Bunge Global SA

Good morning and welcome to the Bungie second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ruthann Weisner. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you for joining us this morning for our second quarter earnings call. Before we get started, I want to let you know that we have slides to accompany our discussion. These can be found in the investor section of our website at bungie.com under Events and Presentations. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are posted on our website as well. I'd like to direct you to slide two and remind you that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements that reflect Bungie's current view with respect to future events, financial performance, and industry conditions. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Bungie has provided additional information in its reports on file with the SEC concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in this presentation, and we encourage you to review these factors. On the call this morning are Greg Heckman, Bungie's Chief Executive Officer, and John Neffel, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Greg.

Thank you, Ruthann, and good morning, everyone. So turning to the agenda on slide three, I'll start with some highlights of the second quarter before handing it over to John. We'll go into more detail on our performance. I'll then share some closing thoughts on how we're thinking about the remainder of the year before opening the line for your questions. Let's start with an overview of the quarter turning to slide four. I want to start by thanking the team for great execution in a highly volatile quarter. We're very pleased with how we've managed our operations. as well as our earnings at risk with the appropriate level of discipline. We also helped our customers navigate and manage through the volatility of this quarter that came from weather issues, domestic and international supply chain challenges, and other complexities in the current environment. Turning now to our segment performance, results in agribusiness were down versus a very strong quarter last year. but exceeded our expectations as the team effectively managed trade flows and capacity utilization. We set quarterly and year-to-date records in soy crush volume, capacity utilization, and lower unplanned downtime. Additionally, we reduced power consumption to an all-time low in our European rapeseed crush operations. While we faced complexities in the quarter related to freight, transportation, and other areas that affected many other companies and industries, Our results clearly demonstrate that with our commercial industrial teams working closely together, we have built resilient supply chains that allow us to be successful through a range of macro environments. Results in refined and specialty oils improved in most regions, with particular strength in North America. In the U.S., we saw food service demand come back stronger and faster than anticipated, and we're experiencing a greater impact from renewable diesel demand than we expected. In response to the higher demand for refined and specialty oils, we've been working to find greater efficiencies to increase supply. We've also worked with our food customers to help them manage their risk, as well as reformulate products where it makes sense. The multiple drivers behind the strength in edible oils gives us confidence there are significant growth opportunities ahead of us. I also want to highlight that this was a strong quarter for our non-core sugar JV. As we've noted in the past, we continue to assess our strategic options regarding this business, but we're very pleased with the improvement over the last year. Taking into account our year-to-date results and based on what we can see now in the forward curves, we are increasing our outlook for the year and expect to deliver adjusted EPS of at least $8.50 for the full year 2021. Despite the global volatility, we have confidence in our ability to deliver in the back half of the year, based on the business already committed, the crush outlook, and the demand for refined and specialty oils. As we look ahead, we're confident that the performance of our operating model and market trends provide support for a higher mid-cycle earnings. So in our June 2020 business update, we outlined our earnings baseline of $5 per share. With the changes we've made in our business, as well as the fundamental shifts in the marketplace, we're taking that baseline EPS up to $7, and that's a $2 increase. And consistent with last time, this reflects our existing portfolio only and does not include any future growth investments. I'll now hand the call over to John to walk through the financial results, the 2021 outlook, and additional detail on the updated earnings baseline and I'll then close with additional thoughts on some of the trends we're seeing.