Clariant AG

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Clariant second quarter first half year results 2026 conference call and live webcast. I am Sandra, the chorus call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants have been listened only mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Andreas Schwarzwald, the Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Zandra, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's Andreas speaking, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to this conference call. Joining me today are Konrad Kaiser, Clarion's CEO, and Oliver Rittgen, Clarion's CFO. Conrad will start today's call by providing a summary of the second quarter and first half year developments and an update on the Middle East situation, followed by Oliver, who will guide us through the business unit results and the first half year financials. Conrad will then conclude with the outlook for the full year 2026. There will be a Q&A session following our presentation. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. I would like to remind all participants that the presentation includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risk and uncertainties. Listeners and readers are therefore encouraged to refer to the disclaimer on slide two of today's presentation. As a reminder, the conference call is being recorded, and a replay and transcript of the call will be available on the investor section of Clarion's website. Let me now hand over to Conrad to begin the presentation. Thank you, Andreas.

In the second quarter of 2026, Clarion continued to deliver strong results, demonstrating resilience in a volatile and challenging operating environment. On the top line, we delivered sales of 941 million Swiss francs, representing an increase of 0.6% in local currency on a comparable basis. including the impact of our portfolio pruning measures sales decreased by 0.3% in local currency. Our EBITDA margin before exceptional items increased by 80 basis points year-on-year to 18.2%. Strong performance in care chemicals supported by pricing and underlying volume growth more than offset the effects from lower volumes in catalysts due to the Middle East conflict. We increased our free cashflow conversion rates by 15 percentage points on a last 12 month basis to 52% due to effective networking capital management, disciplined capital spending and improved operating cashflow. Our overall expectations for the Group for the full year 2026 remain unchanged, with continued volatility and uncertainty related to the Middle East conflict. We continue to expect sales in local currency to be around flat, with pricing offsetting, lower volumes and increased raw material cost. We expect an EBITDA margin before exceptional items of around 18% in 2026, also supported by value-based pricing, together with increased savings from our performance improvement programs and continued active cost management. We welcome the decision by the Amsterdam District Court to dismiss the ethylene damage claim brought by Shell in its entirety against ourselves and three other defendants, which related to the 2020 competition law infringement. The court's ruling confirms our position that Shell suffered no harm attributable to Clarion's conduct. The judges particularly found no proof that the information exchange amongst buyers caused market harm or altered pricing metrics like the monthly contract price, MCP. While we recognize that this dismissal does not set a legal precedent for the other cases, we see this as encouraging as we feel as we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously in the remaining proceedings in the Netherlands and Germany. In addition, the Amsterdam District Court has also dismissed a claim seeking declaratory judgment of liability of the defendants for the same conduct brought by a claim vehicle stichting ethylene claims. Now, moving to