Bunge Global SA

Good morning and welcome to the Bungee Limited first quarter 2022 earnings release and conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one new telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. Our knowledge is from the conference server, Ruth Anna Wiseman. Please go ahead.

Ruth Anna Wiseman Thank you, Operator, and thank you for joining us this morning for our first 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. I want to start by thanking our team for their continued dedication and strong execution as we navigate volatile commodity markets that have been further disrupted by the war in Ukraine. The team's done a great job remaining focused on our highest priority, the safety of our employees. We are actively supporting our colleagues and their families to provide what resources we can to help them through this terrible crisis. Last year at this time, we were talking about a different shock to the markets, the impact of COVID. And here we are a year later, and the lingering effects of COVID are still with us. And now we face the interrelated headwinds of continuing supply chain issues challenging weather patterns that have reduced the production of palm, canola, and soy, and government policy reactions, all now further complicated by the war in Ukraine. These market disruptions are rerouting many traditional trade flows and contributing to crop price inflation. Our team continues to manage through these challenges with great agility and a shared sense of purpose to connect farmers to consumers delivering essential commodities and food to communities around the world in a safe and sustainable way. Our ability to improve our day-to-day execution while also delivering on significant growth projects is a credit to the hard work of the team to transform Bungie into a more global, integrated company. Working together with a collaborative approach has improved our ability to use our extensive global platform and collective expertise to help customers on both ends of the supply chain effectively respond to the additional market pressures that have increased their operating risk. Turning the first quarter numbers, we continue to build on our positive momentum, delivering year-over-year earnings growth for the 10th consecutive quarter, with all segments of the business contributing to the strong performance. While we incurred losses in our Black Sea operations, Our team effectively responded to the situation when industry margins spiked globally due to the combination of continued strong demand and an even tighter supply outlook. In refined and specialty oils, strong results were largely driven by North America refining. Our team used the optionality of our complete portfolio of oils, our global network, and our technical expertise to help customers solve their supply challenges. Results in milling were also higher, with our team having effectively managed the supply chain and input cost volatility. Furthering our strategy, this quarter we made an important step in our effort to identify opportunities to reduce carbon in our value chains through our recently announced commercial partnership with Covercrest. Expanding the support for this new winter oilseed crop is an ideal way to produce a lower carbon intensity feedstock that can help meet the growing demand for renewable fuels. We believe rotational cover crops can play a key role in our joint venture with Chevron to supply inputs to the renewable fuels industry. Along those same lines, we continue to make progress in simultaneously advancing our commercial and sustainability approach in South America. We've expanded our soy origination network through minority investments in resellers that purchase from smaller farms. This business strategy has also allowed Bungie to accelerate traceability efforts to support our progress toward our commitment to be deforestation free in 2025. Before handing the call over to John, I want to spend a moment on our outlook for 2022. Back in January, we said we expected to deliver adjusted EPS of at least $9.50 for the full year. Based on what we can see today, we're now expecting to deliver adjusted EPS of at least $11.50 for the full year 2022. As usual, this outlook is based upon our current visibility and the forward curves for the balance of the year. I'll hand the call over to John now to walk through our financial results in detail, and then we'll close with some additional thoughts on 2022.