Pyxus Intl Inc New

Good morning and welcome to the Pixis International Inc. fiscal year 2024 third quarter earnings call. Please note that this call is being recorded. All lines and links have been placed on a listen-only mode at this time. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-answer session. If you would like to ask phone questions, please press star 1 on your touchtone telephone. Again, that will be star 1 for questions. I would now like to turn today's call over to Tomas Gregera, Treasurer. You may begin.

Thank you. Leading the call this morning is Peter Sickle, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Flavia Landsberg, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to call your attention to our safe harbor disclosure. You may hear statements during the course of this call that express a belief, expectation, or intention as well as statements that are not historical facts and other statements which may constitute forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1994 as amended. Such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events and results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risk and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements and with our business are described in detail in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made on this conference call to reflect any changes in management's expectations or any change in assumptions or circumstances on which these statements are based. Also included in our call today are references to certain financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles. These non-GAAP financial measurements, including but not limited to measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted free cash flow, should not be considered as an alternative to U.S. GAAP measures but are provided as additional information that we believe may have analytical value. As required under the SEC's Regulation G, which governs the use of non-GAAP financial measures, we have provided a table in our earnings release and in the appendix to our earnings presentation which reconcile such measures to the most comparable GAAP measures and which may contain other disclosures regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures. Any replay, rebroadcast, transcription, or other reproduction of this conference call, other than the replay as provided by Pixis International, has not been authorized and is strictly prohibited. Investors should be aware that any unauthorized reproduction of this conference call may not be an accurate reflection of its content. Thank you, and it's my pleasure to now turn the call over to Peter.

Good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Our third quarter performance was strong, and through the first nine months of the year, we have driven top-line growth, increased profitability, and improved working capital efficiency. As a result, we're excited to increase our full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA. During today's call, Flavia will provide details on our financial performance. But first, I would like to share some important highlights. We reported $530 million of sales in the quarter with very healthy margins. While the quarter's total revenues were lower than last year, this was anticipated given our focus on improved mix and improved cycle times, which increased our seasonal weighting in the first half. Year to date, we grew our revenue to $1.63 billion, an increase of just over 8% compared to the same period last year. Our gross margin in the third quarter of 17.5% increased four points over last year. Our year to date gross margin stands at 15.6%, which represents significant improvement compared to 13% for the same period last year. Our working capital efficiency enabled the company to invest in a significantly larger inventory position while maintaining interest costs comparable to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $64.5 million, a margin of 12.1%. This was a strong performance that brings our nine-month total to just over $165 million of adjusted EBITDA. After having increased our guidance last quarter, we're pleased to raise it again today. Our new full-year target range for adjusted EBITDA is $185 to $195 million. On a year-on-year basis, net interest expense in the quarter was essentially flat, even as we grew tobacco inventory by $83 million over last year to $780 million with continued low uncommitted levels. We continue to be well-placed to serve strong customer demand in future quarters while maximizing working capital efficiency. We've made consistent, steady progress over several quarters in building a more efficient and more capable position in the market. At the end of the third quarter, we'd increased our working capital deployment by $136 million over last year. And as we ship against our commitments, we're excited to demonstrate continued strong returns for those investments and an influx of cash. In addition to our financial performance, the company is making strides towards achieving our environmental, social, and governance targets. During the reporting period, we released our fiscal year 2023 sustainability report, which highlights, amongst other things, the achievement of our water-related target seven years ahead of schedule and an 11% reduction in our total greenhouse gas emissions compared to the prior year. We would like to thank our teams from around the globe for their contributions to our continuing success, and at the same time, remembering and embracing their larger responsibility to make progress on critical environmental and social issues. There's no question that in local communities around the world, how we operate often makes a tremendous difference. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Flavia Landsberg, our Chief Financial Officer.