further detail on our sales performance in the second quarter. Pricing increased by 3% and was positive across all three business units, driven by strong value-based pricing actions to offset inflationary raw material prices. This is particularly positive given that formula-based pricing operates with a time lag relative to inflation. volumes decreased by 3.3% impacted by the Middle East conflict and our portfolio pruning measures. Underlying volumes grew by 0.5% in care chemicals and by 2.0% in adsorbents and additives, while catalyst volumes declined by 14.2%. The reported revenue figure was affected by a 2.4% currency headwind. Turning to profitability. EBITDA, before exceptional items, increased by 1.5% to 171.1 million Swiss francs, corresponding to an 18.2% margin. The 80 basis points increase was the result of strong pricing and higher underlying volumes in chemicals. supported by a favorable valuation effect on inventory. This more than offset the impact of the Middle East conflict on catalyst volumes, lower operating leverage, and higher raw material costs. Adsorbent and Additus delivered an almost stable margin. Our performance improvement programs and cost productivity actions supported all business units. Looking at the savings programs in more detail. We have increased the savings target of our performance improvement programs by 20 million Swiss francs. Now targeting the total run rate savings of 100 million Swiss francs by 2027. We now expect 90 million Swiss francs run rate savings already by the end of 2026. In Q2, we achieved savings of 10 million Swiss francs, which brings the total savings achieved to 69 million Swiss francs. The implementation of the additional programs has resulted in restructuring charges of 24 million Swiss francs in the second quarter. The key measures announced in the second quarter include an additional headcount reduction of around 110 positions, increasing the total announced reduction to around 640 positions. We are implementing new targeted cost management initiatives globally across the business units in production, supply chain, engineering and technical support, as well as in corporate functions. Turning now to our updated assessment of the impact of the conflict in the Middle East. All of our 150 employees across our Middle East sites are safe. There has been no damage to any of our facilities and all Clarion sites in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Israel, as well as our joint venture in Saudi Arabia have resumed operations. Globally, access to feedstock remains secured across our production footprint. During the second quarter, we increased our pricing by 3% across all businesses, enabling us to offset the impact of an inflationary raw material environment. We expect raw material inflation to moderate in Q4. with uncertainty against the background of the ongoing developments in the Middle East. On volumes, our catalyst business remains most affected, with the Middle East accounting for around two thirds of the 14.2% year-on-year volume decline due to order delays. We saw limited pre-buying in care chemicals and adsorbents and additives. Variant's catalyst customers outside the region slowly resume operations and we expect improvement in the second half of the year. However, ongoing developments in the Middle East could affect the pace of this trend. The situation remains volatile and supply security remains a primary concern for our customers. We continue to leverage our global production footprint to ensure supply to our customers. As I mentioned earlier, we have also identified an additional 20 million Swiss francs of savings through active targeted cost management to help offset the overall negative effects of the conflict. Together, these actions support our profitability guidance for the year. With that, I now hand over to Oliver for further details on our business performance in the second quarter.

