Alzchem Group Ag New

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of AltCam Group AG. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If any participant has difficulty hearing the conference, please press star key followed by zero on your telephone for operator assistance. May I now hand you over to Mr. Andreas Niedermeier and Dr. Georg Weichselbaumer, who will lead the conference today. Please go ahead, Sirs.

Yes, thank you for the intro. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to our analyst call for the quarter one. As always, we start with an executive summary and then move on to the figures after the strategic issues. At the end of the presentation, Dr. Weichselbaumer and me are available to for a question. So let's skip the page four and go directly to the highlights. I hold on a moment that you have the chance to get the delay managed. Here is a brief overview of our highlights for the quarter one. Despite the COVID-19, production, sales, and earnings are stable due to diversified product portfolios and compensation possibilities within the Altcam group. So, which we are particularly pleased about, the expected very strong growth of Criamino was successfully realized in the quarter one 2020 and developed within the forecasted corridor. BioSelect. rises to the star of the year, as we have always been represented in the DNA analysis kits. Due to the increased analysis triggered by COVID-19, the demand has risen significantly. We are delighted that the basic and intermediate segment is performing very well in what we see a challenging market environment. And this quarter was again better than the previous year, both in sales and in EBITDA. Those were the positive aspects. But what are the most concerned about is the steel and automotive industry. Products for this sector are in some cases showing significant declines. All in all, we can report a good start to the year 2020. EBITDA is in line with our forecasts. In addition, the good business start lower capital expenditure and strict networking capital management led to a very strong cash flow. And this brings me straight to our next slide, the detailed cash flow analysis. So I think the slide should be switched. So we are starting today with our cash flow as we have been able to achieve an extraordinarily positive development here. The cash inflow from operating activities increased from minus two to 8.5 million year over year, and this reflects the decrease in networking capital, lower capex, and a strong operating business. The most positive aspect of the previous year, the cash flow being burdened by the increase in stocks, This year, the decrease in stocks has boosted the cash flow almost twice. And this shows again how important networking capital management is. At 4.8 million, the cash outflow from investing activities was lower than half of the previous year. The main reasons are, of course, the absence of major projects for the time being and somewhat slower capex activities due to COVID-19. As a result, we have a clearly positive free cash flow compared to the previous year. Alskens financing activities in the first quarter of 2019 were still largely characterized by the payment of the remaining loan amounts to finance the new Creamino plant in the amount of approximately $30 million. And in contrast, financing activities in the first quarter of 2020 focused on the scheduled repayment of loans and repayment of leasing liabilities. Overall, this led to a cash outflow from financing activities to 2.7 million. Despite the cash outflow from CapEx and financing activities, cash and cash equivalents increased overall due to the strong cash inflow from operating activities. So after the first analysis of figures and the cash flow, a few words to the operating details, and therefore I would hand over to Dr. Weisselbaumer and switch the slide to the slide six. So the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Niedermeyer. We have often talked about CRIAMINO and customer acquisition, which is why we have recorded a typical sales pitch here. The critical point of contact is typically with the technical person of the customer. This is generally a nutritionalist. It can take months, sometimes a year to get the customer to agree to such a meeting. As the benefits of creatine are not always well known even to nutritionalists, the entree is not simple. From the time of the first meeting, A timeline of average 15 months starts until first commercial sales. It takes an average three months each to convince the customer and to prepare the trial. Usual duration of the trial is three months for fostering animals like chicken and much longer for pigs or cattle. Finally, The results need to be evaluated, and in case of a positive outcome, test production in a commercial plant will start. The feeding trial is the most critical part of this sequence and needs to be well designed and carried out in order to get reliable results. Breeders with trial farms operate those to solve their own problems first. Tests for new products are assigned on a priority base on the unexpected results. The feed for those trials need to be perfectly mixed and controlled. They require two comparable stables. Samples need to be drawn systematically and analyzed in calibrated equipment. We try to join those trials whenever possible and allowed by the customer to ensure that the agreed feeding protocols are adhered to. Through COVID-19, we see at one point or another that our customers are concentrating on their core business and testing fewer new products. So far, however, we have not seen any negative effects on our business. Now I would like to go to the next slide, where we will have a closer look at creatine and creatinine benefits. Reliable energy supply supports many functions in the body required for healthy growth. Healthy growth is key to sound economics in feed production and animal growth. Here, creatine is the most reliable way for an efficient energy metabolism in the body. Creatine becomes creatine in the body, and creatine causes the main positive effects. Many of them are important for healthy growth. On this slide, you can see an extract of the effects, starting with the positive nutritional effects, sustainability, reproduction, immune support, muscle strength, and higher energy. Last time, we analyzed the energy effect. Today, we will take a closer look at the immune support arena. Creatine improves cell wall strength. Stronger cell walls make cells more resistant against disturbances from the outside. This applies in particular to gut cells. Also, those benefit from higher energy levels and have an improved feed absorption. This, once again, helps the robustness of the body in general. Infection resistance. immune response requires energy. Because of better energy availability provided from creatine, macrophages perform better and the immune system is more robust. There are studies available to support this claim. As a consequence of increased creatine levels, mortality rates are lower. This positive effect was also demonstrated by independent studies. Excess energy has a positive effect on the immune response, muscle endurance, and other factors. I would like to leave it at that and summarize that there are many reasons to use CreAmino in feeding. Because not only humans, also animals need a strong immune system. The topic of immune system brings us back to our next topic, the coronavirus and its effects on Alzheimer's. Mr. Niedermeyer, I hand back to you to continue the presentation.