Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the Web Tech first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Christine Kubacki, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Wabtec's first quarter 2023 earnings call. With us today are President and CEO Rafael Santana, CFO John Olin, and Senior Vice President of Finance John Mastelers. Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures, were posted to our website earlier today and can be accessed on our investor relations tab on wabtechcorp.com. Some statements we're making are forward-looking and based on our best view of the world and our business today. For more detailed risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and presentation. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to read our disclosures and reconciliation tables carefully as you consider these metrics. I will now turn the call over to Rafael.

Thanks, Christine, and good morning, everyone. Let's move to slide four. I'll start with an update on our business, my perspectives on the quarter, and progress against our long-term value creation framework. And then John will cover the financials. We delivered a strong start to the year, which is evidenced by robust sales and earnings per share growth. We achieved this despite a volatile and uncertain macro environment. Sales were roughly $2.2 billion, which was up 14% versus prior year. Revenue was driven by strong performance across the freight and transit segments, but partially offset by unfavorable effects. Total cash flow used for operations was $25 million. Overall, our financial position remains strong. We continue to allocate capital to maximize shareholder returns by investing for future growth, executing on a strategic M&A, and returning cash to shareholders. Total multi-year backlog was $22.3 billion, down 2% year over year, and excluding the headwinds from FX, Backlog was down four-tenths of a percent from last year. The 12-month backlog again grew to a new high of $6.9 billion. Overall, we have a strong start to the year. The underlying strength and momentum of the business is evident, and we're well-positioned to continue to drive profitable growth, even with uncertainty and volatility in the global economy. We remain confident in our ability to execute on our rigorous operating principles as we continue to deliver for our customers and make progress against our long-term growth strategies. Shifting our focus to slide five, let's talk about our 2023 end market expectations in more details. As we look at key metrics across our trade businesses, we remain encouraged by the underlying business momentum and our robust pipeline of opportunities. North America car loads were down in the quarter, but locomotive parkings are slightly lower than the same time last year, despite lower freight traffic. We continue to see significant opportunities in demand for modernizations and new locomotives as our customers invest in solutions that continue to drive reliability, productivity, and fuel efficiency. Looking at the North America rail car build, demand for rail cars continue to show strength. As a result, the industry outlook for 2023 is for 40,000 to 45,000 cars to be delivered. Overall, we believe we have an opportunity to continue building significant long-term momentum with growth in modernizations, in locomotive sales, in rail car builds, and in digital solutions. Internationally, activity also continues to show positive signs, and we continue to grow our installed bays of locomotives around the world. Finally, transitioning through the transit sector, the secular drivers remain in place as the need for clean, safe, and efficient transportation solutions continue to increase across the world. Next, let's turn to slide six to discuss a few recent business highlights. We recently signed a strategic order for new locomotives in Brazil with VLI, which results from the growing investments in Brazil's infrastructure to support growing rail volumes. We also secured a key order for our new ultra-class mining drive system specifically targeted for high-altitude applications. Reflecting on the resilience of the business, the strength of our balance sheet, and our ability to generate strong cash flow, Moody's recently upgraded WAPTAC's credit rating. And finally, our team in India achieved a significant milestone by delivering 500 locomotives in a 1,000-unit order to Indian railways. As one of the region's largest rail equipment suppliers, the team has positioned WAPTAC in our customers for growth for years to come. All of this demonstrates the underlying momentum in the business, the team's relentless focus on execution, and the strong pipeline of opportunities we continue to deliver on. Wabtec is well positioned to continue to capture profitable growth with innovative and scalable technologies that address our customers' most pressing needs. With that, I'll turn the call over to John to review the quarter, segment results, in our overall financial performance. John? Thanks, Rafael, and good morning.