Thank you, Conrad, and good afternoon, everyone. Let us now look at the second quarter development by business unit. In chemicals, we recorded strong underlying growth driven by consumer-facing segments. sales increased by 4.2% in local currency when excluding our portfolio pruning measures and by 2.5% when including them. Pricing was up 3.7% as value-driven pricing offset inflationary trends related to the Middle East, despite the time lag associated with formula-based pricing. Volumes declined by 1.2%, including the impact of portfolio pruning while underlying volumes grew by 0.5%. Sales in Swiss francs increased by 1.4%, reflecting a 1.1% currency advent. Growth was strongest in industrial applications, followed by personal and home care and mining solutions, driven by positive pricing and higher volumes. Sales in crop solutions declined against the high comparison base, driven by Base chemicals declined as increased pricing was more than offset by lower volumes, partly due to pruning. Sales in oil services declined due to portfolio pruning and the impact of the Middle East conflict, although the business grew at a low single-digit rate on an underlying basis. We recorded EBITDA before exceptional items of 104 million Swiss francs, representing a 19.1% increase compared to the prior year. This translated into an EBITDA margin before exceptional items of 20.7%, a 310 basis point improvement, reflecting strong pricing and underlying volume growth, further supported by a favorable evaluation effect on inventory and contributions from our performance improvement programs. In Catalyst, Sales declined by 13.3% in local currency and by 19.1% in Swiss francs. While pricing was up 0.9%, volumes declined by 14.2% versus the prior year period due to the significant impact from the conflict in the Middle East, with high margin orders delayed and continued disruption to regional and global supply chains. Sales and specialties increased at a mid-double-digit percentage rate, supported by strong growth in hydrogenation and oxidation catalysts. Sales in ethylene decreased at a double-digit percentage rate, while syngas and fuels and propylene each decreased at a high 20th percentage rate. EBITDA before exceptional items decreased by 32.5% to 32.8 million Swiss francs, representing a corresponding margin of 18.6% compared to an elevated 22.3% in the prior year, which included positive one-offs. This was driven by the significant volume impact from the conflict in the Middle East, resulting in lower operating leverage along with higher raw material costs. While continued delays to refill orders in the Middle East and Asia remain a factor, We expect an improved top line trajectory in the second half as customers, particularly outside the Middle East, resume operations. Moving to absorbance and additives. We recorded strong top line growth driven by additives. Sales increased by 5.3% in local currency and by 3.4% in Swiss francs, with pricing up by 3.3% and volumes increasing by 2%. In the adsorbent segments, sales were flat as growth in renewable fuel applications in the United States offset declines in editable oil purification in other regions. In additives, sales increased at a double-digit percentage rate, driven by strong growth in polymer solutions, particularly in flame retardants, and in coatings and adhesives, especially in intumescent coatings. EBITDA before exceptional items increased by 1.4% to 51.2 million Swiss francs, while the corresponding margin was slightly lower at 19.6% versus 20% in the prior year. The 40 basis points decline reflected mixed effects, which were offset by active margin management and contributions from our performance improvement programs. Let's now move on to cover the half-year 2026 financials. In the first half of 2026, sales of 1,859,000,000 Swiss rings were flat in local currency when excluding portfolio pruning actions and decreased by 1.2% when including these. Pricing contributed positively by 0.7%, while volumes declined by 1.9%. Currency translation impacted sales by negative 4.9% in the first half of the year. Looking at our business units, underlying volume growth in chemicals and broadly flat volumes in adsorbents and additives partly offset the Middle East impact in catalysts. In local currency, chemical sales increased by 2.3%, excluding portfolio pruning, and by 0.1%, including it. Catalyst sales decreased by 8.3%, and absorbance and additive sales increased by 1.3%. Group EBITDA before exceptional items decreased by 7.7%, to 331 million Swiss francs against the prior year. while the corresponding margin decreased by 30 basis points to 17.8% from 18.1% a year ago. The improvement in chemicals offset most of the Middle East impact in catalysts. Group reported EBITDA increased by 3.1% to 300 million Swiss francs due to lower restructuring charges compared to the prior year. This resulted in EBITDA margin of 16.1% an improvement of 140 basis points from the 14.7% reported for the same period in 2025. Net cash generated from operating activities increased by 52.8 million Swiss francs, reflecting effective networking capital management, improved profitability and disciplined capital expenditure. This resulted in an increase of our free cash flow conversion by 15 percentage points to 52% for the last 12 months, from 37% at the end of half year 1, 2025. Net debt increased by 79.2 million Swiss francs versus the end of 2025. The resulting debt to last 12 months EBITDA before exceptional items ratio increased to 2.2 times at the end of the second quarter compared to 2.0 times at the end of 2025. And with this, I close my remarks and hand it back to Konrad.

