Silgan Holdings Inc.

Thank you for joining the Silgan Holdings Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Kim Ulmer, Senior Vice President, Finance, and Treasurer of Silgan Holdings. Please go ahead. Thank you.

Joining me from the company today, I have Adam Greenlee, President and CEO, and Bob Lewis, EVP and CFO. Before we begin the call today, we would like to make it clear that certain statements made today on this conference call may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made based upon management's expectations and beliefs concerning future events impacting the company, and therefore involve a number of uncertainties and risks, including but not limited to those described in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for 2021 and other filings with the SEC. Therefore, the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. And with that, I'll turn it over to Adam.

Thank you, Kim. And we'd like to welcome everyone to Silgun's third quarter 2022 earnings call. I'll make a few comments about the quarter, share our thoughts regarding the remainder of the year, and give a preliminary look at the 2023 growth expectations. Bob will then review our financial performance, provide more details around our 2022 outlook, and then we'd be happy to answer any questions. As you saw in this morning's press release, our businesses continue to perform at a very high level and are focused on consistently delivering value and reliability for our shareholders and for our customers. The Sylvan team continues to drive record financial performance through operational excellence, targeting efficient utilization of our assets and reducing operating costs, commercial excellence aimed at meeting the unique needs of our customers, And finally, maintaining a very disciplined approach related to our cost pass-through mechanisms. As a result, and for the second consecutive quarter, Stilgen delivered an all-time record adjusted earnings per diluted share of $1.27 for the third quarter, a significant 25% increase over the prior year's record quarter, and importantly, an increase of over 20% versus our year-to-date earnings from 2021. While the anticipated destocking and normalization impacts in select categories drove organic volumes below prior year levels in the third quarter, absolute demand for our products remained strong, with third quarter dispensing and specialty closures volumes 15% above pre-pandemic levels and metal container volumes 13% above pre-pandemic levels. More importantly, we delivered meaningful year-over-year operating income improvement in each of our business segments in the quarter. Given our record performance to date and our expectations for the fourth quarter, which do include a strengthening U.S. dollar and higher interest rates, we are tightening the range of our adjusted earnings per share guidance for 2022 to a range of $3.90 to $4 per share, which at the midpoint represents a 16.2% increase versus the prior year record and will be the company's sixth consecutive year of record earnings performance. This compares to the prior range of $3.90 to $4.05 per share. We're also confirming our estimate of free cash flow of approximately $350 million for the full year of 2022. Finally, as we take an early look at 2023, we remain confident in the future prospects for each of our businesses and our ongoing ability to deliver continued growth. In acknowledgement of our core mission at Silgun, our teams continue to execute well And as always, we believe the value of our organization and the power of our broad portfolio of products will position the company to compete and win in the markets we serve through a variety of dynamic economic circumstances. As a result, we anticipate each of our business segments will deliver organic volume growth and operating improvements, which we expect to be a benefit to earnings in 2023. In addition, we do expect significantly higher free cash flow conversion in 2023 as well. With that, I will now turn it over to Bob to review the financial results in more detail and provide an additional explanation around our earnings estimates for the balance of 2022.