our call by Howard Yu, EVP and CFO. I will provide some brief introductory remarks. Howard will discuss second quarter financial performance and key metrics for 2024. And then we will finish up with closing comments and Q&A. We remain laser focused on creating a better, more sustainable world. During the quarter, Ball was included in the FTSE 4 Good Index Series, which is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong environmental, social, and governance practices. This highlights our unwavering commitment towards a more circular future, Across our global organization, our employees continue to demonstrate our values in the areas of recycling, education and STEM manufacturing, and disaster relief and preparedness, as evidenced by our recent Global Volunteer Month impact. During the month of April, our employees contributed over 3,100 volunteer hours across 17 countries. Thank you to our 16,000 colleagues that continue to demonstrate that we care. Under the themes of We Work and We Win, our team delivered strong second quarter results. Global beverage can shipments and global extruded aluminum aerosol shipments increased 2.8% and 5.6% in the quarter, respectively. In addition, we executed on our share repurchase plans and have returned approximately $925 million to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends as of today's call. Reflecting further on year-to-date 2024 performance, Aluminum packaging continues to outperform other substrates across the globe. In North America and EMEA, second quarter volumes exceeded our internal expectations. In South America, softer than anticipated volume performance was driven by our exposure to Argentina. For a complete summary of regional shipments for the second quarter, please refer to today's earnings release. Consistent with our previous commentary and given our customer mix and incorporating second quarter and year-to-date regional volume performance, we continue to anticipate full-year global shipments to grow in the low to mid single digits range. Key drivers for our company's performance in 2024 continue to be the benefits of deleveraging, repurchasing shares, improving operational efficiencies, and leveraging our well-capitalized plant assets to grow the use of innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging across channels, categories, and venues. Based on our current demand trends and the previously mentioned drivers, we are positioned to grow comparable diluted EPS mid-single digits plus off 2023 reported comparable diluted EPS of $2.90 per share. Generates strong adjusted free cash flow strengthen our balance sheet, and now expect return of value in excess of $1.6 billion to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends in 2024. With that, I'll turn it over to Howard.