Thank you, Oliver. Let me conclude with our guidance for 2026. For the full year 2026, we continue to expect a challenging and volatile market environment with continued geopolitical conflicts, uncertainties and risks. The Oxford economics forecast now assumes global GDP growth of 2.5%, broadly in line with their 2.4% in April. While expected global chemical industry growth has increased to 1.0% from 0.4% in April, driven by improved but still declining markets for the US, minus 0.3%, and Europe, minus 0.6%. The conflict in the Middle East continues to negatively impact orders in catalyst and Middle East oil services. It has also increased inflation for raw materials, energy and logistics costs. To mitigate these effects, we continue to deliver our proven value-based pricing supported by active cost initiatives. We are leveraging our global production network to provide a reliable supply of products to our customers. Our guidance for 2026 remains unchanged, with sales expected to be around 2025 levels in local currency and an EBITDA margin of around 18% before exceptional items. We expect growth in absorbents and additives, slight underlying growth in care chemicals, and lower sales in catalysts due to Middle East order delays. With that, I turn the call back over to you, Andreas.

Thank you, Konrad and Oliver. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now opening the floor for questions. To ensure everyone has a chance to participate, please ask no more than two questions per person. Thank you for your cooperation. Sandra, please go ahead.

Thank you, Andreas. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questions on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume of the webcast while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question comes from Katie Richards from Barclays. Please go ahead. Hello, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my question. My first question would be on the positive result in consumer care, please. The press release this morning referred to some customer pre-buying. Could you explain which end markets were affected by this within consumer care and also whether you see any risk that the Q3 volumes could be negatively impacted? as a result of demand being pulled forward. And then naturally, my second question, if I can, would be on the litigation, please. Clearly very good news yesterday. So I would be interested to hear your opinions on whether the dismissal of the Shell claim offers positive read across to the other 9 billion claims, in your opinion. And if I could just break that down into two parts, please. Do you think that Shell dismissal largely removes the risk for the other claims in the Dutch court, so from Total, OMV, etc.? I assume they were expecting to use the same methodology to Shell. And secondly, if you could just give us an update on BSS claim in the courts in Munich, whether they're using the same or different methodology and how far along the case is there, please. So it would just be interesting to hear your thoughts to the extent that you can answer.

Thank you, Katie. So on the pre-buy, what we basically saw is very limited pre-buying. Where we did see some of it in care chemicals was in our cosmetics business, where we are dealing with very unique active ingredients. During the second quarter, there were obviously heightened supply chain, supply security sort of concerns at some point in time. But what you saw in the past when people that actually large home care customers would do pre-buying also in speculation of higher raw material prices, that hasn't happened this time. So a very limited effect in our chemical business. Infantry levels are fairly normal and average across the segments. As to your second question on the Shell case, this is actually a big step forward for the company. If you look at the remainder of cases, almost half of them will serve in the Netherlands, the others actually either in Munich or in Dortmund in Germany. In terms of the methodology across the cases, indeed the cases filed in the Netherlands are very similar in methodology. If you look at them, the facts are very similar. In fact, the vast majority is actually referencing the same economic reports, the Alex and Partners report that was basically used in the Shell case. And clearly the court found that that report failed to demonstrate any causality between the behavior of the defendants and the MCP prices for ethylene. To your second question, we prefer not to comment on individual cases, your question on BSF. But I will say that also the cases that basically will serve in the German courts are actually using a similar methodology. And also here, the facts are the same. So even though the German courts are not bound by any of the decisions that were made in the Dutch courts, they will independently come to their own judgment. It's fair to say that the facts and the methodology are very similar. So I think the win in the Netherlands also positions us quite strongly for the cases to come in the Netherlands.

Amazing. Thank you. That's very useful.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Christian Seitz from Kepler-Schebrue. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon, Konrad, Oliver and Andreas and team. Congrats on the results and also congrats on the Amsterdam Court win. Two questions, please. First of all, your agricultural business within consumer care was weaker as you published this morning and as Oliver mentioned. How much of that is share wins from generic manufacturers? that might not be your typical customers as opposed to the innovators such as Syngenta, Vaya, etc. And then my second question would be, or at best actually, at the Q1 reporting, you gave us a very helpful figure of your assessment of plant outages due to the Middle East situation. I believe the figure at the time was 88 or so. of the truffy half were your customers. Would you mind giving us an update on that figure, on the outages currently affected by the Middle East per today?

Thank you, Christian. Two very important questions. The one on AG I will leave to Oliver to answer. I will take the one on the Middle East. What we see in the Middle East is basically not only in the Middle East itself, but also outside the Middle East as a consequence. of the conflict, there have been outages in feedstock. We reported after our Q1 results a total global force majeure number of 88. So 88 companies basically in shutdown modus because of either a lack of feedstock when they are based outside the Middle East. They couldn't bring in propane. They couldn't bring in NAFTA. They had to shut down operations. They were previously bringing that in from the Middle East and the other half based in the Middle East because either a lack of feedstock stock there or an inability to ship their finished products. What we've seen during the quarter is the second quarter, not a surprise, this number went up. And at one point in time, in May, June, we were actually at a number well above 100 force majeures globally in the sector. It's actually very positive to look at the recent developments. So if you now look at the July number, we're below 100 force majeures globally. We see an easing outside the Middle East. So companies in China, in Japan, in Korea, in India, have been able to source their feedstock from other regions now, are back up and running again. In the Middle East, we still see quite a significant number of customers in shutdown. We expect that will be taking a bit longer to ease. But I think the positive news is that the overall number of force majeures is actually coming down right now, especially outside the Middle East. Within the Middle East, it will take a bit longer. Oliver, if you could comment on agrochemicals.

