Koppers Holdings Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Copper's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please alert a conference specialist by pressing star followed by zero. Following the presentation, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Quinn McGuire. Please go ahead.

Thanks and good morning. I'm Quinn McGuire, Vice President of Investor Relations. Welcome to our first quarter of 2026 earnings conference call. We issued our press release earlier today. You can access it via our website at www.coppers.com. As indicated in our announcement, we've also posted materials to the investor relations page of our website that will be referenced in today's call. Consistent with our practice and prior quarterly conference calls, this is being broadcast live on our website and a recording of this call will be available on our website for replay through June 8, 2026. At this time, I would like to direct your attention to our forward-looking disclosure statement seen on slide two. Certain comments made on this conference call may be characterized as forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, including risks described in the cautionary statement included in our press release and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included in the company's comments, you should not regard the inclusion of such information as a representation that its objectives, plans, and projected results will be achieved. The company's actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. Also, references may be made today to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The press release, which is available on our website, also contains reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Joining me for our call today are Leroy Ball, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of COPPERS, and Brad Pierce, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer. At this time, I'll turn the discussion over to Leroy.

thank you quinn good morning everyone i'm pleased to join you today to provide more insight on copper's performance in the first quarter of 2026 as well as provide an update on how we're progressing towards our 2028 transformation targets so let me start with our major news from this morning at the present moment i'm in chicago where just a few hours ago i delivered the unfortunate news to our workforce here of our conditional decision to begin immediately winding down production at our stickney illinois facility with a target to cease distillation by the end of this year. And note that I'm using the word conditional because the decision is subject to the satisfaction of any bargaining obligations that might exist with the union representing certain employees at the facility. Now, as outlined on page four, this conditional decision impacting approximately 85 employees was driven by the continued challenging market conditions that have persisted for well over a decade. When we made the decisions to close our other two U.S. facilities for CMC in 2016, Approximately 565,000 metric tons of coal tar were being produced and readily available in North America. After the most recent coke plant closure we announced earlier this year of Algoma Steel, that number has now dropped to 350,000 metric tons, simultaneously putting pressure on raw material pricing and reducing our throughput. This has resulted in higher unit costs, which have not been able to be fully recovered in the form of higher pricing. And adding to the mix is that despite having spent over $100 billion in capital at Stickney over the past five years, which is a multiple of the spending at any other copper site, we still find ourselves dealing with reliability issues, which means we would still have significant future capital requirements to address aging equipment. This is not a people issue, as the team at Stickney has done heroic work over the past 10 years to try and get us to a better place, and I sincerely thank them for their efforts. But the bottom line remains that we feel we've done everything we can to make this operation viable, and we just don't see a credible path to get there. At this time, we're tentatively targeting fourth quarter of 2026 for shifting production to our coal-tar distillation facility in Newburgh, Denmark. In the meantime, we've further strengthened the supply chain from Newburgh to the U.S. through expanded shipping and terminal capabilities in order to ensure an effective transition for existing pitch and creosote customers. We anticipate investing between $10 to $15 million to further strengthen that supply chain over the next few years, which can be done while staying within our annual $55 million maintenance capex as capital is freed up from Stickney. Now, the discontinuation of production activities at Stickney is anticipated to result in pre-tax charges to earnings of $227 to $262 million through the end of 2029, which includes 170 to 195 million of non-cash charges projected to be recorded in the second and third quarters of this year. Cash closure charges of 57 to 67 million will be spent over a three-year period beginning in the second quarter of 2026. These charges will be funded by the operating and capital cash benefits generated by this action, which are expected to total 15 to 25 million on an annualized basis. And therefore, we'll have little impact on our near-term free cash flow projections except for timing. At the same time, the longer-term result of this move will be significantly accretive to free cash flow. We're estimating that the adjusted EBITDA savings related to this action will reach an annual run rate of $15 to $20 million in 2027 and beyond, which would result in a 75 to 100 basis point bump in adjusted EBITDA margins. And translating the adjusted EBITDA benefit to adjusted EPS would result in an increase of $1 to $1.20 per share. We also anticipate $8 to $15 million in reduced future annual capital expenditures. I, again, want to thank our Stickney employees for their continued hard work and determination while operating under persistently tough circumstances. I understand that this situation is incredibly difficult and will have a real impact on our employees and their families, which we will make every effort to minimize. Our priority is to provide the support and assistance needed to help the employees navigate any transition as we map out the future of our CMC business. So now let's move on to page five, which outlines our results for the first quarter, including adjusted EBITDA of 49.3 million, which is a 10.8% adjusted EBITDA margin. We had operating profit of $22 million and 57 cents in adjusted earnings per share. We generated operating cash flow of 46.3 million and free cash flow of 34.9 million, both cash flow metrics representing a first quarter record. On a trailing 12-month basis, operating cash flow of 192 million and free cash flow of 139 million also represent new highs. Capital expenditures, net of insurance proceeds, and sale of assets for the quarter were $11.4 million, and we also deployed $29 million in share repurchases and $1.9 million in dividends while keeping total debt consistent with December 2025. So now let's move on to our zero harm accomplishments as seen on page six. Thanks to the commitment of our worldwide team, 30 of our 40 sites were accident free in the first quarter. Our European CMC and PC businesses, as well as our Australasian PC and CMC businesses had zero recordables in the first quarter. Leading activities, a key contributor to our serious safety incidents took a step back compared with prior year quarter. However, our recordable injury rate improved from prior year. The objective of Zero Harm is to constantly focus on what is most important, the health and safety of our team members. And we will never lose sight of our goal of zero by reinforcing the foundational elements of the safety culture, deploying additional tools and training, and driving environmental improvements in 2026 and beyond. So turning to page eight, we issued our 2025 annual report and 2026 proxy statement, which are available, excuse me, on the COPR's website. Now, for more information, please use the QR codes to access these materials. As shown on page 9, COPPERS gained additional recognition by being named a Newsweek Magazine's 300-member listing of America's most charitable companies for 2026. This honor reflects our employees' ongoing commitment to volunteerism and our corporate support of community initiatives and causes. It joins previous recognition of COPPERS as one of Newsweek America's most responsible companies, USA Today is America's climate leaders list and times America's best midsize companies. Now, on March 30th, our leadership team joined me to ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange, celebrating 20 years of Coppers as a publicly traded company, as seen on page 10. In addition, I participated in an interview on the financial news program, Taking Stock, to share the story of our continuing path to sustainable profitability for our customers. Now, moving on to page 11, COPPERS will be hosting an investor day on Thursday, September 17th in Atlanta. On September 16th, the prior day, we will be conducting a tour of our research and development lab, our performance chemicals business. On Wednesday evening, the COPPERS executive team will also host a meet and greet reception. So look for more details in the month to come. In the meantime, please mark your calendars, plan to join us for our investor day and related activities. Now, I'll return in a bit to provide my view on how we're seeing the current year within each business while also reviewing our outlook for the remainder of 2026. But for now, I'm going to turn it over to Brad to speak in more detail on our first quarter financial performance. Brad?