Stepan Company

Greetings and welcome to the Stepan Company Q1 2021 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Tuesday, April 27, 2021. I would now like to turn the conference over to Luis Rojo, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Luis Rojo Good morning, and thank you for joining Stepan Company's first quarter 2021 financial review. Before we begin, please note that information in this conference call contains forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts. These statements involve risk and uncertainty. that could cause actual results to differ materially, including but not limited to prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions, and factors detailing our Security and Exchange Commission filings. Whether you are joining us online or over the phone, we encourage you to review the investor slide presentation, which we have made available at www.stepan.com under the Investors section of our website. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings releases issue, and we hope that you find the information and perspective helpful. Now with that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Quinn Stepan, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Luis. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. As vaccines are rolled out across the country, We hope you and your families have had a chance to be vaccinated and that you will continue to stay safe and healthy. We at Stepan remain committed to doing our part by supporting customers that supply essential cleaning, disinfection, and personal wash products to the market. Before we discuss our results, I would like to introduce Scott Behrens, our new President and Chief Operating Officer who will be joining us today. Scott has been a key leader at Stepan for the past 28 years. We are pleased to recognize Scott's contributions to our success with his promotion and are excited about the talents he brings to this role and the impact he will have on the value of our company for you and for all shareholders. Welcome Scott. The company had a good start to the year and delivered record quarterly income, the best financial quarter our company has ever had. adjusted net income was $42.4 million or $1.82 per diluted share, up 75% from $24.2 million or $1.04 per diluted share last year when we had the power outage at our Millsdale facility. For the quarter, surfactant operating income was up 47%, primarily due to improved customer and product mix. Our polymer business was up 140% on the strength of 32% global sales volume growth. Polymer volume growth was driven by the INVISTA acquisition, organic market growth, and a rebound in our PA business. Our specialty product business results were down due to lower margins within our MCT product line. Our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on Stepan's common stock of 30.5 cents per share, payable on June 15, 2021. Stepan has increased its dividends for 53 consecutive years. Luis will walk you through a few more details about our first quarter results.