Hi, Christian. On agro, I mean, as you know, the majority of our customers is in the branded businesses. So in that sense, the current performance is not so much affected by the generic play. I think what's important to consider when when looking at the crop science performance in the second quarter, the crop solutions performance in the second quarter is that we were trading over a very strong previous year quarter. The second quarter in 25 was in the mid 20s in terms of growth. And hence, of course, you would see after that restocking that happened last year with that year over year trading, you would see a bit of a softer volume quarter Q2 in this year. But our expectation for now, the remainder of the year, is that we will see growth coming back in crop solutions driven by exactly the branded players that we are operating with and the volume developments that we're seeing there.

Okay, great. Thanks both. Very helpful.

The next question comes from Thea Badaro from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Two questions for me, please. The first one is on the guidance. The midpoint of your guidance currently points to a 5% improvement sequentially in H2. Obviously, this is way above prior year split between the two halves. So the question here is, how confident are you that you will be able to achieve this? And maybe what are assumptions by division? And the second one is on the regional growth. It looks like APAC seem to have grown across all divisions. Can you maybe help us understand where exactly you've seen strength and maybe what are the drivers of the growth in this market?

Yeah, so I'll let Oliver comment with a bit more granularity on the APEC growth that we saw, or the China growth, I think, specifically in Q2. As far as the guidance, Thea, so yeah, we are actually quite confident about the guidance for the year. So it's obviously a very volatile year. But if you first look at revenue, we are seeing a pickup in the second half, especially in Catalyst. I mean, there's always a bit of seasonality and a stronger second half in Catalyst. But especially this year, I mean, we obviously in the second quarter had a big hit in Catalyst, minus 13%. largely attributed to the Middle East situation. And what we think in the second half is clearly an easing in terms of the force majeure we just talked about, especially outside the Middle East. We'll see an improvement there. So that is definitely a stronger second half for Catalyst than the first half. In chemicals, we will continue to see the positive performance underpinned by the positive pricing that we see already, well over 3% positive pricing there, with still an additional wave to come from formula-based pricing. So resilient volumes, especially in personal and home care, but also, as Oliver alluded to, a bit of pickup in crop. protection. ANA is actually having very interesting pockets of growth. Overall, the micro is not strong if you look at automotive build rates or electronic products production. But we have actually very interesting pockets of growth. If you look at our flame retardants, they're now also applied in data centers. in fire protection coatings. We see that in our numbers. That's actually a good performance. We see for renewable oils a good pickup for biodiesel for sustainable aviation fuel. So there's a number of positive developments in ANA as well. Oliver, if you could comment on Asia Pacific specifically.

No, sure. On Asia Pacific, we have some of the trends that Conrad was also mentioning now on a global level. If we really go by the business units in A&A, we actually have seen growth in both areas, in the additives, particularly in the flame retardants with our customers in the region, but also the absorbance business has been growing nicely in the second quarter, both on price and volume. in the region. On care chemicals, equally, especially when we look at the personal home care and industrial applications business, we have seen good growth. And that was also across the region. In Catanese, we had a bit of a sort of a split development across the region. Actually, we saw a decline in China, and that was expected behind some of the feedstock challenges and also the propane prices that we saw in the region, utilization rates of less than 60% in parts of the region. of the production that impacted clearly our catalyst business in China and then as we talked before also globally for the second quarter but outside of China we actually also saw in the catalyst business across the country's good growth which led at the end of the day to that mid

