Chemours Company (The)

Good morning. My name is Julie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Chemours Company's third quarter earnings conference call. All lines are in place on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you, Mr. Jonathan Locke. VP Corporate Development and Investor Relations in the Virginia Conference.

Good morning and welcome to the Chemours Company's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by Mark Newman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sameer Rahan, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we start, I'd like to remind you that comments made on this call as well as the supplemental information provided in our presentation and on our website, contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including the impact of COVID-19 on our business and operations, and the other risks and uncertainties described in the documents Chemours has filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that may not be realized. Actual results may differ and Chemours undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information. During the course of this call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful to investors evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of non-GAAP terms and adjustments are included in our release and at the end of this presentation. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Mark Newman, who will review the highlights from the third quarter. Mark?

Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you for joining us this morning. I'll begin my remarks on chart three. On behalf of the Chemours team, let me say how excited I am to be reporting our third quarter results. This year, we've been laser focused on serving our customers, putting them at the center of everything we do, and helping to ensure that our world-class products contribute to their success. For the third quarter, we continue to see the payoff from those efforts. We have delivered for our customers, and they have delivered for us. I would like to open our prepared remarks by taking a moment to recognize the entire Chemours team for their drive, dedication and collective entrepreneurship in building the good momentum we now have in all our businesses. Now to the highlights from the third quarter. We maintained a momentum from our strong second quarter into the third quarter and have now achieved our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential sales growth. We achieved these results despite the difficult operating environment and supply chain challenges across the business. I am so proud of our team for overcoming these headwinds and delivering an outstanding quarter. Profitability continues to be strong across the portfolio. Our 22% adjusted EBITDA margins in the quarter reflect the ability of our pricing actions to keep pace with inflation and the value ChemWorks Chemistry provides in the market. Samir will take you through the details during his portion of the presentation. As we continue to grow earnings and improve the underlying quality of earnings of the business, we also continue to execute against our balanced approach to capital allocation. We are investing in sustainable growth and remain steady in our commitment to returning cash to shareholders, reducing our growth leverage, and funding our escrow commitments. I have no doubt that this approach over time will create tremendous value for our shareholders. Finally, as a result of the strong performance in Q3, I'm proud to report that we will again be increasing our full year guidance. I will cover this increase in more detail at the end of the presentation. On chart four, I want to cover our continued progress on our corporate responsibility commitments. As you know, in 2018, we laid out a comprehensive set of goals covering our shared planet, inspired people, and of course, our evolved portfolio. Today, I'd like to talk about our evolved portfolio and a key regulatory action which will help to accelerate the adoption of our low global warming Optium products. A few weeks ago, the EPA published final rules under the AIM Act which was originally passed by Congress in late 2020. The AIM Act HFC phase-down, which starts in 2022, will be similar to the FGAS regulations in Europe, with step-downs designed to limit the supply of high global warming products and encouraging adoption of low global warming solutions like our Optian technology. Chemours is well positioned to help meet the emerging needs of our customers as the market transitions. We continue to collaborate with key OEM partners to introduce newer, more efficient, and more sustainable products, leveraging the performance of Optian refrigerants. Additionally, we continue to work with end users to retrofit their existing equipment and reduce their environmental impact. Option is a shining example of our evolved portfolio in action and a key part of our commitment to deriving the majority of our revenue from products which meet UN Sustainable Development Goals. With that, I'll turn things over to Samir to review the financial results for the third quarter. I'll be back to talk about our revised guidance before turning to Q&A. Sameer?