CF Industries Holdings, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to CF Industries' full year and fourth quarter of 2023 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. We will facilitate a question and answer session towards the end of the presentation. To pose a question at any time, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. Please note, This event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the presentation over to the host for today, Mr. Martin Juracek with CF Investor Relations. Sir, please proceed.

Good morning, and thanks for joining the CF Industries Earnings Conference Call. With me today are Tony Will, CEO, Chris Bone, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Bert Frost, Executive Vice President of Sales, Market Development, and Supply Chain. CF Industries reported its results for the full year and fourth quarter of 2023 yesterday afternoon. On this call, we'll review the results, discuss our outlook, and then host a question and answer session. Statements made on this call and in the presentation on our website that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the FDC, which are available on our website. Also, you'll find reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures in the press release and presentation posted on our website. Now, let me introduce Tony Will, our president and CEO.

Thanks, Martin, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday afternoon, we posted financial results for the full year 2023, in which we generated adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2.8 billion. Net cash from operations was also $2.8 billion, and free cash flow was $1.8 billion. These results reflect a healthy nitrogen supply-demand balance and global energy spreads that favor our low-cost production base in North America. They also represent outstanding execution by the CF Industries team. We worked safely, ran our plants well, and navigated dynamic industry conditions. Our investments in people, safety, and reliability have built the industry's highest performing manufacturing network, as you can see on slide six. Looking ahead, over the next four years, confirmed construction of new nitrogen production capacity is not sufficient to keep pace with the historical nitrogen demand growth rate of roughly 1.5% per year in traditional applications. Adding to this tight supply-demand situation is the risk that existing ammonia production capacity in several important regions remains on the verge of permanent closure due to constrained availability and costs of natural gas. Meanwhile, emerging demand for low-carbon ammonia into clean energy applications should further tighten the already strained global supply-demand balance. As a result, we are confident that our cash generation will remain strong as underscored by the recent increase in our quarterly dividend and continued share repurchases. We look to continue to invest in high-return organic and inorganic projects to grow our cash generation. As such, we continue evaluating the new low-carbon ammonia production plant at our Bluepoint complex in Louisiana with our partner Mitsui. Our companies share a belief that North America is the best location for production of low-carbon ammonia, given natural gas cost advantages and access to CCS sites and expertise. As you can see on slide eight, The economic value of North American nitrogen assets continues to increase over time, supporting returns greater than the cost of capital in new projects. We and Mitsui are targeting a final investment decision in the second half of 2024 when we have additional information on low-carbon ammonia production technologies and better clarity on customer requirements for carbon intensity levels along with regulatory developments. While taking a disciplined approach to growth, we will continue to return capital through our dividends and share repurchases. We have approximately $2.6 billion remaining on our current share repurchase authorization and fully expect to complete it before its expiration at the end of 2025. With that, let me turn it over to Bert who will discuss the global nitrogen market conditions in more detail. Bert?