Fuchs SE

from the automotive aftermarket sector. We have positive currency effects in Australia, but they are offset by negative effects from Asia. Looking at the EBIT, the region Asia-Pacific doubled the EBIT. They report 34 million for the first quarter 21. Turning to the region America, page number 11, you can see the sales are previous year's level. We have an organic growth of 6% in America and the first quarter 2020 was as well as the region EMEA not affected by COVID-19. The external growth of 8 million or 7% is due to the acquisitions in the previous year 2020. Due to the strong Euro, we have negative currency effects, as already mentioned, and they amount to minus 12% in the first quarter 21. On the earning side, EVIT is up 33% to 16 million for the first quarter. On the next chart, on chart number 12, we want to give you a overview about what happens on the raw material price side. We have seen significant price increases from the beginning of the year in January, February, March, and one or the other base oil nearly almost double prices. And yeah, it's something which we haven't seen in that impact ever before. we will see negative impact on our margins in the second and third quarter. And of course on our selling price, as we pass through raw material price increases with a bit of a time lag due to our contracts, we expect of course higher sales due to price increases. With that, I would like to turn to page number 13, to our outlook for the full year. Based on the development of sales and earnings in the first quarter, the stronger than expected recovery of the global economy, and significant higher raw material prices, we raised our outlook. Sales, we expect to come in in a corridor between 2.7 to 2.8 billion euros. This, as said before, is based on the strong demand and price increases from our side. On the EBIT, we expect it to come in for the full year in a corridor between 330 million and 340 million. As we face higher raw material prices and supply chain disruption, we will have negative effects on our cost side and our margin. On the other hand, of course, with some higher sales, that's why we increased our output. The focus value added will increase slightly, and on the free cash flow before acquisition, you see a reduction of around 50 million and that's due to the increased business and of course where we see due to the purchasing price increases and our selling price increases that we see the need of a higher level of net operating working capital. Coming to the next chart, number 14, we just would like to remind you that we have a different development regarding our first half year and our second half year. So in the first half year, 21, we compare ourselves with the week first half 2020, which was impacted by COVID-19 in the first quarter in Asia Pacific mainly. in the second quarter in Americas and EMEA. And where we see in the second half year, the recovery with the record quarter in the fourth quarter 2020. And we will have definitely a weaker second and third quarter and compared to previous year, we expect the second half of the year 21 to come in below previous year. With that short presentation, we would like now to turn to Q&A, and I'm happy to answer your questions.

So operator, please take over for the moderation of the Q&A session.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. If you have a question for our speakers, please dial 01 on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you find your questions answered before you turn to speak, you can dial 02 to cancel your question. If you are using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selection. One moment, please, for the first question. And the first question we received is from Martin Rudiger of Kepler-Chevreux. Your line is now open, sir. Please go ahead.