Brenntag Se

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Brentag SEHY 2025 results call and live webcast. Please note that the call will be recorded. During today's call, webcast participants will be in a listen-only mode while we conduct the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Instructions will also follow at the time of Q&A. I would now like to turn the call over to Thomas Altmann, Senior Vice President, Corporate Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Alice. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the earnings call for the second quarter of 2025. On the call with me today are our CEO, Dr. Christian Kohlbeindner, and our CFO, Thomas Rysen. They will walk you through today's presentation, which is followed by a Q&A session. this morning on our website in the investor relations sections, where the replay of today's call will be available. Allow me also to point you to our safe harbour statement, which you find at the end of the slide deck. With that, I will now hand over to our CEO, Christian, over to you.

Yes, thank you, Thomas, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I will start with the highlights of the second quarter 2025. and Thomas Reisten will then walk you through the details of our financial performance. Our second quarter was characterized by a high degree of economic uncertainty in light of ongoing geopolitical tensions and unresolved global tariff discussions. This led to a noticeable slowdown in demand and increased pricing pressure across different end markets which we expect to continue throughout the second half of 2025. The slowdown in demand impacted both divisions, whereas the pricing pressure had a stronger effect in our essentials business. At the same time, the further depreciation of the US dollar against the Euro since the beginning of the second quarter had a negative effect on our earnings development. Sales for the second quarter amounted to 3.9 billion euros, which is 4% below the prior year period. Operating gross profit decreased by 2% and stood at 974 million euros. Our operating EBIT-A amounted to 246 million euros, which is 14% below the prior year period. we generated a free cash flow of 153 million euros. Earnings per share stood at 30 cents compared to 1 euro and 3 cents last year. The decline is largely driven by special items and impairments on goodwill and other intangible assets in our essential business, particularly in Latin America. Our cost containment measures supported our underlying cost development in the second quarter with 30 million euros of savings. Let me say a few words on the outlook for 2025. As a result of the aforementioned economic and geopolitical circumstances, as well as the impact from unfavorable changes, operating EBITDA guidance for the full year 2025 and now expect our operating EBITDA to be in the range of 950 million euros to 1 billion and 50 million euros as already communicated on July 11th. Let us take a look at the overall market environment in more detail. Those divisions were impacted by muted customer sentiment, leading to an overall slowdown in demand across different end markets. Ongoing geopolitical tensions and further escalations in the Middle East, as well as unresolved global tariff discussions, created a high degree of economic uncertainty. Although the direct impact of tariffs on our business is rather limited, since the vast majority of our products are stores and sold within the same region, we must acknowledge that we are not immune to secondary or tertiary effects. These effects are significantly larger and the impacts are already evident. In this challenging environment, both plant activations continue to focus on leveraging business opportunities, realizing cost savings and executing their strategic initiatives. Vantax Specialties continues to focus on improving its performance through a combination of short-term and long-term levers. The division saw significant cross-profit per unit improvement compared to the prior year period due to ongoing price and margin management initiatives. At the same time, Vantax Specialties is on track to deliver the cost-out plan for 2025. In Brandeis Essentials, we are executing our triple strategy, focusing particularly on improving efficiencies, processes and infrastructure in our last-mile service operations and our regional and global sourcing activities. In addition to our divisional strategies, we continued our M&A activities in the second quarter 2025. We acquired MCE Pharma in the Czech Republic, setting the foundation for entering the rapidly growing biopharma market in EMEA. Furthermore, we signed and closed the acquisition of GSZ Kaiserslautern, acquiring a state-of-the-art facility for hazardous substance storage in Germany. The site's solid and liquid mixing and blending capabilities significantly expand and complement our Brandtag Essentials service offerings in Central Europe. Let me briefly address our progress on our sustainability efforts, which is recognized and regularly rewarded by external ratings. For example, Brandtag was recently awarded the gold rating in the comprehensive 2025 Ecovades Sustainability Assessment and was placed among the top 3% of all rated companies worldwide. In the latest CDP climate change rating, Brandtag was ranked among the top rated companies globally. achieving a leadership A- rating for the first time. The CDP assessment underlines our progress made in recent years, including the validation of our scope 1, 2, and 3 emission reduction targets by the science-based target initiatives SBTI. Let me now hand over to Thomas Reisten, who will explain our financial results in more detail. Thomas.