Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 1, 2022 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Seth Mrozek - Director, IR

Guillermo Novo - Chairman & CEO

Kevin Willis - SVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Christopher Parkinson - Mizuho Securities

Joshua Spector - UBS

David Begleiter - Deutsche Bank

John McNulty - BMO Capital Markets

Mike Harrison - Seaport Research Partners

John Roberts - Credit Suisse

Jeffrey Zekauskas - JPMorgan

Michael Sison - Wells Fargo

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ashland Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

And I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Seth Mrozek, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.

Seth Mrozek

Thank you, Chris. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ashland's first quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. My name is Seth Mrozek, Director Ashland 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.

We released preliminary results for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, at approximately 05:00 PM Eastern Time yesterday, January 31. The news release issued last night was furnished to the SEC in 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 will be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our outlook for fiscal year 2023. 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, but cannot assure that such 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 will 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 those measures, as adjusted and present them to supplement your understanding and assessment of the financial performance of our ongoing business.