Vertiv Holdings

Good morning. My name is Nick. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Berwick's Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note that this event is being recorded. Now I'd like to turn the program over to your host for today's conference call, Lynn Maxeiner, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Great. Thank you, Nick. Good morning and welcome to VRDA's fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Joining me today are VRDA's Executive Chairman, David Cody, Chief Executive Officer, Rob Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, David Fallon, and Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Gary Niederkrum. Before we begin, I point out that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding future events, including the future financial and operating performance of VRDA. These forward-looking statements are subject to material risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We refer you to the cautionary language included in today's earnings release, and you can learn more about these risks in our registration statement or proxy statement and other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make today are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. During this call, we will also present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Our GAAP results and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in our earnings press release and in the investor slide deck found on our website at investors.virtu.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Executive Chairman David Coates.

Thanks, Len. As I reflect on the past year with Vertiv, I'm even more encouraged that everything we discussed in the Roadshow has been proved to be even more true today. Vertiv has a great position in a good industry, and we can differentiate with technology. Sales growth and margin rate expansion opportunity abounds, and we have a team that's making it happen. That opportunity is shown brightly in 2020. We were able to hold sales flat and significantly increase orders in a terribly difficult year. We were able to increase our margin rate on flat sales, which is always difficult. And at the same time, we ramped up investment in R&D, other growth drivers, and process initiatives like the vert of operating system, vert of product development, functional transformation, and customer view, the vert of user experience. The same is true for 2021. as Vertiv guides to sales growth, margin rate expansion, and the reinvestment that drives both in 2022 and beyond. Cash and overall liquidity improved markedly, and net leverage is down a lot more than anticipated, especially in a COVID year. My confidence has increased, not decreased, over the past year. No matter where I look in Vertiv, we're making great progress, As Tim Buck III said in their 1986 song, the future's so bright, we've got to wear shades. I felt that way a year ago, and I feel that way even more so today. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.