K+S Aktiengesellschaft

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the KplusS second quarter 2022 earnings call. After some opening remarks by Dr. Lohr, CEO and CFO, we will directly jump into Q&A. Some technical notes. Please refer to our disclaimer on page 2 of the presentation available online. Then a note on data privacy. Please note that the team session will be recorded, webcasted and be available as a reply on our homepage afterwards. People asking a question in a team session have to be aware that by turning on their camera and microphone, they give consent to saving and replaying video and audio sequences. Now, I'd like to turn over to Dr. Lohr for the opening remarks.

Thank you, Julia. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our Q2 conference. And this time, I'm not going to render a speech. Then we have more time for Q&A. But I would like to highlight three topics. First, our free cash flow. with a very strong free cash flow development in Q1 and in Q2. But please take into account that we also had increased working capital. Only in Q2 we had working capital of more than 400 million euros additionally. That is due to the high prices and the high receivables, and that will translate into free cash flows in the month to come. And we have seen already a very strong free cash flow in July. Second, We have incorporated in our guidance a low triple-digit million euro amount for the potential gas shortage in the course of this year. And the third remark would be agriculture business and fertilizer business still has a very strong environment. And we believe this is not only the case for the rest of 2022. And now I'm looking very forward to your questions.

Thank you very much, Dr. Lohr. As this question will be one which a lot of participants have, I would like to ask it before we start with a live Q&A. How do you assess possible impacts of a lack of gas in the upcoming winter for your German operations and costs?