Materion Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Matterham First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Andrew Vento, Manager, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. You may begin.

Good morning and thank you everyone for joining us on our first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. This is Andrew Vento, Manager, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for Materion Corporation. Before we begin our remarks this morning, I would like to point out that starting this quarter, we will be utilizing presentation materials alongside our quarterly earnings conference calls. We have posted those materials on the company's website that we will reference as a part of today's review of the quarterly results. You can also access the materials through the download feature on the earnings call webcast link. With me today is Jugal Vijayvargiya, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shelly Chadwick, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our format for today's conference call is as follows. Jugal will provide opening comments on the quarter and provide an update on key initiatives. Following Jugal, Shelly will review detailed financial results for the quarter and we will open the call for questions. Let me remind investors that any forward-looking statements made in this presentation, including those in the outlook section and during the question and answer portion, are based on current expectations. The company's actual future performance may materially differ from that contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. Those factors are listed in the earnings press release we issued this morning. Additionally, comments regarding earnings before interest and taxes, net income, and earnings per share reflect the adjusted gap numbers shown in attachment number five in this morning's press release. The adjustments are made in the prior year period for comparative purposes and remove special items, non-cash charges, and certain income tax adjustments. And now, I'll turn the call over to Jugal for his comments.

Thanks, Andrew, and welcome, everyone. I hope that all of you are in good health and have had a good start to the new year. I'm pleased to report that we delivered a very strong first quarter. achieving record quarterly value added sales and our fourth quarter of sequential top line growth. Many of our markets continue to expand, and we believe we outpaced end market growth in several sectors, including semiconductor, automotive, and industrial. Our advanced materials business delivered a quarterly record for value added sales with strong market demand and new business wins. The supply chain and staffing shortages that are prevalent all around us have not had a meaningful impact on our business. Performance was strong across the company as all three segments reported double-digit EBIT margins for the third consecutive quarter. I'm very impressed with our team's passion to serve our customers and their drive to return Maturion to pre-pandemic levels of performance. We continue to execute well and our key strategic growth initiatives. Let me talk through a few highlights. Our customer-funded precision-clad engineer script project remains on track. We completed a second quarter of shipments from our existing facility and the construction of our new leading-edge manufacturing facility remains on schedule. Our optics policy integration is nearly complete. Our teams continue to work collaboratively and on identifying customer opportunities in support of our overall growth objectives. We have several synergistic initiatives underway. We continue to build a strong pipeline of organic growth opportunities across all three segments. Our increased investment in R&D and our customer-focused initiatives are driving organic projects that will continue to position the company for above-market growth. and finally, we're investing in our facilities capabilities to support that growth. As you know, our capital spending this year is expected to be around $100 million, which is significantly higher than our average run rate. We have a strong portfolio of projects lined up that will deliver new capacity, enhance capabilities and improve yields to support our growth objectives. These important strategic initiatives along with many others are positioning us as a high performing advanced materials company that enables next generation applications. For the past few quarters, we have talked a lot about our pipeline of organic growth opportunities. This quarter, we're highlighting some recent wins and advancements that are helping to enable next generation capabilities for our customers. On slide seven of our materials, you will see four examples and I'm really excited about. First, we have been awarded a contract from Visteon to supply thin film coated plastic lenses in next generation automobiles. These lenses are a key component of an optical module enabling a 3D digital cockpit instrument cluster. Next, we continue to support space observation, exploration and aerospace missions with advanced solutions across all three of our businesses. We recently announced that we outfitted NASA's Perseverance rover with an array of advanced technologies from our broad portfolio, including Albomet, a highly engineered alloy made of aluminum and beryllium, which provides a superior combination of high stiffness and low density. ComboLit Hermetic Packaging Solutions, used in Perseverance power, communication, and sensing systems. and high performing optical filters that enable spectral imaging in addition to dust characterization and daily weather reporting. On the bottom left, you will see our aluminum scandium targets. These highly engineered targets are being used by the semiconductor industry to support increased bandwidth and higher frequencies required for the global rollout of 5G and accelerating growth of IoT. Our alloy strip products continue to enable evolving smartphone technologies. Our materials form spring solutions to support smartphone camera lens movement and enable faster autofocus features. Looking ahead, I'm excited about what I'm seeing for the next few quarters. While economic uncertainty still exists, we see increasing opportunities in our organic pipeline, good demand across many of our end markets, and well-positioned businesses ready to respond to what lies ahead. Overall, I'm extremely proud of what the team has delivered thus far. Our first quarter performance provides significant momentum for the rest of the year. I'd like to thank our employees for the hard work, dedication and commitment. Our strong results are thanks to them. Now, let me turn the call over to Shelly to cover the financial details.