Howmet Aerospace Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the HALMAT Aerospace Earnings First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance during today's call, please signal for a 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 on your telephone keypad. To a drier question, please press star, then two. Please note that today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Luther, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning and welcome to the HowMod Aerospace First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. I'm joined by John Plant, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Patrick Winterlich, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After comments by John and Patrick, we will have a question and answer session. I would like to remind you that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations. You can find the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these projections listed in today's presentation in earnings press release and in our most recent SEC filings. In today's presentation, references to EBITDA, operating income, and EPS mean adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income, and adjusted EPS. As noted in today's materials, we have removed the term excluding special items from the titles of non-GAAP financial measures, as well as simplified the definitions of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBIT. While the titles and definitions have been simplified, current and prior period calculations have not changed. These measures are among the non-GAAP financial measures that we've included in our discussion. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in today's press release and in the appendix in today's presentation. In addition, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to John.

Thanks, PT, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Hammett first quarter earnings call. Let's move to the highlights on slide four. Hammett had a very strong start to 2026. we delivered in many ways. Sales were 2.31 billion, EBITDA 740 million, and earnings per share $1.22. The EBITDA margin rate was 32%, and this margin was an increase of 320 basis points over the equivalent quarter last year. Cash generation was 359 million, reflecting strong earnings and continued improvement in working capital efficiency. This enables share buyback of $300 million during the quarter and a further $150 million in April. Capital expenditure continued at a high rate, supporting the future organic growth rate of the company. Bruner acquisition was completed in February from cash on hand. The CAM acquisition closed on the 6th of April using $1.65 billion of new debt and part of the proceeds at the disposal of the Savannah U.S. disk operation at the end of March. The sale of Savannah tidied up another part of the structure's portfolio, which was an isolated U.S. disk operation for which there were no plans of expansion given its market position. The acquisition of CAM expands our reach and our portfolio of offerings to the non-traditional fasteners, such as fluid fittings, couplings, heat shields, and additional latches. This acquisition investment in the fasteners business reflects our strong philosophy of allocating capital to the better performing areas of our business. Excluding the $1.8 billion used to fund the CAM acquisition, we entered the second quarter with just over $600 million of cash on hand, having completed these portfolio moves and with a resulting net leverage of 1.6 times. This leverage we expect to bring down significantly as we move through the balance of 2026. Patrick will provide further color on markets and individual business segments in the following, this part of the discussion. Meanwhile, the comment I would make is that margin performance of each business unit showed progress sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2025. I'll now pass across to Patrick.