The next question comes from James Hooper from Bird Scene. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much for taking my questions. First one is, Comrade, I saw you on TV this morning and you mentioned in the context of the lawsuits that it gives you a bit more strategic flexibility. Can you go into a little bit more detail about what you mean by this? does this kind of lawsuits change how you think about consolidation and what Clarence is able to do? And then the second question is around the mid-term targets. Can you just, so it looks like, can you give us a bit more detail? Cash is already there on conversion, but can you give us a little bit more detail on how you see getting the margins and the revenue targets to the 2027 targets, please? Thank you.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, James, so basically what we see is that you saw a very positive reaction basically on the stock market yesterday with our share price up significantly. What it reflects is there was an overhang on our share price. clearly there is an overhang from these ethylene cartel cases, which we have argued all the time. So it's actually very good to see that actually now moving out of it. But just for clarity, the overhang that we have seen on our share price from ethylene has never actually impacted our ability to finance acquisitions or it has never impacted our operational performance. We've maintained a solid investment grade So it has actually not stopped us from doing anything. And as far as M&A or strategic M&A, I would say there's no change in our strategy. It's first and foremost about organic growth. And you've seen that we've actually stepped that up over the years in local currency. Also in the second quarter, more than 4% local currency grows in chemicals, more than 5% in additive and absorbents. We're very pleased with that. So first and foremost about organic growth, then it's bold on acquisitions really to strengthen our core segments. And you've seen a nice example with Lucas Meyer. We are eager to continue to make acquisitions like that. So there is no change as such in our strategy. Your second question, James, on the midterm targets. Yeah. So we stick to the 18% EBITDA margin for the year. For next year, that actually puts us in a good position to also achieve the targets for next year, which was a range of 19%. to 21% EBITDA margin. I think it's important to note that we have increased also the cost performance improvement program from 80 million full run rate to 100 million. 10 million additional from that will be coming in in this year to support our guidance. Another 10 million will actually come in next year so that that further strengthens and underpins also our commitment to sequentially improve again next year to the 19 to 21 percent range.

The next question comes from Jandip Pandaya from Onfield Research. Please go ahead.

When you look at your innovation portfolio and you compare the innovation demand for new catalysts in Asia versus Europe and the US, is there any major difference in terms of what the Asian players are demanding, be it with regards to the plant size or the fact that there is more of these integrated sites in Asia compared to Europe and the US. That's my first question. And also related to that, how do you see the mix of Catalyst evolving in 2027, 2028, given the Iran war? That's my first question. The second question sort of links to the previous question, really, but from a different way. You know, you've spoken about consolidation. One of your key peers in care chemicals is performing a strategic review. And interestingly, the size of that business would sort of complement your size in care chemicals. So have you given any sort of size in terms of, you know, what sort of... size would you be able to look after and in that regard would you be would you be thinking of actually exiting some of the smaller businesses that you have like absorbents or additives in this to become a pure play a company on care chemicals or would you would you keep this current portfolio and just add on in terms of consolidation on that thanks a lot

