AMG Critical Materials N.V.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's AMG Q1 2025 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 telephone keypad. Please note this call is being recorded, and I will be standing by should you need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Michelle Fisher. Please go ahead.

Welcome to AMG's first quarter 2025 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, Mr. Eric Jackson, the Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Michael Conner, the Chief Corporate Development Officer. AMG's first quarter 2025 earnings press release issued yesterday is on AMG's website. Today's call will begin with a review of the first quarter 2025 business highlights by Dr. Schimelbusch. Mr. Conner will comment on strategy, 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 outlook. We will then open the line to take your questions. Before I pass the call to Dr. Schimmelbusch, I would like to expressly refer you to our statement on forward-looking statements 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 on our website, all in connection with this earnings call. I will now pass the floor to Dr. Schimmelbusch, Chief Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Michelle. We are obviously pleased to have achieved such a strong EBITDA in the first quarter, almost double compared to the first quarter last year. We achieved an EBITDA of 58 million for the first three months in 2025, despite the absence of any correction in the lithium or vanadium prices upward. This indicates the power of AMG's critical materials portfolio and demonstrates the significant upside potential should commodity prices normalize. AMG had positive cash from operating activities of $9 million during Q125 compared to $15 million of cash used in operating activities during the first three months of last year. Our technologies segment also had an extremely strong performance with its highest order backlog in AMG's history of 460 million at the end of the first quarter. Looking forward, while the indirect effects of increased tariffs and trade barriers are difficult to assess, there are no material direct effects of the tariffs on AMG businesses based on our present analysis. In the current volatile environment, our businesses benefit from their production of materials which are critical to our customers and to a large extent, we operate within domestic value chains. As we enter into a period of uncertainty, it should be noted that AMG is at the end of its heavy capital expansion phase. Going forward, we will be focused on small, highly secretive investments which preserve our growth options. We recently announced investments in U.S. Chrome, in Lagoa, and Graphite, demonstrate how we will continue to invest and support growth while maintaining the strength of our balance sheet. As an important example that demonstrates the end of our heavy investment phase, I am very pleased to report that the Bitterfeld Refinery has successfully produced lithium hydroxide at battery-grade specifications and will be shipping the first commercial qualification batches to our customers promptly. I will now hand over to Mike. Mike? Thank you, Heinz.