Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2012 Cabot Earnings Conference Call. My name is Erica, and I’ll be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today’s call, Erica McLaughlin, please proceed.

Thank you, Erica. Good afternoon. I would like to welcome you to the Cabot Corporation earnings teleconference. Last night, we released results for our fourth quarter and full fiscal year of 2012, copies of which are posted in the Investor Relations section of our website. For those on our mailing list, you’ll receive this press release either by email or fax. If you are not on our mailing list and are interested in receiving this information in the future, please contact Investor Relations. The slide deck that accompanies this call is also available in the Investor Relations portion of our website and will be available in conjunction with the replay of the call. I remind you that our conversation today will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and Cabot’s actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. A list of factors that could affect Cabot’s actual results can be found in the press release we issued last night and are discussed more fully in the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly in our last Annual Report on Form 10-K. These filings can be found in the Investor Relations portion of our website. Also, as we typically do each year, I would like to remind you that over the next several months, in connection with the vesting of restricted stock awards issued under our long-term incentive equity program, officers of the company may sell shares to pay tax and other obligations related to these awards. I will now turn the call over to Patrick Prevost, who will discuss the key highlights of the company’s performance. Eddie Cordeiro will review the business segment and corporate financial details. Following this, Patrick will provide closing comments and open the floor to questions. Patrick?

Thank you, Erica, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sure that many of you are calling from the New York and New Jersey area. And with the last few days, the Hurricane Sandy coming thru that area, I hope that you’ve been spared and, you know, if things are – and hope that things are on the mend for you. Let me get on with the business of Cabot. In 2012, we continued our transformation to a higher margin Global Specialty chemicals company. First of all, we achieved another year of robust results, with $3.34 of adjusted earnings per share, a 37% improvement over last year. Our suggest was driven by multiple factors, specifically our value pricing, improved product mix, energy efficiency investments and the introduction of new product. We also made great progress in completing new capacity expansions to support future growth. We started up new capacity over the past year for a number of our businesses, including 50,000 tons of Rubber Blacks capacity in Indonesia, South America and Europe, 10,000 tons of Fumed Silica capacity in China. And we also doubled the capacity for two lines at our Inkjet Colorants facility here in Massachusetts. In addition, we exercised our portfolio management lever with the divestiture of the Tantalum business and the acquisition of Norit. Combined, these transactions will improve the stability of the company’s earnings and open up new higher-growth diversified end markets. When I joined the company in 2008, we announced our strategy to deliver earnings growth through leadership and Performance Materials. Today, we have nearly tripled the earnings power we had in 2008, and we have improved our adjusted ROIC from 8% to 12%. We’ve achieved this through our four-prong strategy of capacity and emerging market expansion, margin improvement, new products and new business growth,…

Thank you, Patrick. For the fourth fiscal quarter, total segment EBIT from continuing operations was 96 million, which was 17 million higher than last year’s fourth quarter. The increase as compared to the prior year was driven by higher pricing and improved product mix that more than offset lower volume. Sequentially, total segment EBIT decreased 13 million, resulting from lower unit margins in Reinforcement Materials, which I will discuss in more detail shortly. We also experienced seasonally lower volumes in our Specialty Carbons and Compounds business. Now I will discuss the details of the segment level, beginning with the Reinforcement Materials. During the fourth quarter of 2012, EBIT for Reinforcement Materials increased by 3 million as compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. The increase was driven principally by higher margins, as higher prices and lower manufacturing cost were partially offset by 5% lower volumes. Volumes declined in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012, as compared to the same quarter of 2011 in all regions, except China, due to the weak global environment. Sequentially, EBIT decreased 18 million driven by lower unit margin as a result of three issues that each contributed equally to the $18 million decline. The first impact was from high-cost feedstock in inventory that moved through our supply chain at a slower rate than we anticipated in Europe and Southeast Asia. As a result, we experienced a margin squeeze. The second was due to an unplanned supply disruption at one of our feedstock suppliers in South America. This required us to source products from other plants within our network, and we incurred additional cost because of this event. The third is related to the competitive environment in China where we are balancing our volume in price management decision. These unfavorable impacts were partially offset by 1%…

Thank you, Eddie. We’re pleased with our fiscal 2012 results, as we saw another year of growth in our segment earnings and EPS, despite of this difficult economic environment. With a divestitures of Supermetals and the acquisition of Norit, we’ve also strengthened our portfolio. As we look ahead to 2013, the uncertain conditions in Europe, a slowing Chinese economy and a weak U.S. recovery, make us cautious about the near term. We expect the current environment to continue through this calendar year. However, due to the nondiscretionary nature of many of our products, we anticipate demand to recover in 2013. We remain focused on factors of performance that are within our control, including new and innovative product introductions that will help us differentiate our offering, the implementation of yield and energy efficient technologies which will reduce our cost, the completion of our competitive new capacity in China and Wales, and the integration of Norit, which provides a new platform of growth for the company. We are pleased with our fiscal year performance as we continue on our growth trajectory towards our adjusted EPS target of $4.90 to $5 in fiscal 2014. We have strengthened our overall competitive position through strategic capacity additions, value pricing, [inaudible] energy efficiency and new product. These actions, combined with a return to a more stable macroeconomic environment, give us confidence that we will achieve our adjusted EPS target. Thank you very much for joining us today and I will now turn the call back over for our question-and-answer session.

