Orbia Advance Corp Sab

Good morning, and welcome to the ORBEA first quarter 2022 earnings results. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the start key, followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press start and run your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press start and two. Please note this event is being recorded. I will now like to turn the conference over to Gerardo Lozayo, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to ORVIA's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. We appreciate your time and participation today. Joining me are Samir Baradwash, CEO, and Jim Kelly, CFO. A friendly reminder before we continue, some of our comments today will contain forward-looking statements based on our current view of our business. and actual future results may differ materially. Today's call could be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and in our most recent Bolsa Mexicana de Valores report. The company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements. With that, let me now turn the call over to Samir.

Thank you, Gerardo, and good morning, everyone. I would first like to take the opportunity to recognize our employees for their resilience and dedication to Orbia and our stakeholders and customers for their faith in Orbia as we advance life around the world. We are facing challenging times across the globe, given the devastating crisis arising from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, inflationary pressures, and the lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud of our team who has led the way in maintaining a relentless focus on serving our customers with essential solutions to advance life around the world. Before going into our numbers, as you may have seen, Orbia is hosting an investor day on Tuesday, May 17th, 2022, and I'd like to take this opportunity to personally invite you to the event which will take place in Boston. There will also be a live webcast of the event for those who cannot attend in person. During the event, we will provide insight into the company's sustainability-aligned business platform, long-term growth and value creation strategy, and multi-year financial targets. I hope you can join us on the day. Now, turning to slide three, I would like to share a high-level overview of our first quarter 2022 performance. Orbia had another strong quarter, starting the year on a high note. Our diversified and integrated portfolio allowed us to deliver robust results, which more than offset the impact of continuing macro pressures, such as cost increases in raw materials, supply chain disruptions, and energy costs, and commercial choices stemming from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This represents our fifth consecutive quarter of strong results and significant growth. Revenues for the quarter total 2.6 billion, up 36% versus the prior year, and EBITDA total 611 million, an increase of 35% compared to the prior year. These results were driven by solid performance across our business groups with continued strong demand and pricing. Our EBITDA margin of 23.5% was at the same level as the year-ago quarter. Finally, we increased our operating cash flow by $198 million to $194 million in spite of increased working capital needs due to higher receivables related to the strong volumes and pricing. Our financial performance is underpinned by a healthy balance sheet that enables us to execute our growth strategy by investing in innovation, geographic expansion, and bolt-on acquisitions. During the quarter, our building and infrastructure group completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Vectus Industries Limited, a privately held manufacturer of pipes and fittings and the market leader in water storage tanks in India. This acquisition puts Orbia at the forefront of India's high-growth water management industry. We also continue to grow through strategic partnerships. Fluorinated Solutions signed a three-party letter of intent with FUSUN and the mayor of Kaczerin-Kozle, Poland, to create a joint venture to meet growing demand for inorganic fluorine compounds used in the production of lithium ion batteries in Europe. Orbia Ventures participated in an investor syndicate backing Verdigis, a green hydrogen cell technology developer with new electrolyzer technology. We believe green hydrogen will play a significant role in helping to decarbonize industrial processing at scale. Investment funds raised will be directed to accelerating development and commercialization of Verdigis technology. I would now like to turn the call over to Jim to go through our detailed financial performance in further detail. Jim?