Sylvamo Corporation

Good morning. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Savamo's third quarter 2022 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, you will have an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, please press 1 then 0 on your telephone keypad. And to withdraw from a question, please press 1 then 0. If you need assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. And as a reminder, your conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Hans Bjorkman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Lois. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call today. Our speakers this morning are Jean-Michel Ribieras, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and John Simms, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Slides two and three contain important information, including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-U.S. GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of those figures to U.S. GAAP financial measures are available in the appendix. Our website also contains copies of the third quarter earnings press release, as well as today's presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Jean-Michel. Thanks, Hans.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. I'll begin my comments on slide four. On October 1, we completed our first year as a public company. Our first year was one of significant achievements. As we built the world's paper company, we generated strong earnings per share and free cash flow, which we used to reduce debt, begin returning cash to shareholders, and reinvest in our business. We agreed to acquire the new Monomil in Sweden and divested our Russian business. Then we repaid our term loan B and achieved our target of a billion. We have also exited our transition services agreement. I'm proud of our teams and the accomplishment over the last year. More importantly, I'm pleased that we are well positioned to navigate any macroeconomic headwinds and resulting industry challenges. Slide 5 highlights our third quarter results. Our 3.3G of commercial excellence, operational excellence, and financial discipline was the foundation of our success. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, we increased adjusted EBITDA by 14% to $260 million, and we grew our margin by 160 basis points. We increased adjusted earnings per share by 24% to $2.51 per share. We generated $114 million in free cash flow and repaid $88 million of debt in the quarter. These results were above the high end of our guidance. Our continued strong performance reflects our talented teams, our iconic brands, and our low-cost meals, all of which enable us to remain the supplier of choice, for our customers. Slide six highlights our key performance metrics compared to the second quarter and to last year's third quarter. We increased net sales by 6% to $968 million. Our adjusted EBITDA of $216 million represents a margin of 22.3%, the highest margins level we have achieved. We generated $114 million in free cash flow, which was an increase due to higher earnings, less capital spending, and a reduction in working capital. These strong performances demonstrate our ability to continue to deliver on our investment thesis. Our teams performed well, creating value for all of our stakeholders. Now, John Sims will discuss our third quarter performance In more detail, John.