(Operator instructions). And our first question comes from the line of Ivan Marcuse with KeyBanc. Please proceed. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO : Hi, Ivan. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: In the Rubber Blacks business, when you look at all the capacity that you’ve been brining on and you continue to bring and in the competitiveness that you mentioned in China, and then you look at the general weakness in the entire industry, how do you improve margins in fiscal ’13 or do you need some help from the microenvironment? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO : Well, first of all, I would say, you know, volumes are key factors in this business, so we’ll not deny that 80% utilization rate are rates that will allow us to achieve the superior financial performance. So we’re going to need to see an improvement in the – on the volumes side during the course of next year. Now, we’re somewhat optimistic about that happening because we believe that the destocking that has occurred over the last quarter and the abating of that destocking indicates that we perhaps have reached the bottom of the low demand period and we’re still very confident looking at the long-term data that focused that annual growth for tires is still, in spite of the complexity of the economic situation we’re dealing with, a growth rate that is, I would say, robust. Now, in the meantime, of course, we’re looking at multiple ways of managing the environment and a lot of our effort, as I mentioned earlier, are focused on the energy and efficiency of our operations as well as trying to get our yields improved and getting feedstock purchased advantously.…

Our next question comes from the line of John Roberts with Buckingham Research. Please proceed. John E. Roberts – Buckingham Research Group, Inc.: Good afternoon. Patrick M, Prevost – President, CEO : Good afternoon, John. John E. Roberts – Buckingham Research Group, Inc.: The demand for – from coal-fired plants for active carbon must have been done much more than the 2% for overall Norit. Could you comment about how much it was down double digit percentages or what and what’s the margin differential that accounts for the unfavorable mix? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: So you know, as you correctly noted, we’re seeing the competition between coal and natural gas generated at Power and we’ve seen during the course of this year natural gas winning, that is clearly effect – is effecting the activated carbon sales and we’re currently looking specifically in the area – in the gas and air market at a 9% decline year on year, and about the same on a quarter-on-quarter comparison. We do, however, seen on the sequential basis an increase of about 16%, which is more of a reflection of seasonality. That gives you perhaps a picture of the environment that we’re – that we’re dealing with. But let me just come back to the [inaudible] topic. I mean, we still believe that this business is one that will continue to grow in the long run. We – we’re holding to our projections today as we did before the acquisition. We see a significant upside there and we believe that the adoption of the regulations in 2015 are intact. So a lot of what’s happening between now and then is working with the various co-fleet owners and to be – to remind you, we mentioned that in the last quarter, we –…

Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Hocevar with Northcoast Research. Please proceed. Kevin Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners, LLC: Hi, guys, good afternoon. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Good afternoon. Kevin Hocevar – Northcoast Research: In terms of the rubber black segment, there was a couple of those sequential issues that hit the quarter in terms of the supply disruption, the impact in China, and the higher feed stock cost. I'm just wondering of those, are any expected to flow through going forward? I'm assuming the high cost inventory was just the one quarter thing, but is the disruption of supply fixed? And then do you expect the Chinese issues to flow forward into 2013? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Yes, so as we look at these three elements that led to the $18 million EBITDA decline, one is clearly a one-time effect, which was the supply disruption in South America, so that will not reoccur in the fourth quarter, in the first quarter, sorry. The high feed stock cost is continuing to flow through, so there will be still some impact in the first quarter. And then of course the competitive environment in China we believe will continue in the first quarter, so I think that should give you a bit of a sense of how we're thinking about the impact of those in the current quarter. Kevin Hocevar – Northcoast Research Partners, LLC: Okay, and then I believe previously, the guidance for 2013 for Norit was $0.30 to $0.35 of accretion, so have you seen anything that would change that number? And also, what's the growth rate that you assume in that number for the mercury emission activated carbon? Is that above or below that 30% kind of long-term expected growth rate? Patrick…

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. Please proceed. Jeffrey Zekauskas – JPMorgan: Hi, good afternoon. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Good afternoon, Jeff. Jeffrey Zekauskas – JPMorgan: I was wondering if you could stick a little bit more at length about the competitive conditions in China. In that in general, I think it has feed stock advantages and maybe a more complex or a more differentiated product line than some of the other competitors. So I was wondering, why has the I guess its price competition, why has that emerged now rather than at some other time? And can you describe the dynamics around that and whether it's confined to certain product lines, or it's across the board, or what the reasons are for it? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Yes, the environment is complex, but I think if you list up out of the various puts and takes on the moving parts, the main driver here is that the economy has slowed. And the Chinese businessmen are very astute. And they tend to be very quick at managing cash and inventories. And that has led to some volume declines in the Chinese market and increased the competitive environment clearly. Now you're right in terms of our position in China. I believe that we have the most sophisticated assets technology. We have skill. And we have the products that people want in addition to the fact that we've been delivering what I would call an above average service. Of course, we're not underestimating our competitors, but I clearly think that we are and continue to be a leader in China. Now as we participate in that market, we're seeing the market mature and develop. But all in all, the market is still…

