Alzchem Group Ag New

following the publication of the Q3 figures of 2025. I'm delighted to welcome the CEO Andreas Niedermeier, CFO Andreas Loesler, as well as CSO Dr. Georg Weichselbaumer, who will speak in a moment and guide us through the presentation and the results. After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session in which you will be allowed to place your questions directly to the management. And having said this, I hand over to Mr. Niedermeyer.

Yes, thank you for the warm welcome and good morning together. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the Quarters Recall. As usual, we open with an executive summary, go forward with the figure analysis, and then move on to the new outlook. As always, we will go through the presentation first and then be available for the questions at the end. So let's skip the disclaimer and go directly to the page five. So I have to do that as well. Let's check page five. So now page five, you should see that. So in a summary, it can be said that we are on a real good growth course, especially in the specialty chemicals product segment. So from that point of view, it was an additional successful quarter three for us. For the third quarter, we recorded growth, which means that the group sales increased by additional 6% for the nine-month period by 2%. Once again, our specialties were the main driver of the growth with a 9% increase in sales here, which more than compensated or overcompensated for the decline in sales in the other businesses. We will then hear more details about the analysis later on, but that information is a teaser here. EBITDA also grew by 12% to 86 million, approximately mainly due to the positive volume development of specialty chemicals. The EBITDA margin across the group increased from 18.5% to 20.3% now. So based on the real good development on the figures for the first nine months, we can and we are able to confirm the outlook for the sales more at the lower threshold. But we will be able to increase earnings from the today's point of view. And the reported figure is more the lower end than we can see today. So our CAPEX activity is in full swing. The construction of the two new plants, including infrastructure, is on schedule and on budget here. The roofs are currently being built and will also be closed soon. The first installations inside the plant have already begun. In the US, we are in the process of talking about specific project situations with several locations. And teams are evaluating the individual locations so that the basis for a decision can be laid in the coming months here. And engineering has already started with the adaption and the translation of the layout to the US standard. The demand for creatine products remains really high. In order to be able to benefit from market growth, an incremental creatine expansion was successfully commissioned in quarter three. In addition to the urgently required capacity increases, this investment also leads to greater efficiencies through an automatic patch checking system. This shows the strength of Altscam as I see that when sales potential on the market opens up, we size the possibility of growth and efficiency investments that are implemented quickly and consistently. And we can report the cooperation with Airman and the high-protein creatine products with Creavitalis in stores since October. Let's discuss that in more detail on the next page. So Ehrmann in cooperation with Altschem launched in expansion of its high protein product line, which takes functional nutrition to the next level. The focus is on Crea Vitalis, the high quality creatine made in Germany from us. The new Ehrmann high protein creatine range makes the proven ingredient available for the first time in the form of delicious, everyday, Products for a broad target group, the new product line comprises three categories, puddings, drinks, and bars, and delivers per portion approximately one and a half gram of Crea Vitalis each. Since October, the Airman high-protein creatine puddings and drinks have become gradually available in German retailer stores worldwide. And in the Airman online shop, the bars will be added to the range starting now in November. Crea Vitalis stands for the highest purity and quality and therefore also has convinced the customer Airman to enrich its products with high purity creatine and to provide it with a broad range of products for the first time for a broader market here. The first creatine project in dairy products underlines the variety of applications of creatine also outside the fitness sector and confirms our strategy of investigating the further applications of creatine and thus opening up further market potential. And we believe in further growth here. However, let's now move on to more figure analysis of how the business performed in the quarter and for the first nine months. And for that, I hand over to George Weichselbaumer now.

Yeah, thank you, Andreas. As always, let's start with the development in our basics and intermediate segment, which managed to slightly reverse the downward trend observed in the first half of the year. The segment concluded the reporting period with sales amounting to approximately €122 million. This represents a decrease of €11 million or 8% compared to the previous year. Only looking at Q3 standalone, sales showed a positive development and were 6% above Q3 last year, as was EBITDA. Again, this development was not a surprise to us and part of our guidance. For the nine-month period and as outlined throughout the year already, the decline in sales driven by volumes effects. The European steel industry remains in a difficult economic situation and is continuously producing lower volumes than in the previous year. Accordingly, our customers do ask for less quantities. In contrast, and on a positive note, the development in the fertilizer segment, particularly with our Calcium Xanamide Fertilizer Pell Car, was encouraging. Q3 sales were further supported by a new product in our nitrous business, which was successfully placed with a customer for the first time. This product contributed positively to the sales and ABTA development within this segment. We are now in negotiations with the customer regarding an additional production campaign, which could contribute to a further positive development of our basics and intermediate segment. This sales development within the third quarter of 2025 led also to an increased EBITDA over the same period. Nevertheless, this development did not contribute to an increase in EBITDA in the nine month period compared with the previous year. Even if we managed to pass on some portion of high electricity costs, we could not compensate for the reduced quantities and had to accept a decline in EBITDA, which also led to a decline in the EBITDA margin compared to the previous year. On the production side, the facilities within our basics and intermediate segment could steadily and reliably produce all raw materials required for the growth of our specialty chemical segment. This brings me to the next page where we analyze the situation in our specialty chemical segment. Specialty chemicals is still on a very promising growth path supported by the recent development within our creative business, which Andreas described already. For the nine-month period, as well as for Q3 standalone, all major KPIs could be increased compared to the comparative periods. On a cumulative basis, we can report a sales increase of 22 million or 9%, an EBITDA increase of 11 million or even 16%, and an increased EBITDA margin of almost 28%. Only looking at Q3 standalone, we can report a sales increase of 7 million or 8%, an EBITDA increase of 2.4 million or 11%, and an increased EBITDA margin of almost 28%. Main support for this development clearly came from the increased quantities supported by slightly increased prices for the nine month period. It must be noted that this performance is very much in line with our guidance as set during the year. Let me outline the development within three business areas. human nutrition with our outstanding high-quality creatine products, CreaPure and CreaVitalis, custom manufacturing with very specialized products and production facilities, and defense with our propellant NitroGuanidine. While the latter can only grow this year to the extent that our customers are able to purchase before completing their own capacity expansions, The other two businesses made a significant contribution to growth. The demand for our creatine products made in Germany was much higher than last year, and we could especially grow in the US, but also in other regions. Andreas already mentioned the cooperation with Ehrmann brings creatine to the functional food market for the first time. The most current successful commissioning of our expanding creatine capacity will support our growth and the satisfaction of steady and increased market demand. As already mentioned during our information in Q1 and Q2 of this year, the comeback of our custom synthesis area continues. We have seen increased and steady demand, and this development supports our belief that the volume declines of recent years were only a temporary phase and that the traditional chemical segment, with its highly specialized products, continues to offer further growth opportunities with a corresponding contribution to earnings, even in Europe. EBITDA grew in line with sales. but our very good plant utilization led to an improved EBITDA margin. Again, we are mostly satisfied with this development within this group and confirm our growth perspective. Let us now move on to our third segment, other end holding. As seen throughout the year, sales of the other end holding segment were below the previous year's level. This decrease is primarily due to reduced electricity grid fees for the chemical part customers, which Aliskamp is allowed to charge the customers under electricity regulations. All other services provided to our chemical part customers are broadly stable. The segments ABTA followed the sales and the decline was mainly due to the reduction of grid fees. That was all for our detailed view on the segment development. Let's now hand over to Andreas Loesler and take a look at the overall group figures.