Thank you for standing by. My name is Hermione and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Ashland Inc. Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to William Whitaker. Please go ahead.

Hello everyone and welcome to Ashland's fourth quarter fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call webcast. My name is William Whitaker, Vice President of Finance and Director of Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Guillermo Novo, Ashland's Chair and Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Willis, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, I want to welcome our three General Managers, which will cover the performance of their respective business units. Alessandra Faccin, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Life Sciences and Intermediates; Jim Minicucci, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Personal Care; Dago Caceres, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Specialty Additives. Ashland released results for the quarter ended September 30th, 2024, at approximately 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time yesterday, November 6th. The news release issued last night was furnished to the SEC on a Form 8-K. During today's call, we will reference slides that are currently being webcast on our website, ashland.com, under the Investor Relations' section. We encourage you to follow along with the webcast during the call. Please turn to Slide 2. As a reminder, during today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our financial outlook for full year fiscal 2025. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from today's projections. We believe any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions that cannot assure that expectations will be achieved. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation for an explanation of those risks and uncertainties and the limits applicable to forward-looking statements. You can also review our most recent Form 10-K under Item 1A for a comprehensive discussion of the risk factors impacting our business. Please also note that we'll be referring to certain actual and projected financial metrics of Ashland on an adjusted basis, which are non-GAAP financial measures. We will refer to these measures as adjusted and present them to supplement your understanding and assessment of the financial performance of our ongoing business. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered a substitute for or superior to financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. The most directly comparable GAAP measures as well as reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to those GAAP measures are available on our website and in the appendix of today's slide presentation. Please turn to Slide 4. Guillermo will begin the call this morning with an overview of Ashland's performance for the quarter and year. Next, Kevin and the general managers will provide a more detailed review of financial results for the quarter followed by a portfolio optimization update. Guillermo will then provide an update on Ashland's financial outlook and priorities for the years ahead. We will then open the line for your questions. I will now turn the call over to Guillermo for his opening comments. Guillermo?

Thank you, William and hello everyone. Thank you for your interest in Ashland and for your participation today. For today, I'd like to focus my update on three topics. First, provide an overview of our Q4 performance. As you will see, market dynamics and business performance was generally in line with expectations. The EBITDA performance gap for the quarter was driven by some operational challenges in one of our U.S. plants that impacted production and difficult market conditions for Specialty Additives in China. Second, as we planned, Ashland has gone through a lot of portfolio changes through the year. We downsized CMC and MT industrial businesses and sold our nutraceutical business. We will share the underlying performance of our core portfolio in fiscal 2024. We'll also see the impact of the portfolio reset and the actions we're taking to offset the associated earnings impact. Third, we will provide an update on our guidance for fiscal 2025. You will see known bridging items that will impact our fiscal 2025 performance baseline. This includes items like improved absorption, price erosion carryover, the planned exit of Avoca business, compensation resets, and our planned restructuring and productivity actions. From this baseline, we will build our fiscal 2025 outlook. As you will see, we are taking a more cautious view of developments in China. Please turn to Slide 6. Let's start with Q4 performance. For the quarter, customer demand was generally consistent with our expectations. Our Q4 sales were up 1% from the prior year at $522 million. Inclusive of portfolio improvement actions and partial ownership of nutraceuticals, adjusted for the full quarter impact of the nutraceutical business and portfolio optimization actions, revenue increased 8%. Sales volume increased for the third quarter in a row, up 4% versus last year. Pricing was generally stable sequentially…

Thank you, Guillermo and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 10. Total Ashland sales in the quarter were $522 million, up 1% compared to prior year. Year-over-year quarterly volumes increased 4% as demand recovered within the Personal Care and Specialty Additives segments. These volume gains were partially offset by unfavorable Life Sciences volumes. Sales volume in Life Sciences was lower due to the CMC and nutraceuticals optimization initiatives. Overall, portfolio optimization initiatives reduced sales by approximately $24 million or 5% during the fourth quarter, including a partial quarter of nutraceuticals. Regional results continue to be mixed. When compared to last year, sales trends in North America are improving. Absolute weakness in Latin America and Middle East, Africa linger, but with moderation on sequential improvement and an easing prior year. Demand was stable in Europe, but off a lower base in the prior year. Overall demand in Asia was generally stronger with a specific weakness in China coatings. Gross profit margin increased 940 basis points to 34.3% in the quarter. Several factors contributed to this improvement, primarily a sales and production volume recovery as well as better mix. This was partially offset by unfavorable pricing versus raws, primarily in pharma as well as coatings. SG&A, R&D, and intangible amortization costs were $111 million, down $5 million from the prior year, primarily reflecting reduced amortization. In total, Ashland's adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $124 million, up 68% from the prior year. Ashland's adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 23.8%, up from 14.3% in the prior year. Adjusted EPS, excluding acquisition amortization for the quarter, was $1.26 per share, up 207% from the prior year quarter. Now, I will turn the call over to our general managers to review the results of each of our four operating segments. Alessandra?

