Stepan Company

Good morning and welcome to the Steppens Company first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterward, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. As a reminder, this call is being recorded on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Ruben Velasquez, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Stepping Company. Mr. Velasquez, please go ahead.

Thanks, Victor. Good morning and thank you for joining Stepan Company's first quarter 2026 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 risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including but not limited to prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions, and factor details in our securities and exchange commission filings. In addition, this conference call will include discussions of adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, which are no-gap measures. We provide reconciliations to the compatible gap measures in the earnings presentation and press release, which we have made available at www.stephan.com under the Investors section of our website. Whether you are joining us online or over the phone, we encourage you to review the Investors slide presentation. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings release is issued, and we hope that you find the information and perspective contained therein helpful. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Luis Rojo, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Ruben. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2026 results. I plan to share highlights of the QOLUS performance and provide an update on our KSRKE priorities, while Ruben will provide additional details on our financial results. Before reviewing the quarter, I want to recognize our teams around the world for their continued commitment to safety and operational excellence. Safety remains our top priority and the foundation for everything we do at Stepan. That focus was evident as we delivered the strongest safety performance on record during the first quarter of this year. Congratulations, team. Q1 2026 was an important quarter of execution for Stepan. We advanced our footprint and asset-based optimization efforts, delivered net sales growth in a challenging macro environment, and continued to generate a strong volume growth across our strategic end markets. Organic net sales were up 4% year-over-year. Organic volume was flat, with double-digit growth in crop productivity, oil field, industrial cleaning, and in our Tier 2, Tier 3 customer base. This was offset by continued soft demand in European polymers. Adjusted EBITDA was $50 million, down 14% versus the prior year, reflecting lower surfactant results due to lower absorption and production timing issues in Asia, competitive pressures in Mexico, the impact of the U.S. gold snap, and continued pressures from elevated oil chemical input costs. Volumers delivered at 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA, leading by 5% volume growth in North America and global margin improvement, which was partially offset by continued softness in Europe. Specialty products delivered volume growth of 30%, reflecting a strong demand and new business with our MCT product line. EBITDA was slightly down due to product mix and lag on raw material prices. we continue to execute project capital safely on time and on budget. These actions demonstrate our disciplined approach to cost optimization while ensuring we maintain the capabilities needed to serve our customers and deliver balanced growth across our high-year value end markets. We remain committed to a balanced approach with capital allocation. During the first quarter, the company paid $8.9 million in dividends to shareholders. Consistent with our long-standing commitment to shareholder returns, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.395 per share. And last year, we increased our dividend for the 58th consecutive year. This track record underscored our confidence in Stepan Cash Flow durability and long-term outlook. With that, I will turn the call back to Ruben to walk you through the financial details for the quarter. Thank you, Luis.