BALL - Ball Corporation (BALL) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-04-26 13:32:08 ET

Ball Corporation (BALL)

Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call

April 26, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brandon Potthoff – Investor Relations

Dan Fisher – Chief Executive Officer

Howard Yu – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ghansham Panjabi – Baird

Anthony Pettinari – Citi

Arun Viswanathan – RBC

George Staphos – Bank of America

Edlain Rodriguez – Mizuho

Adam Samuelson – Goldman Sachs

Phil Ng – Jefferies

Stefan Diaz – Morgan Stanley

Presentation

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Ball Corporation First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brandon Potthoff, Investor Relations for Ball Corporation. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Brandon Potthoff

Thanks, Christine. Good morning, everyone. This is Ball Corporation’s conference call regarding the company’s first quarter 2024 results. The information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are in the company’s latest 10-K and other company SEC filings as well as company news releases.

If you do not already have the earnings release, it is available on our website at ball.com. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may also be found in the notes section of today’s earnings release. In addition, the release includes a summary of non-comparable items as well as a reconciliation of comparable net earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations. References to net sales and comparable operating earnings in today’s release and call do not include the company’s former aerospace business, year-over-year net earnings attributable to the corporation and comparable net earnings do include performance of the company’s former aerospace business through the sale date of February 16, 2024.

I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Fisher, CEO.

Dan Fisher

Thank you, Brandon. Before we discuss Ball’s strong earnings and improved volume performance, I would like to thank all of the Ball team members that worked tirelessly to achieve the successful aerospace business sale on February 16, 2024. Sale proceeds were immediately put to work to reduce our leverage, strengthen our balance sheet and return value to shareholders. In addition, I would also like to share that Ann Scott has announced her retirement as Head of Investor Relations after 37 years with the company. Just this week, Ann’s first grandchild Isabella Ann arrived safely into the world. Needless to say, we all know what Ann will be doing in retirement, babysitting, golf and being a lifetime Ball cheerleader and will provide behind-the-scenes support to Ball through the end of the year. So as she winds down her time as a full-time employee, feel free to extend your well wishes via her Ball e-mail.

As you can tell from our call introduction today, our Investor Relations succession plan has been activated with Brandon taking the lead as the head of the department. Congratulations to Ann and her family on the new grand baby and her well-earned retirement and for your support of Brandon and Miranda as they take the next steps in their careers at Ball. Today, I’m joined on our call by Howard Yu, EVP and CFO. I will provide some brief introductory remarks. Howard will discuss the first quarter financial performance and key metrics for 2024 and then we will finish up with closing comments and Q&A....

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