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 11 for Life Sciences. Pharma reached an important inflection in the quarter by returning to growth. Pharma demand was resilient for our market-leading cellulosics excipients, where share gains have more than offset softer market conditions throughout the year. Our VP&D pharma business was down versus the prior year, but improved sequentially as the team executes on share gains opportunities. Crop care demand recovered in the quarter and the comps are easing going forward. In crop care, we accelerated the rollout of our new super-wetting technology platform, launching a biodegradable, silicon-free multifunctional wetting agent for crop care formulations in September. Life Sciences globalized business lines, injectables and OSD coatings both grew at double-digits in the quarter. For injectables, our investments in people, production and technology continue to accelerate our growth in this highly attractive end market. As Guillermo mentioned, we divested the nutraceuticals business, which was down double-digits prior to the sale. We also executed our exposure to low-margin nutrition business in the quarter. Overall, Life Sciences sales declined by 5% to $192 million. The portfolio optimization initiative reduced Life Sciences sales by approximately $15 million or 7% during the fourth quarter. Adjusting for the full quarter impact of nutraceuticals and portfolio optimization, sales volume grew by 13%. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 17% to $56 million, primarily reflecting higher production volumes, improved mix, partially offset by lower pricing and the nutraceutical divestiture. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 560 basis points to 29.2%. Please turn to Slide 12 for Intermediates. Total merchant and captive sales were $36 million, down 3% from the prior year quarter. Merchant sales totaled $24 million, down from $25 million in the prior year quarter, driven primarily by increased merchant BDO volumes more than offset by lower NMP pricing. Lower NMP results are primarily due to weaker demand in the electric vehicle battery end markets and delayed battery plant start-up. Captive internal BDO sales were $12 million, flat compared to the prior year quarter. Intermediates generated adjusted EBITDA of $10 million or a 27.8% adjusted EBITDA margin compared to $3 million in the prior year. The profit increase reflects significant higher production volumes and improved mix, partially offset by lower pricing. I will now turn the call over to Jim to review the results of our Personal Care business. Jim?

Thank you, Alessandra. Good morning everyone. Please turn to Slide 13 for Personal Care. Nearly all end markets experienced improved demand, marking the second consecutive quarter with double-digit sales growth. Skin Care and Hair Care generated the highest growth as compared to the prior year with regional strength in both Asia and North America. Asia delivered strong revenue growth driven by share gains and our positioning with local customers amidst a softer market backdrop. In addition, North America performed well versus prior year, driven by robust consumer demand. As we shared in the last earnings call, oral care sales in the quarter were negatively impacted by key customer order patterns. For the full year, oral care sales were up mid-single-digits, and we expect to lap the order timing dynamics by the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The performance impact from Avoca moderated, reflecting the start of our actions to sell or exit the business. Personal Care's globalized business lines, biofunctionals and microbial protection, both grew at double-digits in the quarter and delivered outsized mix impact. Microbial protection accelerated the regional asset network program and biofunctionals continued to make good progress on customer expansion efforts. Pricing was stable in the quarter with modestly favorable raw materials. Personal Care sales increased by 11% to $162 million. The portfolio optimization initiatives reduced Personal Care sales by approximately $3 million or 2% during the fourth quarter. The team executed very well, delivering an adjusted EBITDA of $47 million, up 31% versus prior year, primarily reflecting the impact of higher sales and improved mix. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 430 basis points to 29%. I will now turn the call over to Dago to review the results of our Specialty Additives business. Dago?

Thank you, Jim. Please turn to Slide 14 for Specialty Additives. Overall, sales volumes were up 5% versus the prior year, led by a continued recovery in coatings and performance specialties. Low-margin construction exits and moderating energy weakness partially offset our overall sales volume growth. Performance specialties demand has broadly recovered very well versus the prior year. We are seeing strength in areas such as adhesives, instant printing as well as emission control and catalysts. Our regional coatings recovery continues to be mixed with improving sales in rest of Asia and stability in North America and Europe. Overall, pricing for coatings was lower with the largest impact in China. For the quarter, Specialty Additives sales were in line with the prior year at $144 million. The portfolio optimization initiatives reduced Specialty Additives sales by $6 million or 4% during the fourth quarter. Adjusted for portfolio optimization, sales volumes were up 9% versus the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $29 million, primarily reflecting the impact of significantly higher production volumes, partially offset by lower pricing. As Guillermo mentioned, our results were lower than expected on HEC operating issues of approximately $5 million while commissioning productivity investments. HEC production at the site has normalized starting in early October. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved nearly 1,500 basis points versus the prior year to 20.1%, including a 350 basis point headwind versus expectations from the discrete operating issues. I will now turn the call back to Kevin. Kevin?

