Ismael Roig
Interim Chief Financial Officer at Archer-Daniels-Midland
Thank you, Juan.
Let's start on Slide 6, which provides overall segment operating profit and EPS for the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted segment operating profit was $1.3 billion for the first quarter, a 24% decrease versus the prior year. At a high level, operating profit was primarily down year-over-year in Ag Services & Oilseeds and Nutrition. In the other segment, which includes ADMIS and captive insurance, we had a 25% increase in operating profit.
Adjusted earnings per share were $1.46 for the quarter. Lower pricing and execution margins, primarily driven by margin normalization in the AS&O business led to a $1 per share decrease. This includes lower mark-to-market impact in AS&O of approximately $0.38 per share. Our enhanced focus on operational excellence and improving the reliability of our assets, as well as the ramp up of our Green Bison JV led to volume improvement in the AS&O segment, resulting in a $0.20 per share increase in EPS versus the prior year.
Lower manufacturing costs and input costs led to a $0.15 per share increase versus the prior year, partially offset by negative impacts associated with unplanned downtime at our Decatur East facility. Higher equity earnings, primarily related to Wilmar attributed a $0.07 per share increase versus the prior year. Increased corporate costs related to the One ADM implementation and legal fees drove a decrease of $0.11 share versus the prior year. In other, benefits from share repurchases more than offset negative impacts related to a higher adjusted income tax rate, leading to a $0.06 per share increase versus the prior year.
Moving to Slide 7. Let's look at our segment performance for AS&O. For the first quarter, the AS&O team delivered $864 million in operating profit, reflecting increasing headwinds from lower commodity prices and ample supplies, partially offset by improvements in process volumes and manufacturing costs, as we enhanced our focus on items within our control. The Ag Services subsegment operating profit was lower versus the prior year, primarily due to the stabilization of trade flows, leading to lower global trade and risk management results.
Slower farmer selling also negatively impacted export volumes and margins in South America. Crushing subsegment operating profit for the quarter of $232 million was lower versus the prior year. Increased imports of used cooking oil and the anticipation of large South American supplies negatively impacted North American soy crush margins, more than offsetting the benefits from improved process volumes and lower manufacturing costs. There were positive mark-to-market timing impacts during the quarter of approximately $40 million versus positive timing impacts of approximately $240 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Refined Products and Other subsegment results were $157 million. Results were driven by weaker North American refining margins due to the increased imports of used cooking oil, as well as negative mark-to-market timing impacts of approximately $30 million versus positive impacts of approximately $40 million in the prior year. Equity earnings from Wilmar were $149 million during the first quarter, higher than the prior year.
Moving to Slide 8. Let's look at Carbohydrate Solutions. For the first quarter of 2024, Carbohydrate Solutions segment operating profit was $248 million. The team executed well in a solid demand environment, as well as advance our BioSolutions platform with strong volume growth.
Turning to the subsegments. In the Starches and Sweeteners subsegment, strong starches and sweeteners margins in North America were offset by pressured domestic ethanol margins due to strong industry production and elevated stocks, as well as moderating margins in the EMEA region. In the Vantage Corn Processing subsegment, strong export demand for sustainably certified ethanol supported both volumes and improved margins, leading to an improvement in year-over-year results.
Please turn to Slide 9. Nutrition revenues were $1.8 billion for the quarter. In the Human Nutrition subsegment, strong M&A revenue contributions from our recent acquisitions, as well as price and mix benefits in flavors were partially offset by lower volumes in plant-based proteins and normalizing pricing in the texturants markets. Our Animal Nutrition subsegment had lower revenues versus the prior year, driven by lower pricing and mix. Demand creation has remained strong and provided significant revenue pipeline opportunities. We anticipate steady improvement in demand fulfillment throughout the course of the year, recovering a significant portion of volumes in the second half of the year.
