Olin Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Olin Corporation's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's brief opening comments, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Keenan, Olin's Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Steve.

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, let me remind you that this discussion, along with the associated slides and the question and answer session that follows, will include statements regarding estimates or expectations of future performance. Please note these are forward-looking statements and that actual results could differ materially from those projected. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ from our projections are described without limitations in the risk factors section of our most recent Form 10-K and in yesterday's first quarter earnings press release. A copy of today's transcript and slides will be available in our website in the investors section under past events. Our earnings press release and other financial data and information are available under press releases. With me this morning are Scott Sutton, Olin CEO, and top leader, Olin CFO. I'll now turn the call over to Scott Sutton to make some brief remarks, after which we will be happy to take your questions.

All right. Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everybody. The Olin team is deeply engaged in doing what we said we would do, which is to establish a new 12-month trough EBITDA level that is significantly higher than previous peaks and additionally supports a higher equity valuation. We are halfway through that demonstration after back-to-back quarters where our EBITDA delivery was $442 million in the fourth quarter and $434 million in the first quarter. Market conditions are quite poor, and the forward outlook of those conditions is for more of the same. But Olin is busy adjusting our market participation across the ECU to support product values, fixing our prior shortfall of not recession-proofing the epoxy business while simultaneously growing epoxy systems, and correcting commercial ammunition channel loads and landing new military business in Winchester. Referring to slide number five in our earnings presentation, the initial evolution of Olin to a higher level value state is also about halfway along. Leadership behavior in all three of our businesses through this recessionary environment will lead to more value growth opportunities that in turn deliver more firepower for share repurchases. We are currently on a run rate to repurchase 10% of the company's outstanding equity this year after repurchasing 16% in 2022. So Vincent, that concludes my opening remarks. Now let's go ahead and get to questions.