Thanks Dago. Please turn to Slide 15. Ashland continues to have a strong financial position. As of the end of September, we had cash on hand of $300 million with total available liquidity of $896 million. Our net debt was just over $1 billion and about 2.3 turns of leverage. We have no floating rate debt outstanding, no long-term debt maturities for the next two years, and all of our outstanding debt is subject to investment-grade style credit terms. As Guillermo noted, we continue to believe Ashland's stock is an attractive use of capital and deployed $150 million in the quarter to repurchase 1.7 million shares. Our balanced and disciplined capital allocation approach has deployed roughly $1.3 billion to share repurchases during the last four fiscal years. We have $620 million remaining under the current share repurchase authorization. As we've demonstrated, we will not hesitate to act when we see value in share repurchase activity. We are continuing to invest in our existing businesses and technology platforms to grow organically, while pursuing our strategy of targeted bolt-on M&A opportunities focused on pharma, personal care and coatings. Please turn to Slide 16. Ashland prudently managed production and inventory levels throughout the quarter. Our actions should better position us for more resilient performance going forward. Overall, ongoing free cash flow was healthy for the quarter and the year at $88 million and $270 million, respectively. Ongoing free cash flow for the full year grew by 24% with an ongoing free cash flow conversion of 59%, up from 47%. Our progressive dividend policy remains an important part of our capital allocation strategy and is reflective of our confidence in the company's long-term profitable growth and cash flow generation outlook. With that, I will now provide an update on the execute pillar of our…

Thanks Kevin and please turn to Slide 20. As we look out to fiscal 2025, overall uncertainty remains high with changing macroeconomic -- macro dynamics potentially having very different impacts on our industry and markets. While changes always create opportunities and risks, given the high level of uncertainty, we feel it's prudent to take a more conservative outlook and focus on building resilience to minimize risk and capitalize on opportunities. Some of the known dynamics impacting the global economy include elevated but moderating inflation, mixed demand recovery and uncertain policy transitions. As a result, we have very different regional expectations. In the U.S., we expect consumer segments to remain strong and see potential upside from a strengthening construction and real estate market. We expect Europe to remain stable off a low base. Risk in the region stems from geopolitical dynamics, structural manufacturing challenges and lower consumer confidence. We are assuming a meaningful downturn in China. Uncertainty remains very high due to the oversupply, a distressed property market and waning consumer confidence. These factors impact our view of supply-demand balances locally and in other export markets. As a result, our assessment of the overall macroeconomic environment suggests muted demand and increased competitive intensity. We recognize that this view may be cautious, but we feel that it's a prudent perspective for our planning. We have taken actions to position Ashland to perform in a more uncertain environment. We have a strong balance sheet and cash flow, which will afford a disciplined, balanced approach to capital allocation. Our core markets are focused on serving resilient customer-focused end markets. The recent portfolio actions will reduce our business volatility. We are taking actions to drive several high-impact self-help opportunities to improve our cost position, strengthen our competitive position and drive results. We are well positioned…

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Michael Sison with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hey good morning. In terms of your outlook for fiscal 2025, I think there was a little bit more negative than we had thought versus sort of the walk to the positive. So, I guess, can you maybe give us a little bit of thoughts on where the upside could be? And then longer term, what type of EBITDA do you think Ashland should get to? We've sort of been stuck here below $500 million for a little bit. So, just maybe a longer term view on that as well, Guillermo.