Your next question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Please proceed. Laurence Alexander – Jefferies & Co. : Good afternoon. Just to clarify the comments about the Norit's sales growth being flattish. Was that just for the mercury removal applications year-over-year or was that for the entire segment? And given the weakness in that part of the end market mix, do you think the margins in that segment will say depressed until that part of the business picks up? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: I'm sorry, Laurence. I missed the first half of your question. Would you please repeat it? Laurence Alexander – Jefferies & Co. : Certainly, I think it was a comment that the volume trends for the purification segment could be flattish. I just wanted to clarify is that for the entire business or is that just for the coal fire power plants section? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: No, as I mentioned, this is only for the mercury removal section. The remainder of the business we believe will continue to grow at the rates we had indicated, Laurence. Laurence Alexander – Jefferies & Co. : And then just to follow up on that, do you expect to be at return margins to their prior level without an acceleration in the coal fire application? Or do you need that to get your margins back up? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: I would say it is difficult to assess at this stage. We're not close or I'm not close enough to the business yet to be able to give you a very educated answer. But we're of course dealing with a market that's not growing. We could see increased competition. Laurence Alexander – Jefferies & Co. : And then I guess lastly as you look at your geographic footprint particularly in Europe and given the weaker economic outlook, do you need another round of restructuring either in performance blacks, rubber blacks, or in Norit to adjust for that? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: No, we've done our restructuring in 2009 and we had some additional closures actually over the last few years that actually dealt with the continued economic weakness in Europe. So at this stage, we believe that we have the assets we need. We've actually invested in a few of the assets in Europe to strengthen their unique position in terms of products and mix. And we believe we're well positioned for when the market returns. Laurence Alexander – Jefferies & Co. : Thank you. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Christopher Butler with Sidoti and Company. Please proceed. Christopher W. Butler – Sidoti & Co. LLC: Hi, good afternoon everyone. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Good afternoon, Chris. Christopher W. Butler – Sidoti & Co. LLC: Sticking with the Norit a little bit, now that you have it under your belt for a couple months, could you talk to the synergies that you see and expect? And have those changed as it pertains to your accretion expectation? Is that bridging the gap a little bit between the soft demand and your maintenance of expected accretion? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: There's a lot of puts and takes as you get closer to the business after an acquisition and you validate your assumptions. But overall, despite the fact that the mercury removal market is affected by the low natural gas prices, we're very pleased with what we're seeing. We're seeing a very strong Norit team with a very similar culture to ours, which is actually helping. And we're very pleased with the speed at which integration is occurring and the positive attitude of the Norit team to its Cabot. We've been doing a lot of work with regard to looking at synergies in the markets, but also from a technology point of view, so we on day one have started technology exchanges to see how we can accelerate the learning on both sides. We of course have a larger skill on the technology front, which is going to benefit Norit. And we're already starting to see exchanges in capabilities in that respect. As you may remember, we also have a lot of hope to leveraging Norit into emerging markets in a way that they have not been able to do in…

We have a follow-up questions coming from the line of Ivan Marcuse with KeyBanc. Please proceed. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Thanks for the time. Real quick, I think a couple of quarters ago you mentioned on the receivable notes that you had for the [inaudible] that the interest income coming from there would be in – that would fall into one quarter. Is that in first quarter and how much will that be? Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: Eddie, could you … Eduardo E. Cordeiro – EVP, CFO: Yeah. So it should be in the January timeframe, so that would be the March quarter. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Got you. And what would the expectation be for that interest income? Eduardo E. Cordeiro – EVP, CFO: We’re expecting it will be approximately 15 million. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Okay, great. And then the second question is, on the Specialty Foods business, how much as that up year over year in EBIT? Eduardo E. Cordeiro – EVP, CFO: You know, the Specialty Foods business is now embedded in the Advanced Technologies. Now we will continue to provide color on the business, of course and you can see the revenue. What I would say is that we’ve had the – again, a good quarter in the fourth quarter, roughly in line with the previous two quarters and – but again, I think what’s very important to note here is that the, you know, the business has not changed in terms of its volatility and because of the project nature of our customers, we’re looking at potentially a couple of weaker quarters ahead of us. But very difficult to plan, this business continues to be that. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: So the next couple of quarters should be sequentially a lot weaker? Eduardo E. Cordeiro – EVP, CFO: The next couple of quarters are going to be weaker than the last few. Ivan M. Marcuse – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Great. Thanks.

We have no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Patrick Prevost for closing remarks. Patrick M. Prevost – President, CEO: All right. Thank you very much for attending the call today. As I said earlier, we’re – on an annual basis, we’re pleased with our performance and we’re confident in the strength of the company. We’re looking at a first quarter that because of the economic environment, will be weaker, but we’re confident in terms of recovering 2013. So thanks again and looking forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Thank you for your participation in today’s call. You may now disconnect.