Antonella Franzen - Johnson Controls International Plc
Management
Good morning and thank you for joining our conference call to discuss Johnson Controls' fourth quarter fiscal 2016 results. The press release and all related tables issued earlier this morning, as well as the conference call slide presentation can be found on the Investor Relations portion of our website at johnsoncontrols.com. With me today are Johnson Controls' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alex Molinaroli; President and Chief Operating Officer, George Oliver; and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Brian Stief. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of today's call, we will be providing certain forward-looking information. We ask that you view today's press release and read through the forward-looking cautionary informational statements that we've included there. In addition, we will use certain non-GAAP measures in our discussion, and we ask that you read through the sections of our press release that address the use of these items. In discussing our segment operations during the call references to adjusted EBIT margins, exclude transaction, integration, and separation costs, as well as other special items. This metric is a non-GAAP measure and is reconciled in the schedules attached to our press release. In addition to our earnings release issued this morning, we filed an 8-K, which contains quarterly pro forma fiscal 2016 financials for Johnson Controls Plc. The pro forma financials represent the combination of Johnson Controls, excluding Adient and Tyco, including conforming accounting adjustments and recurring purchase accounting, to provide you a comparable basis for our reporting in fiscal 2017. The purpose of this call is to discuss the quarterly results for the fourth quarter. If you have any questions regarding the pro formas, please contact me after the call. Now, let me quickly recap this quarter's reported results. On a GAAP basis, which includes one month of Tyco, sales of $10.2 billion in the quarter, increased 17% year-over-year on a reported basis, driven primarily by the contribution from the Hitachi joint venture as well as Tyco. Earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to Johnson Controls' ordinary shareholders was a loss of $1.61 and included net charges of $2.82 related to special items. These special items were primarily composed of non-cash mark-to-market pension/post-retirement and settlement losses, transaction, integration and separation costs, restructuring charges and tax expense related to the Adient spin-off. Adjusting for special items and excluding the Tyco results, non-GAAP adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.21 per share, compared to $1.04 in the prior-year quarter. In order to remove the complexity associated with the closure of the merger with Tyco, the results discussed on today's call reflect the underlying non-GAAP operating results of legacy Johnson Controls. Now, let me turn the call over to Alex.