First Quarter 2024 Highlights: Record Operating Income of $75 Million, or $77 Million Excluding Special Items, a 23% Increase over Prior Year Strong Operating Margin of 14.1%, or 14.5% Excluding Special Items, a 290 bps Increase over Prior Year Record First Quarter Cash Flow from Operations of $56 Million NEW YORK, April 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX) ("MTI" or "the Company") today reported diluted earnings per share of $1.49 for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024, excluding special items. Reported diluted earnings per share were $1.44. Worldwide net sales were $535 million, 2 percent higher sequentially and up slightly versus prior year on an underlying basis, excluding the deconsolidation of Barretts Minerals Inc. Underlying growth in the Consumer & Specialties segment offset lower sales in Engineered Solutions. Operating income excluding special items was $77 million, a record for MTI, and represented 14.5 percent of sales. Cash flow from operations was $56 million and free cash flow was $39 million. The Company repurchased $15 million of shares in the quarter and repaid $13 million of debt. "We had a strong start to the year and delivered another record quarter. Growth in higher margin products and a strong operating performance across the company led to record operating income for MTI. This quarter demonstrates the power of our new organization, focused strategy, and robust business model. We continue to execute on our strategy and are on track to achieve our long-term growth and profitability targets," said Douglas T. Dietrich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  First Quarter 2024 Segment Results Consumer & Specialties segment sales were $297 million in the first quarter, up 4 percent on an underlying basis. Household & Personal Care sales were $138 million, up 7 percent from the prior year driven by continued strong demand for our cat litter products as well as growth in other high-margin consumer-oriented products. Sales of Specialty Additives were $159 million and grew 2 percent on an underlying basis. Segment operating income was $42 million, a 30 percent improvement over the prior year as the segment leveraged volume growth, productivity improvements, and maintained its disciplined approach to pricing and cost control. Operating margin was 14.1 percent, a 330 basis point improvement over prior year. The Consumer & Specialties segment provides technologically enhanced products to consumer-driven end markets, including mineral-to-market household products, as well as specialty additives that become functional components in a variety of consumer and industrial goods. This segment includes two product lines: Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives.  Engineered Solutions segment sales were $238 million in the first quarter, down 5 percent from the prior year, primarily driven by slow commercial construction market conditions in North America that have persisted since the second quarter of 2023. High-Temperature Technologies sales were $177 million, down slightly from the prior year. Environmental & Infrastructure sales were $60 million, 14 percent lower than the prior year due to a slow commercial construction market and two large remediation projects that were completed in the first quarter of 2023. Segment operating income was $39 million, up 9 percent from the prior year, driven by strong operating performance in High-Temperature Technologies. Operating margin was very strong at 16.2 percent of sales, a 200 basis point improvement over prior year. The Engineered Solutions segment provides advanced process technologies and solutions that are designed to improve our customers' manufacturing processes and projects. This segment includes two product lines: High-Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure.   ----------------- Minerals Technologies will host a conference call tomorrow, April 26, 2024, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The live earnings webcast can be accessed at https://investors.mineralstech.com/quarterly-results-conference-calls. A presentation for the call will be available at the same location at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on April 26, 2024. ----------------- FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release may contain "forward‐looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations and forecasts of future events such as new products, revenues and financial performance, and are not limited to describing historical or current facts. They can be identified by the use of words such as "believes," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," and other words and phrases of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on assumptions, estimates and limited information available at the time they are made. A broad variety of risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, as well as the inaccuracy of assumptions and estimates, can affect the realization of the expectations or forecasts in these statements. Actual future results may vary materially. Significant factors that could affect the expectations and forecasts include worldwide general economic, business, and industry conditions; the cyclicality of our customers' businesses and their changing regional demands; our ability to compete in very competitive industries; consolidation in customer industries, principally paper, foundry and steel; our ability to renew or extend long term sales contracts for our satellite operations; our ability to generate cash to service our debt; our ability to comply with the covenants in the agreements governing our debt; our ability