Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation

Good day, and welcome to the Web Tech Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the Sonali 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 now would like to turn the conference over to Kyra Yates, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Wabtec's third quarter 2024 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 the Investor Relations tab. Some statements we are 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, Kyra, and good morning, everyone. Let's move to slide four. I will 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 another solid quarter, evidenced by sales growth, margin expansion, increased earnings, and strong cash flow. Sales were $2.7 billion, which was up nearly 4.5% versus the prior year. Revenue growth was driven by both the freight and transit segments. Adjusted EPS was up nearly 18% from the year-ago quarter, driven by increased sales and margin expansion. Total cash flow from operations for the quarter was $542 million. We continue to execute against our capital allocation framework to maximize shareholder value by investing for future growth and returning cash to our shareholders. The 12-month backlog was $7.6 billion, up 7.5%, signifying continued momentum and visibility across the business. And the total multi-year backlog was $22 billion. Overall, the WAPTEC team delivered a solid third quarter behind an intense focus on execution. Looking ahead, I'm encouraged by the underlying strength and momentum across the business and believe WAPTAC is positioned for continued profitable growth ahead. Shifting our focus to slide five, let's talk about 2024 and market expectations in more details. While key metrics across our freight business remain mixed, we are encouraged by the underlying momentum of our business, the continued strength of our international markets, and the robust pipeline of opportunities across geographies. North American car loads continue to be up in the quarter. Despite this car load growth, the industry's and Wabtec's active locomotive fleet was largely flat when compared to last year's third quarter. Looking at the North American railcar built, last quarter, The industry outlook for 2024 was 38,000 cars to be delivered, which has now been raised by the industry sources to 41,000 cars, down from last year's build of 45,000 cars. Internationally, we're seeing significant investments to expand and upgrade infrastructure, which are supporting a robust international locomotive borders pipeline. This is the strongest it has been over the last five years. in mining, commodity prices, and an aging fleet continue to support activity to refresh and upgrade the truck fleet. Finally, moving to the transit sector, we continue to see underlying indicators for growth. Ridership levels are increasing in key geographies, along with the fleet expansion and renewals. There also continues to be a strong push with regulation and customer initiatives on decarbonization and sustainable transportation solutions. Next, let's turn to slide six to discuss a few business highlights. Last year, in the third quarter, we announced the signing of a strategic MOU with KTZ, the national railway company in Kazakhstan, for over $2 billion. Since that time, we have worked to finalize orders associated with that MOU, a multi-year new locomotive order with KTZ for $405 million. These locomotives will provide efficiency, reliability, and operational savings to effectively support the growing demand on the Trans-Caspian international route that connects China to Europe. Moving to North America, we secured a long-term parts agreement with a Class 1 railroad for over $300 million. In transit, we signed a contract for $70 million with Siemens Mobility to supply passenger information systems for 90 Munich S-Bahn trains. And earlier in the quarter, we expanded our service contract with Indian Railways for another $30 million. This agreement expands Wabtex locomotive service capabilities into the southern part of the country. All of this demonstrates the underlying strength across our businesses, the team's relentless focus on execution, and the strong pipeline of opportunities which we continue to execute on. With that, I'll turn the call over to John to reveal the quarter segment results and our overall financial performance. John?