Yes. Mike, thanks for the question. First, if we look at the year, I mean, we've shared more data and more modeling points than we've done in the past. Obviously, we recognize there's a lot of changes within Ashland of all the portfolio changes. And also, I think there's a lot of just structural global changes that are happening, especially around Europe with just manufacturing competitiveness and some shifts there and now more importantly, in China. So, that baseline where we're starting at $450 million sort of takes everything into account and then we can start moving forward. If you look at the range that we've looked at, our model has not changed. We believe the portfolio can deliver mid-single-digit growth, the margins that we've been talking about. So, if you just do some scenarios, if you take the midpoint that we're giving and put 5% growth or 3% to 6% growth, that will take you to the higher end of our portfolio. Most of our businesses and most of the regions are performing in that range. What we're bringing back down is we think that China is going to go through a prolonged period, and this is not something that's going to change overnight and that we need to factor in that it's going to become a more hypercompetitive market. There's going to be a lot of oversupply and that we should be prudent on that. If we're wrong, there's more upside. If we're right, we're prepared. So, that's what's bringing it down to us. What would take it to the downside is that the global economy doesn't perform as well and then the growth isn't as high, but you get the negative side in China. That's the part how -- we've laid it out. And I think it's…

And Mike, I think it's also important to note that in terms of the optimization items that we've talked about, this $90 million, we have very clear visibility into the vast majority of that $90 million today. It's about timing and execution around the activities that have to happen. And some of these are fairly complex, and they do involve our manufacturing footprint and how we're managing through all of that. But again, we do have very clear visibility into the vast majority of the $90 million that we're talking about.

Great. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Spector with UBS.

Hey guys, this is James Cannon on for Josh. I just wanted to follow-up on -- I think in the release, you talked about some incremental pricing pressure offsetting volumes versus, I think, in the outlook that Guillermo just gave, he talked about mid-single volume growth. Are you expecting further pricing pressure to offset that? Or does that volume growth comment imply like organic growth overall?

So, overall, we are expecting organic growth. I would break it down into two separate issues. Put China aside. In the overall portfolio, we expect overall growth. The volumes are -- outlook seems strong to us across most of the regions. We do see some pressures on pricing around the world, more specifically for our call in the fourth quarter. There's still a lot of negotiations in the VP&D business in pharma as an example. We've been able to reposition in Asia and Latin America. The price is already reflective and the volumes are coming back. We're in the middle of negotiations in Europe, which is another big market for us. I don't want to comment about that too much because they are in progress, but that should all work out through now and -- now through January, we should have most of those negotiations down. So we expect it's going to be a trade-off of price versus volume, and we're managing through that. I think if you look at the China side, there's two dimensions to it. One is what's happening in China. And although it's been stable from a volume perspective for us, we have seen price erosion there. I think the part that we're looking at, and it has not happened. This is more of our outlook is saying, look, if the demand in China -- if you look at China, and maybe I'll ask Dago to make some comments here, but most of the business in China in coatings specifically is in -- 40% is repaint, 60%, 70% is new construction. In the U.S. and other parts of the world, it's the other way around. Majority of the market is repaint versus new construction. So, if you step back and you look at China, the repaint…

Thank you, Guillermo. Yes, what I would say is that definitely new construction drives the coatings market in China more than repaint and remodel. That's clear. And from that perspective, as long as the property sector remains depressed, well, we're going to see soft demand, and that's what we're seeing today. Of course, with soft demand, you have oversupply and then you have pricing pressures. I think to Guillermo's point, I actually was in the region a couple of months ago, and the stimulus package was welcomed. I think it's a step in the right direction, but we don't believe it's going to have an effect in 2025. I think it's going to be more 2026 and 2027. Why? Because these are really structural issues that China is dealing with. So, we're taking a conservative approach. We've talked to customers. We do see demand softness, and that's why we are forecasting the way we are.

Okay. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of John Roberts with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Thank you. We're about halfway through the December quarter. Is there anything you can talk about in terms of bridging December quarter EBITDA to September quarter results?

I think right now, the quarter -- and we'll see what the recent elections do to some of the demand behaviors from customers. We are seeing the quarter starting a little bit softer, some of our customers, especially in Europe, indicating that they're taking more inventory control actions. So I think this will be more -- is some of the volumes going to shift in December to January, depending on the actions they take. So, that's the one signal. Most of where we're hearing it is in Europe. We're not seeing a lot of changes in the rest of the world. And China is the one that we are looking at. And I think depending on some of the dynamics right now, I would expect starting end of this quarter and most likely, more heavily into Q2, that's when we're going to start seeing some of the bigger changes.

And then is there a dollar amount of buyback that we should think about for 2025? Or how should we think about that?

I think -- and I'll -- let me comment and Kevin, you might want to comment more. I think we've shown that we have a strong balance sheet. We have the capability, depending on -- we are very bullish on the long term, as you heard. I mean, our globalized segments are growing at double-digits. We have a lot of innovation that we're -- so nothing has really changed in the long term. It's -- we have to go through this transition of the Ashland changes of our portfolio in a dynamic of structural changes in Europe and China, and we'll work through that. That does not change our long-term perspective. So if valuations create opportunities, we've shown that we will take action, and I don't think that has changed. But Kevin, can you comment a little bit?

