Michael P. Feehan
Thank you, Kurt, and good morning. We closed out the year with a solid financial performance in the fourth quarter. Delivering full-year adjusted EBITDA of $172 million, ahead of our previously provided guidance. As a reminder, with the divestiture of the Advanced Materials and Catalysts segment, the results for the business are reported in discontinued operations for all periods. My comments this morning pertain to the reported results from continuing operations. Our strong fourth quarter results were driven by continued sales growth in both volume and pricing, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of $51 million, 8% ahead of the prior year. We generated $78 million of free cash flow, of which we used $20 million in the fourth quarter for share repurchases. And with the proceeds from the sale of the Advanced Materials and Catalysts business, we paid down $465 million of our term loan, resulting in a 1.2x net leverage ratio, leaving $265 million of available liquidity. Diving a bit deeper into the numbers, fourth quarter sales were $199 million, up $51 million, or 34%. Excluding the $28 million impact of higher sulfur cost pass-through in price, sales were up 15%. However, this was more than offset by higher sales of virgin sulfuric acid, including the contribution from the acquired Wagaman assets, and favorable contractual pricing for regeneration services, partially offset by higher planned fixed manufacturing costs, including incremental costs of the acquired Wagaman assets, and by unplanned and extended customer downtime. The 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter reflects the favorable volume and price impact at the sales level and favorable contractual pricing for regeneration services. While the adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 630 basis points compared to 2024, this reduction primarily reflects a significant increase in sulfur costs, which we passed through with no material impact on adjusted EBITDA. The pass-through effect accounts for approximately 500 basis points of the period-over-period decrease in margin. Turning to the adjusted EBITDA bridge, I will highlight the major components of the change in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. As previously noted, sulfur costs in the fourth quarter were approximately $28 million compared to the year-ago quarter, with the pass-through having no material impact on adjusted EBITDA. Our price/cost impact was a positive $8 million for the fourth quarter, primarily driven by favorable contractual price in our regeneration services business. And while we had lower regeneration services volume in the quarter due to unplanned and extended customer downtime, higher volume from our virgin sulfuric acid sales, including the contribution from our Wagaman acquisition, drove the nearly $6 million volume benefit in adjusted EBITDA. Other costs increased approximately $11 million, the majority of which reflect incremental fixed cost associated with the acquired Wagaman assets, along with higher planned manufacturing costs associated with general inflation. As we move to cash and debt, for the year, we generated adjusted free cash flow of $78 million, which included both continuing and discontinued operations. We utilized our cash generation to execute on our capital allocation strategy, including the $41 million acquisition of our Wagaman sulfuric acid assets and share repurchases aggregating $47 million for the full year. We currently have approximately $183 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. With our significantly reduced leverage, our ample liquidity, and in light of our historic cash generation capability, we believe that we have significant flexibility as we look to fund our growth initiatives, both organic and inorganic, and continue to return capital to shareholders through an active share repurchase program. Turning to our 2026 outlook, we currently anticipate full-year sales to be in the range of $860 million to $940 million, with the favorable volume and price impact at the sales level, and the pass-through of higher sulfur costs of approximately $125 million compared to 2025. As we have previously discussed, we expect higher turnaround activity at our manufacturing plants in 2026, in part due to the addition of the Wagaman assets. Given the scope and number of turnarounds planned for the year, we expect turnaround costs to be higher by approximately $8 million in 2026. With the higher expected volume, we expect higher sales volume for both virgin sulfuric acid, driven by higher projected mining demand and sales of oleum grades used in the production of nylon precursors, and higher volume for regeneration sulfuric acid, as we expect less customer downtime compared to 2025. We also anticipate continued favorable contractual pricing in regeneration services. With the favorable volume and price impact at the sales level, partially offset by higher manufacturing and transportation costs and additional turnaround costs, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to fall in the range of $175 million to $195 million. We are opportunistically investing growth capital in 2026, including the funding of a number of projects to debottleneck assets and accelerate organic growth. These include the ongoing expansion of tank storage and adding additional rail capacity in the Gulf Coast. As a result of these growth projects, we expect higher capital expenditures this year, approximately $20 million higher, resulting in a range of $80 million to $90 million. As a result of the higher growth capital spending, as well as an expected $10 million increase in working capital, driven by the impact of higher sulfur costs on inventory and accounts payable and the associated pass-through impact on sales and accounts receivable, we expect adjusted free cash flow to be in the range of $35 million to $55 million. In addition, with the significant reduction in our term loan, we expect interest expense to be approximately $18 million to $22 million in 2026. With our current cash balance and expected free cash flow generation, we plan to continue to execute on our capital allocation strategy, driving value for shareholders through growth opportunities and further share repurchases in 2026. As we move to the next slide, I will provide some directional guidance by quarter for next year. As you will recall, our results for 2025 reflected significant planned customer downtime, as well as a higher level of planned turnaround activity at our sites. While we have an active turnaround schedule in the first quarter, with three of our seven planned turnarounds, increasing our expected turnaround cost, we do not expect the same negative impact on sales volume from the customer downtime. For the first quarter, we expect continued favorable contractual pricing, and we expect increased volume for virgin sulfuric acid, driven by high alkylate demand and regeneration activity during the summer driving season. As has been our usual practice, our presentation slides include some commentary around turnaround cadence by quarter for the year. The cost for individual turnarounds can vary by site and scope, and the timing is subject to change. We expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA to be up $8 million to $13 million compared to 2025. We expect the second and third quarters to be peak quarters for adjusted EBITDA consistent with historical experience. I will now turn the call back to Kurt for some closing remarks.