Thank you for these two questions, Jaydeep. Interesting enough, I'm just back from China and our team was there actually, and we spent quite some time with the large local customers. In fact, some of these chemical companies, really some of the largest ones actually in the world right now. And what you see in China right now is clearly a shift back to coal-based chemistry. and basically not only coal as obviously a feedstock for power plants to generate electricity, but also coal as a raw material through the methanol route and then methanol to olefins as a raw material to basically make polymers. We are involved in that. We obviously here provide catalysts that then actually still improve the carbon footprint of these processes. But we are actively engaged in it and we have obviously a sizable position in that market. The other interesting thing is in China is at the same time that there is actually renewed focus on coal to chemistry. there's actually a continued commitment on their sustainability targets. So peak carbon 2030 is still a very strong commitment by the Chinese government in their latest five-year plan, the 15th five-year plan that is reiterated. And 2060, the target to be basically climate neutral as a country. So these are ambitious targets. And what we see in China is actually continued investment in green hydrogen. We see in China investments in green methanol, in green ammonia plants at a much larger scale than Europe, where unfortunately some of the green hydrogen plants and announcements before in green hydrogen have actually been pulled back. In China, it is accelerating. So I think that is very positive for us. And we see a lot of these new plants where actually Clariant is extremely well positioned with our catalyst, our Syngas catalyst. Yeah, your second question, I can be relatively brief. Yeah, I think we've said all along there is a consolidation at some point to be expected and actually already happening in specialty chemicals. We always said we want to be an active player in that area. But I think it's also important to know that it will be very disciplined. As I said before, it's first and foremost organic growth. Then it is really bolt-on acquisitions that bring true synergies to our existing segments. And that will be very much the focus of any M&A that you will see in the coming years from us.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Christian Bell from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi there, and well done on the result in what has been difficult circumstances. I just have two questions. The first on the Shell ruling. Do you have any indication as to whether Shell is likely to appeal or should investors view that case as effectively closed now? And then secondly, just on crop solutions, the restocking impact last year, was that mainly limited to the second quarter or did it continue into Q3 and Q4? and should we therefore expect easier comparables in the second half of this year? Thank you.

Yes, I think Oliver can comment again on the crop solutions sort of phasing here. As far as the Shell case, yes, the Shell case, which has been dismissed in the Netherlands right now, as well as, by the way, the case of the Foundation for Ethylene Claims, separate case that also was dismissed. Both two cases can be appealed. So, yeah, there is that possibility. And the appeal, I think, is about three months from now, from the day of decision that that needs to be brought forward. But we cannot comment on is Shell going to appeal or not. And quite frankly, I have no knowledge on that.

Hi, Christian. On your crop solutions question, yes, indeed, the second half of last year was more of a more normalized half year, and that is what I said earlier in the call. This is also where we expect now in the second half of the year that in crop solutions we would see growth coming back because the first was, as we said, characteristically on the restocking.

So, thank you.

You're welcome.

The next question comes from Chetan Udheshi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. So, first one is, I don't know if you quantified, but what was the benefit from inventory revaluation gains in care chemicals in Q2? Second is... Given the second half guidance, I'm just curious if you can help us with modeling of third quarter. What do you see right now across businesses? Is there anything beyond normal seasonality that we should consider when modeling Q3 versus Q2 on an absolute basis? And the third question is, just going back to this whole question about consolidation, Conrad, and I'm just a bit curious, you know, Lucas Meyer was an interesting asset. It was a small asset, but it doesn't really move the needle these days. What I'm trying to say is if you really want to improve fundamentals, perhaps, you know, one needs to be a little bit more strategic in terms of how you do the consolidation rather than buying teeny tiny assets where it doesn't move the needle. And again, I think I asked this question maybe last year as well. like this whole structure of Clarion with Catalyst where you've seen Johnson Matthews sell Catalyst business, their own business for 12, 13 times EBITDA. Why do we have Clarion with these different assets in one place? Why can't you think more strategic and look at consolidating the individual bits to probably make the fundamentals better for each of these different bits? Sorry, it's a bit left-wing question, but just thought more interesting. Thank you.

I would go for the first question before Conrad then comments on half year two and your third question on industry. On the inventory, let's also look at this more from a Q1, Q2 dynamics because we saw a few dynamics in the quarter. We had a negative one in Q1. We had a positive one in Q2. So when we look at the first half for care chemicals, we're talking about an effect of less than 100 basis points on margin. And then the more we go now into the remainder of the year, expectation will be also with the developments that we're seeing that towards the end of the year, that curve is even more flattening out.

