The Greenbrier Companies, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Greenbrier Company's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Following today's presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Until that time, all lines will be in a listen-only mode. At the request of the Greenbrier Companies, this conference call is being recorded for instant replay purposes. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Justin Roberts, Vice President of Financial Operations, The Americas. Mr. Roberts, you may begin.

Thank you, Nick. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2025 conference call. Today, I am joined by Lori Takourios, Greenbrier's CEO and President, Brian Comstock, Executive Vice President and President of the Americas, and Michael Donfress, Senior Vice President and CFO. Following our update on Greenbrier's Q2 performance and our outlook for the remainder of fiscal 25, we will open up the call for questions. Our earnings release and supplemental slide presentation can be found on the IR section of our website. Matters discussed on today's conference call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Throughout our discussion today, we will describe some of the important factors that could cause Greenbrier's actual results in 2025 and beyond to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalf of Greenbrier. We will refer to recurring revenue throughout our comments today. Recurring revenue is defined as leasing and fleet management revenue excluding the impact of syndication activity. And before I hand the call over to Lori, I wanted to provide some perspective. Last week marked my 19th anniversary with Greenbrier, and it always causes me to reflect on the journey that Greenbrier has been on over my time here. It's remarkable to me that we are near record-setting EPS levels in what has been at best an okay rail car market the last few years versus the heady years of 70 to 80,000 car builds in 2014 and 15. To me, this underlines the strength, creativity, and experience of this team. What's even more impressive is that we aren't done yet. We remain relentlessly focused on controlling what we can control, which is improving operating efficiency, reducing costs, and ultimately creating shareholder value. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Lori.

Thank you, Justin, and congratulations on your anniversary. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. First, I want to emphasize Greenbar's strong performance in our second quarter ended February 28, 2025. Specifically, core net earnings of $56 million, or $1.73 per share, excluding convertible debt dilution, is higher on a sequential basis than Q1 on $100 million less of revenue. This reflects our continued focus on operating efficiency as further demonstrated by our impressive aggregate gross margin of 18.2%. This was our sixth consecutive quarter delivering aggregate gross margins at or above the mid-teens target we established two years ago. Second, it is important to mention that our North American operations are USMCA-compliant. It's a bit of an understatement to say that the macroeconomic landscape has been noisy and dominated by fluctuating rhetoric and actions on trade policies and tariffs. But to be clear, our products have not been the target of proposed or enacted tariffs. However, tariffs are impacting the cost of our inputs, predominantly steel, and portends structural changes in how our customers operate. Thanks to our excellent procurement team, we have confidence in our ability to protect margin from the most immediate impact on our supply chain. In fact, we've raised our full-year aggregate gross margin guidance as well as our guidance for operating margin despite lowering our delivery and revenue guidance. We're working collaboratively with our customers and business partners to strategize and provide solutions for their freight rail transport requirements. For now, railcar utilization remains steady. It's important to reiterate that Greenberg has a very long history and has operated through a variety of macro backdrops. We have an experienced and agile team and will flex our manufacturing capacity as necessary to rapidly respond to changes in demand while maximizing our operating efficiency. Building on the Capacity Rationalization Initiative begun in 2023, We've been reviewing our production capacity and footprint in Europe. An outcome of this analysis will be the rationalization of one facility in Romania. We're aware that this is a consequential decision that impacts our employees, customers, and the community. However, this is part of our long-term strategy in Europe, which will reduce costs and improve our competitive position. This also means we'll experience reduced deliveries from our European facilities in the second half of fiscal 2025. Over the longer term, our aggregate production capacity will remain the same or higher as we continue to invest in the remaining locations. Our global new railcar backlog remains robust at over 20,000 units, which provides excellent visibility for managing our production lines and volume. And it gives us a reliable revenue outlook. We expect a slight reduction in aggregate gross margin during the back half of this fiscal year, but we expect to remain solidly in the mid-teens as we leverage the operating efficiencies gained over the last two years. Our team is laser-focused on delivering strong performance and operating efficiency gains through the hard work and dedication that has historically enabled Greenbar to achieve in uncertain environments. I want to acknowledge the amazing progress being made on our insourcing initiatives in Mexico. I visited our teams last week and was able to see firsthand the incredible work that will provide benefits in various demand environments. I remain extremely optimistic about our future. Our leasing and fleet management operation continues to take a disciplined approach to growing our lease fleet, which provides predictable revenue and cash flow across market conditions. And lastly, I'm pleased to report an increase of our quarterly dividend by nearly 7% to 32 cents per share. This demonstrates the continued confidence of our board and leadership in our long-term strategy, affirming our commitment to return value to our shareholders while investing in the business. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Brian, who will discuss our operating activities in greater detail.