MUELLER WATER PRODUCTS

Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participant lines have been placed in a listen-only mode and the floor will be open for questions following the presentation. To ask a question at that time, please press star one on your phone. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections to this, please disconnect at this time. Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host for today, Mr. Whit Kincaid.

Sir, you may begin. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Mueller Water Products' fourth quarter and fiscal year-end 2020 conference call. We issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, yesterday afternoon. A copy of the press release is available on our website, MuellerWaterProducts.com. Scott Hall, our president and CEO, and Marty Zakas, our CFO, will be discussing our 2020 fourth quarter and full year results Market Conditions, and our current outlook for 2021. This morning's call is being recorded and webcast live on the internet. We have also posted slides on our website to accompany today's discussion and to address forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP disclosure requirements. At this time, please refer to slide two. This slide identifies non-GAAP financial measures referenced in our press release, on our slides, and on this call. It discloses the reasons why we believe that these measures provide useful information to investors. Reconciliations between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures are included in the supplemental information within our press release and on our website. Slide 3 addresses forward-looking statements made on this call. This slide includes cautionary information identifying important factors that could cause actual results that differ materially from those included in forward-looking statements. Please review slides two and three in their entirety. During this call, all references to a specific year or quarter, unless specified otherwise, refer to our fiscal year, which ends on September 30th. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-800-876-9512. The archived webcast and corresponding slides will be available for at least 90 days in the investor relations section of our website. In addition, we will furnish a copy of our prepared remarks on Form 8-K later this morning. I'll now turn the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Whit. Thank you for joining us today. I hope everyone listening to our call is staying safe and healthy. Before turning the call over to Marty to discuss our 2020 fourth quarter and full year results, I'll provide a brief overview of the quarter. I want to thank all of our employees who continue to do an exceptional job operating in an extremely challenging environment resulting from the ongoing pandemic. I am proud of their steadfast commitment to our customers, our suppliers, our communities, and other team members. We continue to improve our procedures to ensure that we maintain high customer service levels and keep our employees safe and healthy. remain inspired by our team members' sustained efforts during such an unprecedented period in our history. I believe that we will be dealing with the impacts of the pandemic for quite some time. As an essential business, we will maintain focus in operating with enhanced procedures to protect our employees, customers and communities. Our response team has continued to provide leadership and communication throughout this crisis. Most importantly, We will continue to work closely with our customers to provide the products and services needed to manage and maintain our critical water infrastructure. Our financial performance significantly improved sequentially in the fourth quarter, with net sales close to the high end of our guidance and adjusted EBITDA above our guidance. These results were due to the strength of our product offerings, our end markets, and our improved operational performance. We generated sequential net sales growth at both infrastructure and technologies, resulting from increased repair and replacement activity and the swift recovery in residential construction. Our teams executed well during the fourth quarter, evidenced by increasing adjusted EBITDA 1.2%, even though our consolidated net sales decreased 0.6%. Our improved operational performance helped deliver a 130 basis point increase in gross margin. excluding the Krause inventory acquisition costs in the prior year quarter. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA margin improved 40 basis points in the fourth quarter. Our focus on increasing cash flow during the quarter enabled us to further strengthen our balance sheet as we ended September with $209 million in cash outstanding. In the third and fourth quarters, we shifted our priorities to enhance our cash flow from operations while also continuing to invest in the business In anticipation of the markets returning to a more normalized level, we continue to be disciplined and believe that we are in a strong position entering 2021. We will prioritize investing in our business through new product development, executing our capital investments, and making bolt-on acquisitions. Given the improvements we have seen to date, we have ended our voluntary suspension on share repurchases that we instituted as a cautionary measure resulting from the pandemic. Going forward, we will continue to return cash to shareholders primarily through our quarterly dividend, which our board of directors recently increased by 5%. In summary, we finished 2020 better than we expected, especially given the pandemic. We also witnessed the resiliency of our business, which provides essential products and services for water utilities to do their planned and unplanned repair and replacement work. Despite the challenges, Our team stepped up to the task. Importantly, we believe that the lessons learned during this pandemic further reinforce the imperative of our strategic priorities to become an innovative leader in the water infrastructure industry and position ourselves for sustained long-term growth. I continue to be excited about our transformation and am confident in our ability to adapt and execute in this environment. Later in the call, I will address our key strategies and expectations for 2021. With that, I'll turn the call over to Marty.