Republic Services, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Republic Services third quarter 2020 investor conference call. Republic Services is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RSG. All participants in today's call will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone 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 Stacey Matthews, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Hello. I would like to welcome everyone to Republic Services' third quarter 2020 conference call. Don Slager, our CEO, John VanderArk, our President, and Brian DelGaccio, our CFO, are joining me as we discuss our performance. I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that some of the information we discussed on today's call contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, and may be materially different from actual results. Our SEC filings discuss factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The material that we discussed today is time sensitive, If in the future you listen to a rebroadcast or recording of this conference call, you should be sensitive to the date of the original call, which is November 5th, 2020. Please note that this call is the property of Republic Services, Inc. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express written consent of Republic Services is strictly prohibited. I want to point out that our SEC filings Our earnings press release, which includes gas reconciliation tables and a discussion of business activities, along with a recording of this call, are all available on Republic's website at republicservices.com. I want to remind you that Republic's management team routinely participates in investor conferences. When events are scheduled, the dates, times, and presentations are posted on our website. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jonathan.

Thanks, Stacey. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are extremely pleased with our third quarter results, which clearly demonstrate the strength and resiliency of our business. The Republic team is working hard every day delivering quality service to our customers and communities. Our deep expertise and dedication, together with the strength of our market position and assets, made these results possible. During the quarter, we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1, which is an 11% increase over the prior year, and expanded adjusted EBITDA margin 230 basis points to 30.3%. These strong operating results, together with effective cash management, helped us deliver $1.1 billion of adjusted free cash flow through Q3, which represents a 14% increase over the prior year. We believe We believe investing our free cash flow in quality acquisitions is the best way to increase long-term shareholder value. We continue to prioritize acquisition opportunities to further strengthen our leading market positions and expand into new markets with attractive growth profiles. Year to date, we have invested $154 million in acquisitions. We recently received regulatory approval on a leading recycling and solid waste provider in the Twin Cities area. Combined with the previously discussed pending acquisition of Santec, we now expect to invest $850 to $900 million in acquisitions in 2020. Our acquisition pipeline remains robust, and we expect 2021 will be another strong year of activity. Year-to-date, we've returned nearly $500 million to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Our board recently approved a $2 billion three-year share repurchase authorization, which will begin in January 2021. This is consistent with prior practice. As we look forward, we remain optimistic about our business and continued prospects for profitable growth. Pricing continues to exceed cost inflation. Volumes continue to recover and margins are expanding. Accordingly, we are raising our full year 2020 adjusted free cash flow guidance to a range of $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion. Additionally, with better visibility through the end of the year, we are reinstating adjusted EPS guidance. We now expect to achieve adjusted earnings per share in a range of $3.37 to $3.40 for the full year 2020. With respect to 2021, John will provide some color in just a few minutes. Before I turn the call over, I'd like to congratulate the Republic team for being certified as a great place to work for the fourth consecutive year. We believe an engaged and diverse workforce is the greatest indicator of our success and the most important element in driving lasting results. This is yet another recognition of the inclusive culture we are building at Republic, one where the best people come to work. With that, I'll turn the call over to John.