Denise L. Ramos
Analyst · KeyBanc
Good morning, everyone. Let me start by saying that I appreciate you all joining us this morning. We in the Northeast know what many of you are dealing with in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and we greatly appreciate you taking the time to be with us this morning. Our thoughts are with you and your families during these difficult times. So now turning to Slide 3. One year ago this week, we successfully executed 2 simultaneous spinoffs and launched a more nimble and industrially focused ITT. This morning, I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you how our new focus has helped to create tremendous value for all of our stakeholders. When I look back on all that we have accomplished in the last 12 months, one word comes to mind: impressive. And I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the hardworking and dedicated team members all across ITT that united with a shared purpose to build a strong foundation for our future growth. I've traveled to nearly every location that ITT operates. I've met with dozens of customers and I've personally met hundreds of team members. And it is clear to me that we have a very strong culture of collaboration and customer focus. As a company, we are highly energized to work together to help our customers realize their goals. Our collective focus is tangible and I think it creates a unique competitive advantage. Now I'd like to provide some of the specific performance highlights over the past year that are all aligned with the 6 profitable growth drivers we identified a year ago. First, in emerging markets, which represents nearly 30% of our revenue. We have a tremendous operational foundation that we have utilized to drive targeted growth in key end markets and geographies. Over the 12 months ending September 30, our emerging market revenues have expanded 9%, and we are on track to achieve our premier target of 10% growth in 2012. We've seen significant growth in automotive in China, chemical in the Middle East and mining in Latin America, among others. Second growth driver: aftermarket. In this very profitable segment, we began the year with the acquisition of Blakers, which expanded our service footprint in Australia. We continued throughout the year to focus on aftermarket expansion, growing the top line 8% over the 12 months ending September 30. We're growing the profitable aftermarket by developing a global service capability tailored specifically to this higher-margin revenue stream. We've also focused our portfolio of technologies on end markets that generate strong aftermarket demand, such as mining, oil and gas, chemical, rail, automotive and aerospace, to name a few. Third growth driver, technology and innovation. At the core of our culture is our focus on highly engineered solutions. And accordingly, we have maintained above-average peer investment levels in R&D at over 3% of sales. These investments have led to some key successes because, as a more focused company, we are closer to our customers and better able to understand their needs and requirements. Let me give you a few examples. Our teams have recently developed a high-performance copper-free brake pad that was designed with and validated by major global OEM customers. We've launched the mining slurry pump earlier this year that was developed with significant voice of the customer input and was named technology innovation of the year. We also launched the industry's first ECO line of shock absorbers that provide our customers with both environmental benefit and energy absorption capabilities. Fourth growth driver, premier customer experience. We are committed to our customers. And today, we are driving our customer focus more intensely and we are closer to our customers than ever before. This past year, we were honored to have Goulds Pumps ranked top centrifugal pump manufacturer for the ninth consecutive year by readers of a leading North American chemical processing magazine. Interconnect Solutions has been named top supplier by several key customers and partners. And Control Technologies received 2 awards from customers for outstanding performance. Turning to Slide 4, our fifth growth driver, operational excellence. We intensely focus on operational excellence at ITT, and today, we are better positioned to drive these efforts faster and deeper throughout the organization. In the 12 months ending September 30, we have achieved $100 million of gross productivity savings primarily through Lean Six Sigma and global sourcing efforts. We also proactively initiated restructuring activities at Interconnect Solutions that focused on our European operations and global efficiencies. In addition, we have initiated our ITT-wide Lean transformation, which will drive further efficiencies across 80% of our facilities in the next 3 to 5 years. Finally, we have added operational excellence leaders in our business segments and continue to focus on Lean Six Sigma training across the organization. And lastly, with capital deployment, our sixth growth driver, we are strategic, balanced and disciplined. Strategic organic investments will position us to continue to grow and capture market share into 2013 and beyond. We have invested in an automotive facility in China to help address the phenomenal growth we have achieved in Motion Technologies, and we are investing in an Industrial Process production facility in Korea to respond to the tremendous growth in global oil and gas. We are very proud that we were able to announce the acquisition of Bornemann Pumps, which will provide a global leadership position in advanced oil and gas pumping technologies. It will be a great addition to our Industrial Process business segment and is well aligned with the growth drivers that I've just discussed. In addition, I'm very excited by the strong cultural alignment between Bornemann and Goulds, both globally recognized premier brands, both dating back to the mid 1800s and both with a strong engineering focus. Additionally, we expect to return over $120 million to shareholders through share repurchases, including up to an additional $50 million of repurchases over the next 6 months that we are announcing today. We have also maintained a quarterly dividend of approximately $9 million, which puts us on track for a very healthy payout ratio. So I'm pleased with the progress we've made on the 6 profitable growth drivers, but I also want to acknowledge that we have some operational challenges at Interconnect Solutions that we are addressing. The Cannon brand is synonymous with harsh-environment connectors, a great platform to build upon. We are refocusing our efforts on technology leadership and improved operational efficiencies in key markets. The team is focused on this effort with the same vigor that we used to execute the spinoff and establish the strong foundation of today. As a refocused company, I am very excited about how well we are positioned for the future. But this is just the beginning. Now let's turn to Slide 5 where I'm pleased to provide the overview of our third quarter performance, which exceeded expectations. Organic revenue grew an impressive 10% to $556 million despite many macroeconomic pressures. And we achieved 11% growth in emerging markets. We delivered an adjusted EPS of $0.44 per share, driven by a 10% increase in adjusted segment operating income due to impressive top line performance and productivity gains as well as lower interest expense and a lower effective tax rate. We achieved this while absorbing incremental post-spin standalone cost, managing the negative impacts of FX and continuing to invest for the long term. We proactively invested $6 million in restructuring year-to-date to align our operations to the macro environment. We expect to invest an additional $6 million in the fourth quarter, primarily in Europe, as we anticipate a continued challenging connector market environment. These activities will provide savings in 2013 to help offset expected headwinds from the macroeconomic conditions. We also delivered 179% adjusted year-to-date free cash flow conversion, which facilitates our ongoing investments for future growth. Finally, our third quarter annual asbestos remeasurement resulted in a minimal $2 million after-tax charge. Tom will discuss the specifics shortly, but I'm pleased with this result. Looking ahead, I remain confident in our ability to deliver on our guidance for 2012. And therefore, we are maintaining the midpoint EPS guidance at $1.67 and we have tightened the range to $1.64 to $1.70 for the year. We are also maintaining our organic revenue guidance of 5% to 7%. Currently, we're tracking to the high end of the revenue range. However, given the lumpy nature of our Industrial Process business and the continued uncertainty in Europe, we are maintaining the wider range. And now I'd like to turn it over to Tom for his comments on the results.