Please turn to Slide 10. While we have room to go on our commitment to restore the growth trajectory of the nutrition business, we believe Q1 was an important first step, showing sequential improvement from a challenged fourth quarter, evidencing progress in our operations. For the first quarter, Nutrition segment operating profit was $84 million. Human Nutrition subsegment results of $76 million were lower than the prior year, driven primarily from headwinds in the specialty ingredients business due to higher fixed cost absorption at Decatur East and normalizing texturants pricing. Animal Nutrition subsegment results of $8 million were higher compared to the prior year, primarily driven by cost optimization efforts and lower commodity prices, supporting margins.
Please turn to Slide 11. For the first quarter, other segment operating profit was $121 million, up 25% compared to the prior year. The improvement was largely driven by improved captive insurance results on higher program premiums and lower claim losses. In corporate, unallocated corporate costs increased versus the prior year on higher global technology investments to support digital transformation efforts, as well as increased legal fees. Other corporate was unfavorable compared to the prior year due to an investment valuation loss of approximately $18 million.
Please turn to Slide 12. With healthy cash flows and a strong balance sheet, we have maintained our balanced capital allocation approach, while leveraging excess cash flow for enhanced returns to shareholders. We entered 2024 with momentum, which has allowed us to return $1.3 billion to shareholders via repurchases during the quarter, with $1 billion being executed through an accelerated share repurchase program. We intend to actualize the additional $1 billion of share repurchases approved last quarter throughout the remainder of the year. We still anticipate capital expenditures will be held at a level aligned with depreciation and amortization, focused largely on investments to secure reliability of asset performance through modernization and digitization efforts.
Now, let's transition to a discussion on our full-year guidance on Slide 13. Our first quarter results were largely in line with expectations and in turn, our 2024 planning assumptions and EPS guidance remained unchanged. We are raising our corporate net interest expense guidance from approximately $500 million to approximately $525 million as the Federal Reserve has signaled that the probability of interest rate cuts in 2024 has decreased.
Last month, we mentioned that the global grain and oilseed supply is expected to increase as anticipated improvements in weather would support larger production levels in key South American countries. With this, we anticipate that commodity prices will continue to ease from the recent highs of the past two years and that trade flows will adjust to these locations. As a result, we anticipate the global soybean crush margins would moderate in 2024, likely moving into a range of $35 per metric ton to $60 per metric ton.
During the first quarter, the team executed well on a strong forward book, supported by meal demand, leading to executed soy crush margins of approximately $55 per metric ton. As we look today, we see that the forward curves reflect the assumption of ample South American supplies and the return of Argentinian production, specifically in Q2 and Q3. While the supply side certainly has pushed forward curves to the lower end of that range, in the near term, we remain constructive from the demand side. We continue to expect vegetable oil demand growth from renewable diesel as large facilities ramp up in Q2 and Q3, despite the increase in imports of used cooking oil. From the soybean meal side, lower soybean meal prices are incentivizing demand, supporting producer profitability and in turn, leading to higher inclusion rates.
Now moving to the breakdown of expectations by segment for Q2 2024 on Slide 14. In AS&O, we anticipate the second quarter to be significantly lower versus elevated prior year levels. We anticipate our average global soy crush margin to be towards the lower end of the guided range during the second quarter, as the market balances strong soybean availability against increased crush capacity. We still remain confident in our full-year planning assumptions, as we move through the seasonally lower middle of the year as the world pivots to South American production.
In Carbohydrate Solutions, we anticipate the second quarter to be higher versus the prior year, driven by solid demand and margins in North American starches and sweeteners, partially offset by moderating margins in wheat milling and international corn milling after elevated results in the prior year period. We anticipate solid demand for ethanol, both domestically and in the export markets, similar to the prior year.
For Nutrition, the second quarter is expected to be lower versus the prior year as we face headwinds in specialty ingredients. We anticipate to see another quarter of sequential improvement as we continue to make progress in demand fulfillment.
Back to you, Juan.
