Luther C. Kissam - Albemarle Corp.
Management
Thanks, Matt. I'm very pleased with our start to the year, as we opened 2016 with a great first quarter for each of our businesses. Excluding adjusted EBITDA from divested businesses and year-over-year currency exchange impacts, revenue grew by $58 million, or almost 7%. And adjusted EBITDA grew by almost $44 million, or 22%, compared to the first quarter of 2015. Adjusted EBITDA growth was driven by increases of 31% in Refining Solutions, 26% in Lithium, 16% in Bromine, and 14% in Chemetall Surface Treatment. Overall, company adjusted EBITDA margins remained strong at 28%. Our four core businesses delivered combined adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%, up from 29% in the first quarter of 2015. Additionally, actual free cash flow in the quarter was in line with our expectations. Profit improvement was driven by volume growth, price gains, and lower costs across most of our businesses. These results highlight the strength of our businesses and the quality of our employees. In January, we reached the one-year anniversary of the Rockwood acquisition, and we are now truly one company with a focused, performance-driven organization. Before I turn the call over to Scott to discuss P&L and business unit highlights, let me update you on two strategic projects. First, our synergy projects continue to add to our bottom line results. As of the end of the first quarter, we have achieved synergies that will deliver $105 million in cost savings versus 2014, putting us well within reach of our goal of $120 million. We are working a number of identified projects that should allow us to easily meet our target, with our supply chain initiatives making significant contributions. Second, as we discussed in the fourth quarter call, we successfully divested two non-core businesses, Minerals and Metal Sulfides, in early 2016. This left us with only one business, Fine Chemistry Services [FCS], of the three targeted for sale in early 2015. We ran a structured auction process for this business, but the offers received and negotiations with potential purchasers failed to result in a value proposition that met our expectations. As such, we believe it is in the best interest of our shareholders to keep Fine Chemistry Services and to run it as a standalone business. First quarter 2016 results of this business showed a slight improvement over 2015, and keeping the business will not impact our ability to deleverage in any meaningful way. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.