DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to DuPont Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After this speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Leland Weaver, Vice President of Investment Relations. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for DuPont's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. We are making this call available to investors and media via webcast. We have prepared slides to supplement our comments during this conference call. These slides are posted on the investor relations section of DuPont's website and through the link to our webcast. Joining me on the call today are Ed Green, Chief Executive Officer, Lori Koch, our Chief Financial Officer, and John Kemp, President of our Electronics and Industrial segment. Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the slides. During our call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risk and uncertainty, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Our 2020 Form 10-K, as updated by our current and periodic reports, includes detailed discussion of principal risk and uncertainties which may cause such differences. Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today exclude significant items. We will also refer to other non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is included in our press release and posted to the investor page of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Ed.

Thanks, Leland. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I will provide comments on another overall strong quarter, including continued advancement of our strategic priorities as a premier multi-industrial company aimed at growth and creating value for our shareholders. But first, let me acknowledge the continued determination of our teams as we navigate through unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic. As a result of the principles and protocols that we adopted over the last year, we continue to operate safely and productively on-site and remotely. we have encouraged all employees to get vaccinated, and where possible, we are working with local governments to facilitate access, including onsite vaccinations at some locations. Our Wilmington-based office locations have fully reopened, and I have to say it is great to be back in the office with our teams. Starting on slide two, in line with our philosophy that consistent operating performance is a key factor in creating shareholder value, I am pleased to note that this morning we announced another strong quarter with financial results above expectations. Lori will take you through the specifics, but in summary, broad-based organic growth was driven by continued strength in our key end markets, including ongoing recovery in those most impacted by the pandemic. Despite a challenging production environment with escalating raw material costs, and continued supply chain and logistics constraints, strong operating discipline, and quick pricing actions resulted in about 460 basis points of margin expansion versus the year-ago period. With strong order trends continuing and confidence in our team's ability to continue to navigate through raw material and supply chain challenges, we are raising our full-year guidance for net sales operating EBITDA, and adjusted EPS. I will provide more details on our updated guidance shortly. In addition to our financial results, we continue to execute on our balanced approach to capital allocation during the quarter. In May, we further delivered our balance sheet by redeeming $2 billion of bonds, thereby reducing our gross financial debt to $10.6 billion at the end of the quarter. Since the end of last year, we have paid down a total of $5 billion in debt and do not have another debt maturity until the fourth quarter of 2023, which further solidifies our sound liquidity position. We also returned approximately $800 million of capital to shareholders during the second quarter through share repurchases and dividends. During the second quarter, we purchased a total of $640 million in shares, which includes completion of our previous share repurchase program and the start of repurchases under our new authorization announced last quarter, which expires on June 30, 2022. Through the first six months of the year, we've repurchased approximately $1.1 billion in shares and plan to be opportunistic with our remaining authorization as we move throughout the year. And in July, we repurchased an additional $125 million of shares. With respect to dividends, we returned about $160 million of cash to shareholders during the quarter. As we previously mentioned, we intend to work with the Board to increase our dividend annually as we grow earnings. Before I close, I'm pleased to note that in late June, we closed on the previously announced divestiture of our soul mint business for approximately $190 million. And on July 1, we completed the acquisition of Laird Performance Materials, utilizing cash on hand. The Laird acquisition advances DuPont's strategy of growing as a global innovation leader and strengthens our leadership position in advanced electronic materials. Joining us today is the president of our global E&I segment, John Kemp. I am excited to have John on the call today, and I'll now turn it over to him to provide further detail on how this acquisition complements our interconnect solutions business with E&I.