Cabot Corporation (NYSE:CBT) Q4 2019 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by and welcome to the Cabot Corporation Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today Mr. Steve Delahunt. Thank you. Please go ahead sir.

Thank you and good afternoon. I'd like to welcome you to the Cabot Corporation Earnings Teleconference. With me today are Sean Keohane CEO and President; and Erica McLaughlin Senior Vice President and CFO. Last night we released results for our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 copies of which are posted in the Investor Relations section of our website. 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. During this conference call we will make forward-looking statements about our expected future operational and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statement. Additional information regarding these factors appears under the heading forward-looking statements in the press release we issued last night and in our last annual report on Form 10-K that is filed with the SEC and available on the company's website.

In order to provide greater transparency regarding our operating performance, we refer to certain non gap financial measures all adjustments the gap results. Any non GAAP financial measures presented should not be considered to be an alternative to financial measures required by gap.. Any non GAAP financial measures reference on this call or reconcile most directly comfortable gap financial manager in a table at the end of our earnings release issued last night can avail in the Investors section of our website. Also as we typically do each year I would like to remind you that over the next several weeks in connection with the vesting of restricted stock awards issued under our long-term incentive equity program officers of the company will be selling shares to pay tax and other obligations related to their rewards. I will now turn the call over to Sean Keohane who will discuss the full year highlights. Erica McLaughlin will provide a fourth quarter overview and review the business segment and corporate financial details.

Following this Sean will provide closing comments and open the floor to questions. Sean?

Thank you Steve and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Despite an environment where we saw a continued deceleration of macroeconomic and key sector indicators our fourth quarter results were strong with adjusted EPS up five% year-over-year. Reinforcement Materials performance remained very robust in the quarter in the face of a weak China environment. In Performance Chemicals we started our new China fumed silica plant. And our transformation plan in Purification Solutions continues to take hold. And we continued our intense focus on cash generation with strong operating and free cash flow performance in the quarter. Erica will go into more detail on the quarter a