to effectively achieve and implement our growth initiatives or consummate the transactions described in the statements; our ability to successfully develop new products; our ability to defend our intellectual property; the increased risks of doing business abroad; the availability of raw materials and access to ore reserves at our mining operations, or increases in costs of raw materials, energy, or shipping; compliance with or changes to regulation in the areas of environmental, health and safety, and tax; risks and uncertainties related to the voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code filed by our subsidiaries Barretts Minerals Inc. and Barretts Ventures Texas LLC; claims for legal, environmental and tax matters or product stewardship issues; operating risks and capacity limitations affecting our production facilities; seasonality of some of our businesses; cybersecurity and other threats relating to our information technology systems; and other risk factors and cautionary statements in our 2023 Annual Report on Form 10‐K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward‐looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. About Minerals Technologies Inc.New York-based Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) is a leading, technology-driven specialty minerals company that develops, produces, and markets a broad range of mineral and mineral-based products, related systems, and services. MTI serves globally a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including household, food and pharmaceutical, paper, packaging, automotive, construction, and environmental. The company reported global sales of $2.2 billion in 2023. For further information, please visit our website at www.mineralstech.com.                           CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES (in millions, except per share data)  (unaudited)                                   Quarter Ended   % Growth           Mar. 31,   Dec. 31,   Apr. 2,                 2024   2023   2023   Prior Qtr.   Prior Year                                                     Net sales $ 534.5 $ 524.5 $ 546.1   2%   (2)%                           Cost of goods sold   398.6   399.2   425.4   (0)%   (6)%                           Production margin   135.9   125.3   120.7   8%   13%                           Marketing and administrative expenses   53.0   51.0   52.3   4%   1% Research and development expenses   5.6   5.1   5.3   10%   6% Acquisition-related expenses   0.0   0.0   0.1   *   * Litigation expenses   2.1   2.4   0.0   (13)%   *                             Income from operations   75.2   66.8   63.0   13%   19%                           Interest expense, net   (14.9)   (15.2)   (14.2)   (2)%   5% Other non-operating income (deductions), net   (0.2)   (3.0)   (1.1)   (93)%   (82)%     Total non-operating deductions, net   (15.1)   (18.2)   (15.3)   (17)%   (1)%                             Income before tax and equity in earnings   60.1   48.6   47.7   24%   26%                           Provision for taxes on income   13.9   9.2   10.5   51%   32% Equity in earnings of affiliates, net of tax   1.4   1.4   0.9   0%   56%                             Net income   47.6   40.8   38.1   17%   25%                           Less: Net income attributable to non-controlling interests   0.9   1.0   1.1   (10)%   (18)%                             Net Income attributable to Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) $ 46.7 $ 39.8 $ 37.0   17%   26%                           Weighted average number of common shares outstanding:                                                 Basic   32.3   32.5   32.5                                     Diluted   32.4   32.5   32.5                                   Earnings per share attributable to MTI:                                                 Basic $ 1.45 $ 1.22 $ 1.14   19%   27%                             Diluted $ 1.44 $ 1.22 $ 1.14   18%   26%                           Cash dividends declared per common share $ 0.10 $ 0.10 $ 0.05                                   * Percentage not meaningful                              MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES   NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME                                     1 ) For comparative purposes, the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, December 31, 2023, and April 2, 2023 consisted of 91 days, 91 days, and 92 days, respectively.                   2 ) To supplement the Company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, the following is a presentation of the Company's non-GAAP earnings per share, excluding special items, for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, December 31, 2023, and April 2, 2023, and a reconciliation to reported earnings per share for such periods. The Company's management believes these non-GAAP measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance as inclusion of such special items are not indicative of the ongoing operating results and thereby affect the comparability of results between periods. The Company believes inclusion of these non-GAAP measures also provides consistency in its financial reporting and facilitates investors' understanding of historic operating trends.                     (millions of dollars)   Quarter Ended         Mar. 31,   Dec. 31,   Apr. 2,         2024   2023   2023     Net income attributable to MTI $ 46.7   $ 39.8   $ 37.0       % of sales   8.7 %   7.6 %   6.8 %                       Special items:                 Acquisition-related expenses   0.0     0.0     0.1       Litigation expenses   2.1     2.4     0.0       Related tax effects on special items