Ball Corporation

Greetings, and welcome to the Ball Corporation First Quarter 2025 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, Head 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 first quarter 2025 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. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made today. Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are described in the company's latest Form 10-K, our most recent earnings release, and Form 8K 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. Prior year-to-date net earnings attributable to the corporation and comparable net earnings do include the performance of the company's aerospace business through the sale date of February 16, 2024. I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Dan Fisher.

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 first quarter financial performance and key metrics for 2025, and then we will finish up with closing comments and Q&A. I want to take a minute and highlight the amazing work our employees and teams have done to give back to their communities. April was our global volunteer month at Ball, and our employees volunteered more than 640 hours of their time across 11 countries working to create a positive impact in the communities where we live and work. I want to thank all of our employees who devoted time in April to uplifting our communities. You truly represent our values of we care, we work, and we win. Turning to business performance, we delivered strong first quarter results and returned $708 million to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends through today's call. This performance reemphasizes our opportunity to deliver record-adjusted free cash flow and comparable diluted earnings per share in 2025. Aluminum packaging continues to outperform other substrates across the globe, demonstrating the resilient and defensive nature of our global business. While we remain mindful of ongoing uncertainties related to tariffs and consumer pressures, particularly in the U.S., We are confident in our ability to proactively manage these challenges and sustain our positive momentum throughout the year to deliver 11% to 14% comparable diluted EPS growth. In EMEA, first quarter volume remained strong as our customers continued to move their package mix to aluminum cans. In South America, volume growth came in slightly ahead of our expectations, driven by positive performance across each geography in which we operate. In North America, volume returned to growth despite a tough comp and economic pressure on the end consumer. Our regional performance culminated in Ball's global shipments being up 2.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2025. Looking to the rest of the year, our teams are focused on managing uncertainty while leveraging the inherent resilience and defensiveness of our global portfolio. We remain laser focused on achieving our stated goal of 11 to 14% comparable diluted earnings for share growth in 2025 and are confident in our proven ability to execute through complexity and deliver value back to shareholders. We continue to anticipate global volume growth in the 2% to 3% range and expect all of our businesses to perform in line with or ahead of the targets outlined at our 2024 investor day. This reflects the strength of underlying global demand, the durability of our customer relationships, and the operational consistency of our teams across markets. In EMEA, we continue to expect mid-single-digit volume growth in 2025, as the competitive advantages of aluminum packaging and low can penetration rates continue to drive share gains across the region. In South America, recovery in Argentina and Chile, coupled with anticipated growth in Brazil, is expected to drive volume growth above our 4% to 6% long-term range. in 2025. In our North American business, higher than expected volume growth across non-alcoholic categories more than offset ongoing pressures in mass beer. We remain confident in our ability to deliver volume growth in line with or slightly above the market in 2025. While we are closely monitoring in consumer health, we believe the defensive nature of our portfolio combined with our strong customer alignment positions us well to navigate a potential economic slowdown. Lastly, on CUPS, during the first quarter, we announced the formation of Oasis Venture Holdings, a strategic partnership, which consists of the aluminum cup business, including its commercial, supply chain, and manufacturing teams in the plant in Rome, Georgia. We are the minority partner and are excited about the long-term potential for the business under this new structure. With that, I'll turn it over to Howard to talk about first quarter 2025 results, as well as key metrics for 2025. Thank you, Dan.