AMG Critical Materials N.V.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's AMG Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and 1 on your touchtone phone. You may withdraw yourself from the queue by pressing star and 2. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Ms. Michelle Fisher, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Welcome to AMG's second quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me on this call are Dr. Hein Schimmelbusch, the Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jackson Dunkel, the Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Eric Jackson, the Chief Operating Officer. AMG's second quarter 2023 earnings press release issued yesterday is on AMG's website. Today's call will begin with a review of the second quarter 2023 business highlights by Dr. Schimelbusch. Mr. Dunkel will comment on AMG's financial results, and Mr. Jackson will discuss operations. At the completion of Mr. Jackson's remarks, Dr. Schimelbusch will comment on strategy and outlook. We will then open the call to take your questions. Before I pass the call to Dr. Schimmelbusch, I would like to expressly refer you to our statement on the forward-looking statement and the meaning thereof as we have used at all previous occasions and we will use at this earnings call, in which explanatory statement has been published as part of our financial presentation and at our website in all connection with this earnings call. I will now pass the floor to Dr. Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Michelle. This is the fourth straight quarter in which AMG has exceeded $100 million of EBITDA. This 32% EBITDA increase over the second quarter in 22 was driven largely by our clean energy material segment, specifically AMG Lithium's Brazilian operation. with an EBITDA contribution of $89 million. AMG's liquidity as of June 23 was $586 million, with $391 million of unrestricted cash and $195 million of revolving credit availability. The company will pay an interim dividend in 2023 dividend of 40 euro cents per ordinary share on or around August 9, 23, to shareholders of record on August 1, 23. AMG Engineering signed 167 million in new orders during the second quarter of 23, driven by strong orders of the remelting and induction furnaces representing at 2.48 times book to bill ratio. AMG's order backlog was 337 million as of June 23, which is the highest in AMG history, which is a 15-year history. This is largely driven by the U.S. aerospace market. Our Q2 23 U.S. order intake has essentially doubled from our second quarter 22 U.S. order intake. We continue to drive our lithium strategy forward and are pleased to announce that we have signed a mandate letter with Germany's KfW IPEX Bank and with Citi Group to structure and arrange the financing for the construction of our proposed technical grade lithium chemical plant in Brazil, with capital expenditure presently estimated to be close to 300 million. The financing structure is expected to cover all the funding requirements and be supported by the Ungebundener Finanzkredit, I'm sorry to say, which means a government-backed program backed by the German government. for projects which deliver critical materials into Germany. This proposed financing is a cornerstone of our lithium strategy to be the premier supplier of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in Europe and another important step towards an independent and sustainable lithium supply chain in Europe. In addition, the project conforms with AMG Brazil's commitment to upgrade its operations to produce a higher value product by significantly contributing to CO2 emissions, to the reduction of CO2 emissions by lowering total volumes shipped materially. Our expansion projects remain on track. The lithium concentrate expansion project in Brazil is progressing as planned. And our hydroxide refinery in Bitterfeld, Germany, is expected to start commissioning for the first 20,000-ton module in the fourth quarter of 2023. This will be the first European hydroxide refinery. AMG is working on a variety of lithium resource projects. Following our principles, we will only comment publicly on those as signatures have happened. We are very satisfied with our project development work, which is critical for feeding additional modules of our hydroxide refinery complex in Bitterford, East Germany. The new spent catalyst recycling facility in Saintsville, Ohio, AMG's largest investment project to date, is currently running at full capacity and targeting full-run reproduction for the second half of 2023. AMG's LIWA battery projects for industrial power management applications outlined at our Capital Markets Day are under various stages of construction. Shell AMG Recycling BV project development in the Middle East are progressing. The so-called Supercenter project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is completing the FEL3 feasibility study later this year. SARBV, Shell, AMG, Recycling PV's activities have already led to material deliverance of spent catalysts to Ohio from overseas. I will now pass the floor to Jackson Dunkel, AMG's Chief Financial Officer. Jackson.