Sure. I mean I think we demonstrated in fiscal 2024 that we're very bullish on the company and on the stock. We repurchased nearly 4.3 million shares, spent approximately $380 million to do that. Very comfortable with what we've done there from an execution perspective. The beauty of maintaining a strong balance sheet is that we have the flexibility to do a lot of different things. We can invest in the business. We can continue to repurchase shares. We can support a strong and growing dividend. And you should expect us to do in the future, the things that we have been doing in that regard. So we do have the flexibility to do that. As we look at fiscal 2025, there's no reason that the company shouldn't generate north of 50% free cash flow conversion to EBITDA. And that will help support the activities that we've been doing and that we will continue to do.

Thank you.

Your last question comes from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Dago, I was wondering if you could give us a regional breakout of what the coatings business looks like. I just think it would be helpful if we understood how big the China coatings business is. And maybe also talk a little bit about your expectations for other regions, particularly North America, if we're seeing some relief on mortgage rates.

Yes. Thank you for the question. So, what we're seeing today, I would say the market in North America, it's pretty stable. Now, with the interest rates coming down and some of the predictions that we see out there, we expect the growth rates in the 3% to 4%. That's what the American Coatings Association is saying. Europe has its challenges, but Europe is growing well for us, I would say. So, I would say Europe, looking into 2025, I will also consider it a stable market. There are some interesting pockets of growth for us last year. So, Middle East, Africa, and India, that's a very interesting one. India is a country that continues to grow, and we're actually -- we feel optimistic about that one. Rest of Asia, I would say it's also stable for us, slightly growing. I think really the issue keeps going back to China, where we have this structural fundamental issue, and that's what we have to deal with in 2025. But overall, the rest of the market, I would say, are stable. We are producing ahead of the paint season. So we're -- we don't expect anything other than really dealing with the China issue.

And Mike, to your question, China is about 25% of the coatings business. So, if you look at our footprint, we have a very well-balanced footprint, plants in Europe, in the U.S. and China. So until now, most -- all of our production in China stayed in China. So part of our options, obviously, as we rebalance, and this is all the work we've been doing on our HEC network is that we can rebalance and export -- change where we export, what we ship from where. But we're going to wait and see how -- some of these comments that we're seeing have not happened yet. These are our expectations. We're looking forward, and we're taking this more conservative view. But we have flexibility to respond depending on what happens. I think the bigger question right now is going to be with the recent elections, what does that do to trade policies? This is -- for us, the one business that probably sees a lot more impact because of some of these dynamics.

All right. Thank you for that. And then just making sure that I understand what was going on with the operational issues that you incurred during the fourth quarter, it sounds like that was related to fixed cost absorption within Specialty Additives. And I guess my question is, if we're going to see some prolonged weakness in China coatings in particular, could we potentially see some lower utilization rates and some weaker fixed cost absorption in the first part of fiscal 2025? Is that something that's potentially baked into your guidance?

If you look at from a volume -- first, what happened in the U.S., it's a plant. We're investing to making some changes for future productivity so that we have more flexibility on what we make where as we move forward. We had issues in the start-up, and that's really what caused -- it's an absorption issue. The plant did not run as expected during the month -- during the quarter. And then not related, we had another issue, just an equipment failure as we were starting up. So, it just prolonged a little bit longer the delay. So it is an absorption issue and the plant is running and we'll run to the normal production plans that we have. So, the expectation is we'll recover some of this into the year. The issue in China is all our production in China is for China. So, depending on what happens there, that's the one area that we will adjust, and that is factored into our guidance range upside, downside. It has not happened, but we are factoring if we needed to do that in the scenarios that guide this range.

All right. Thanks very much.

There are no other questions. I will now turn the call back over to Guillermo Novo for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation. I know that there's a lot of data and a lot of outlook comments that we have. We look forward in a few weeks that we'll see everybody in New York and also calls in the coming days. So, I'm sure that we'll have a chance to go in more detail and give you a little bit more color. I do want to end to say we have -- we're -- although we're taking a conservative view on one region of the world and specifically one business that gets impacted the most, the majority of the portfolio, we're very excited where we're going. Everything that we have been executing has been working for our plans. And the future really is now about staying focused. We've got to deal with the reality of the current situation in terms of the business. But we need to perform both in the long term, stay focused, we're investing, we're growing and manage the near-term and that's what we'll do. Look forward to talking to you in a few weeks. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.