In this presentation, statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance. They are based on management’s expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. They use words such as "will," “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial condition, performance and/or sales. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions; prospective changes in raw material costs, product pricing or product demand; future performance; estimated capital expenditures; results of current and anticipated market conditions and market strategies; sales efforts; expenses; the outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings and environmental liabilities; and financial results.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:
- Disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit markets that could adversely impact the availability of credit already arranged and the availability and cost of credit in the future;
- The effect on foreign operations of currency fluctuations, tariffs and other political, economic and regulatory risks;
- The current and potential future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations, financial position or cash flows, including without any limitation, any supply chain and logistics issues;
- Our ability to achieve the strategic and other objectives relating to the acquisition of Clariant’s Color business, including any expected synergies;
- Changes in polymer consumption growth rates and laws and regulations regarding plastics in jurisdictions where we conduct business;
- Fluctuations in raw material prices, quality and supply, and in energy prices and supply;
- Production outages or material costs associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance programs;
- Unanticipated developments that could occur with respect to contingencies such as litigation and environmental matters;
- An inability to achieve the anticipated financial benefit from initiatives related to acquisition and integration working capital reductions, cost reductions and employee productivity goals;
- Our ability to pay regular quarterly cash dividends and the amounts and timing of any future dividends;
- Information systems failures and cyberattacks;
- Our ability to consummate and successfully integrate acquisitions;
- Amounts for cash and non-cash charges related to restructuring plans that may differ from original estimates, including because of timing changes associated with the underlying actions; and
- Other factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 under Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
The above list of factors is not exhaustive. We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our reports on Form 10-Q, 8-K and 10-K that we provide to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Use of Non-GAAP Measures
This presentation includes the use of both GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP financial measures include: adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA.
Avient’s chief operating decision maker uses these financial measures to monitor and evaluate the ongoing performance of the Company and each business segment and to allocate resources.
A reconciliation of each historical non-GAAP financial measure with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is attached to this presentation which is posted on our website at www.avient.com.
The Company does not provide reconciliations of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures, such as outlook for Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Earnings Per Share, Adjusted Operating Income and Free Cash Flow, to the most comparable GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis because the Company is unable to provide a meaningful or accurate calculation or estimation of reconciling items and the information is not available without unreasonable effort. This is due to the inherent difficulty of forecasting the timing and amount of certain items, such as, but not limited to, restructuring costs, environmental remediation costs, acquisition-related costs, and other non-routine costs. Each of such adjustments has not yet occurred, are out of the Company's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. For the same reasons, the Company is unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information.
Avient acquired the Clariant Color business on July 1, 2020 (the “Acquisition Date”). To provide comparable financial results, the Company references “pro forma” financial metrics, which include the business results of Clariant Color for periods prior to the Acquisition Date. Management believes this provides comparability of the performance of the combined businesses.
Unless otherwise stated, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS figures included in this presentation exclude the impact of special items as defined in our quarterly earnings releases.