Yeah, Chetan, so on the phasing H2, H1, there's just nothing unusual this year. So basically Catalyst typically has a stronger second half. Chemicals, sometimes the swing factor here is how de-icing comes in, if that's Q4 or if it's more Q1 next year. And Adzorbis is fairly even. We do think it's a stronger second half for the reasons mentioned, primarily catalysts, primarily the fact that also we see actually the force majeure easing outside the Middle East and the business got hit pretty hard in Q2. with minus 14% on volumes. So overall, we're actually confident that the second half will be slightly better in terms of revenue for the overall business compared to H1. Yeah, your second question on M&A, first of all, I think Lucas Meyer for us has moved the needle. So for us, we have actually repositioned, I think, successfully in care chemicals towards consumer facing segments. And I think the interesting thing is also that if you look now, for example, in the second quarter, high single digit growth in personal and home care, We continue to see double-digit growth in the Lucas Meyer business with very accretive and high margins. And there's a lot of positive spinoff to basically our own cosmetic business from that business. So if we can make continued acquisitions like a Lucas Meyer, yeah, we are very happy with them. And yeah, we obviously continue to scan for these sort of important bolt-on acquisitions. There's not many out there. We haven't missed any, I think, in this segment. But certainly the ones that will come up, we all will look critically at them. Larger scale M&A, we obviously will look at them. But yeah, we need to be extremely disciplined here because there has to be tangible and real synergy. And your final question on are we the right owner for some of the businesses? I think ultimately it's about financial performance. So we need to show and demonstrate leading financial performance, not only in margins, but also in gross. And if as long as we can achieve that, I think the question about are we the right owner is certainly not being asked frequently to me, because I think if you look at our catalyst business, more than 18 percent EBITDA margin, despite actually 14% lower volumes. I think that is a remarkable achievement. Last year, more than 20% EBITDA margin for catalysts. Relative to the relevant peers, that is clearly a very strong performance.

Got it. Thank you.

The next question comes from Walter Bamert from Zürcher Kantonalbank. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everybody. Could you help me with the one-off cost in the second quarter? You explained that, but I lost a little bit track how that develops in the rest of the year.

Yeah, thank you, Walter. Good to hear you. The one-offs, the majority of the program that Konrad was alluding to, the The 20 million upgrades that we did to our 80 million program, the majority of the one-time cost for that program, we have now booked in the second quarter. So we are talking about a mid-single-digit number for the remainder of the year in general for restructuring. So the biggest part is behind us in half year one.

Okay, and then coming back to the question about the share price and its implication for strategic initiatives. I mean, when I have read that, that sounds like now I'm going to make a big capital increase for acquisitions. I mean, that's the only interpretation I had here at the beginning. And my question is, don't you have to wait until you have the legal cases off the table before you go for acquisitions? And then you have to be very fast because otherwise you end up at the wrong side of the food chain.

Yeah, Walter, I think I answered the question, but maybe not completely. Let me be very clear. If you look at the strategy for the company, organic growth, bolt-on acquisitions, we haven't seen any limitation from the ethylene claims that were out there. So even with a suppressed share price, we never had any issue regarding our funding. We've been able to fund our operations. We've been able to do nice, bold acquisitions like Lucas Meyer. So likewise, there was no negative impact on the way down for the share price. On the way up, there will not be. certainly a different strategy for us on acquisitions. It will continue to be disciplined. And actually, yeah, you will see that with acquisitions, they have to deliver tangible synergies and bolt-ons are definitely the preferred way to go here. And there's no change in our strategy here. you see actually successfully and maybe this one thing that to bring up the bonds I mean 500 million euro bond that we issued and that was well before the positive outcome of the court case in the Netherlands it was oversubscribed so there's never been and then there isn't any concern for funding in the company so yeah I hope I'm clear about that now thank you very much for that clarification thank you

This is Andreas speaking. We answered all the questions. So ladies and gentlemen, we conclude today's conference call. A transcript of the call will be available on the Clarion website in due course. The investor relations team is as always available for any further questions you might have. Once again, thank you for joining the call and goodbye.

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