Ingevity Corporation Common Stock

Greetings and welcome to the Ingevity first quarter 2021 earnings webcast and 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. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Bill Hamilton, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you, Jessie. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Ingevity's first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Earlier this morning, we posted a presentation onto the investor section of our website. If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to download this file so you can follow along during the call. You can find it by visiting ir.ingevity.com under events and presentations. For participants who are logged into our webcast, the slide should be visible in the online viewing pane and also available to download. On slide two of that deck, you'll see our disclaimer that today's earnings call may contain forward-looking statements. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are contained in our earnings release and in our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K and our most recent Form 10-Q. which we expect to file later today. Longevity undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements made during this call, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this call. Throughout this call, we may refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which are intended to supplement, not substitute for, comparable GAAP measures. Definitions of these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to comparable debt financial measures are included in our earnings release and can be found on the investor relations section of our website. Our agenda is on slide three. With me today are John Fortson, President and CEO, our new CFO, Mary Hall, Mike Smith, President of Performance Chemicals, Ed Woodcock, President of Performance Materials, and Eric Ripple, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer. First, John will comment on the highlights of the quarter. Mike and Ed will review the performance of our two segments. Eric will discuss details of our recently announced strategic partnership with Green Gas USA Holdings LLC. Then Mary will comment on our current financial status. And lastly, John will discuss our revised guidance for the year. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, John Forsyth.

Thanks, Bill. and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us and we appreciate your continued interest in Ingevity. Before we go any further, I'd like to take a moment to welcome two of our teammates to the call. First, I'd like to formally welcome Mary to the Ingevity team. Many of you know Mary from her former position at Quaker. We are thrilled that a professional of her caliber has joined Ingevity and we know that she will be a valued member of our team in this critical role. Welcome Mary. You may also have noticed that Bill Hamilton led the introduction of this call. Bill is taking over IR duties from Jack Maurer, who has made the decision to retire. We wish Jack the best, and we know Bill will do a great job in his new role as treasurer and head of IR. Bill led our FP&A efforts for the last four years and has spoken on some of the most recent earning calls. He knows this company inside and out, and I know you will enjoy working with him. With that, if you turn to slide four, you'll note some highlights for the quarter. We had a strong first quarter. Demand improved across the board in all of our businesses. Revenues in the first quarter were $320 million, up 11% compared to the previous year's first quarter. Our results were driven by both volume and price increases in certain key businesses. Automotive-based activated carbon sales were up sharply given last year's Q1 shutdowns in China. Engineered polymers delivered and experienced strong growth across many of its end-use applications. Our industrial specialty business, which now includes oilfield applications, was up slightly, and we're off to a good start to the paving season. With respect to earnings, adjusted EBITDA was $105 million, up 14% from the same period last year, representing strong drop-through. Our margins continue to hold up well across the board, and as a result, our adjusted EBITDA margin for the first quarter rose to 32.9%, up 90 basis points. We generated free cash flow, of $34 million, and as a result, we're able to both reduce debt and repurchase shares in the quarter. Our leverage remains within our targeted 2 to 2.5 times range at 2.39 times. I want to thank everyone on the Ingevity team for their continued work. I am so proud of them, especially our manufacturing and supply chain employees. They remain committed to working productively amidst the constraints of operating in a COVID-safe environment. Our performance this quarter is, again, a testament to the efforts of these employees across the company. Finally, earlier this week, we announced an investment in Green Gas Holdings. We are really excited about this opportunity. Through our work on our adsorb natural gas technology, we have learned a lot about how our technology and expertise can add value to the methane renewable natural gas value chain, and we are fortunate to have identified a partner in our region in green gas. We expect to be a significant market participant as we scale our investments and realize the value Ingevity provides. You will hear more from Eric Ripple in a few minutes. If you turn to slide five, you'll see the first quarter results for performance chemicals. And at this point, I'll turn the call over to Mike Smith. Mike?