Lanxess Ag Ord

Thank you for joining our Lancet Q2 Results 2026 conference call. If you would like to ask a question, you will need to press star 9 and the pound key on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. I will hand over to Eva Husman, Head of Investor Relations, for opening remarks.

Thank you, Tim, and welcome everyone to today's call. Thank you for joining. Before we start, as always, please take note of our safe harbor statement. and with me today are, as always, Lancet CEO Matthias Zachert and CFO Oliver Stratmann. And with overview, we would be happy to take your questions. With that, I hand over to Matthias.

Thank you, Eva, and welcome to all of you and thanks for joining our Q2 call on the performance that we have delivered. I turn your attention to page number... We will give an overview here notably on the sequential improvement that we have indicated to you in our May conference call. So you see that we on EBITDA are spot on, strong increase sequentially. This is also reflected in the cash flow. Normally the second quarter is still a softer quarter on cash flow generation, but we've clearly stated to you that This is the KPI we will focus on in order to improve as much as possible and I think second quarter gives proof to this. Driver for that was definitely networking capital. Normally in Q1, Q2 we increase networking capital, which then again is being reduced in Q3 and Q4. For second quarter, you clearly see that networking capital was managed tightly, especially on the inventory side. As far as net financial debt is concerned, we here show you that over the last few years, we consistently reduced, and that will definitely be a topic in the forthcoming quarters where we strive for further improvement on the net financial debt size. The following page gives you an overview on sequential developments on price and volume. And you can clearly see that the second quarter 26 is a good and strong turning point. Operationally, we improved on pricing and on volume. Of course, some percentage points are here definitely coming from the Middle East situation. but overall the second quarter is operationally a strong one. Let me point your attention to page number six. Last year we have indicated that we will address our cost structure further wherever needed and we also gave reference that some further cost savings will be driven by Zaltigo and here we will adjust some of our capacities Thank you very much. As far as portfolio is concerned, we are a strong recognized player in the agro custom-made business. So we are in the area of 70-80% clearly exposed to the agrochemicals business. That will definitely be a core pillar of our sales in Zaltigo going forward. but we will strive in the years to come to increase the current percentage in pharma and other specialty business from the current 20% to 40 to 30 and potentially 40% in five years from now. Let me now come to page number seven. I think all of you have taken note of the fact that we issued a bonds classical liability management. I think Oliver and his teams and his team have found the rights weak for making liability management, so 500 million with a tenor of five has been issued to replace the bond that we have due in October. We found very strong investor demand. The order book was several times oversubscribed so that we could tighten the coupon to 4.375. Yeah, well done, Oliver. Well done, Ulrike and team. With this, I turn attention to page number eight. As far as macroeconomic environment is concerned, all of you know that the macroeconomic uncertainties persist. We do have some headwinds, mainly from the US dollar that has weakened year on year. And based on this, we confirm our outlook or our guidance for full year between 450 and 550. Thank you very much. on Q3 as well. We do expect that the normal seasonal development for Q3, where Q3 normally sales-wise is a bit softer than Q2, on the performance as such, third quarter should be above previous year, but not as strong as Q2 26. And I think with this you have Everything it takes to also get comfortable on the full year guidance. This is what we would like to present to you and now we open up the floor for your questions, please.

Thank you very much. If you would like to ask a question, you need to press star 9 and the pound key on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Thank you. We will now begin with the first question from Martin Rüdiger from Kepler Circle. Mr. Rüdiger, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much for taking my three questions, if I may. First question is for page six in your handout, the strategy realignment of Saltigo. In 2012, Saltigo's strategy changed in favor of Agro in account of in favor of Agro in account of pharmaceuticals. Matthias, that was during the time when you have been at Merck KGAA. For several years, this strategy at Salteco was quite successful. Now you reverse that strategy, getting pharma specialties up from 20% exposure to 30% to 40%. What makes you optimistic that this move will be successful? Secondly, Can you talk a little bit about the exit rate at the end of Q2, the business in July, the order book in August? I'm interested in the momentum in demand. Is it steady or did some customers indicate to you that they prepare for some destocking in Q3? And the final question is for Oliver, the expected cost savings of $65 million in full year 2026, Well, thank you, Martin, for

For your attendance and for the questions you raise, let me address the first two, and Oliver will take the third one. On Zaltigo, 2012 is quite some time ago, more than a decade. We've developed nicely, we've performed nicely in the agrochemical industry, but the agrochemical industry does change as well, and has changed over the last two to three years. We've seen that On the competitor side for the big agro companies, new competitors from China and India have established themselves. We therefore see in this market segment definitely for new blockbuster for innovation, good prospects for the future. Not about that as far as generics are concerned. They are under tougher pressure than we were seeing in 2010, 2012 and several years afterwards. So what we are doing here is simply a de-risking. We like pharma, we like specialities, we like electronic chemicals. and with our technology that we have in the TIGO we can supply these industries as well. They are known for being high margin and good growth industries as well and therefore the focus or the big competence on Agro doesn't change. We simply would like to adjust here the strong exposure that we have in Agro and we still have the majority of sales in Agro but no longer with something like 70-80% exposure. It's basically the driver behind. Now on your question on third quarter, I think what I've said before on the guidance should clarify everything. We don't see that in July and August the order book is massively going down. That's absolutely not the case. But we see in July and August the normal seasonal developments, meaning that July, August are not as strong in trading as May, June, for instance, are. So we see some softening. This is embedded into our guidance and into what I said before. And please read the guidance accordingly. And with this, I pass on the words to Oliver.

Matthias, thank you. And hi, Martin. Many thanks also for the question. Look, we intentionally said that the majority of the 65 is really back-end loaded. We did have some savings already in the first half, but you also referred to the number of employees that was reduced. And this is a point in time view, of course, so it doesn't mean that All of these colleagues have left the company already in the beginning of January. And I hope for your understanding that I am hesitant to quantify quarter by quarter the savings. Please take with you that the majority of 65 will really come in the second half and will support us there in reaching our goals.

Thanks, Oliver. Next question, please.

Next question is from Chetan Odishi from JP Morgan. Mr. Odishi, please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question and thanks for giving us third quarter guidance. Not many have chosen to do that. I was... My question was on pricing, especially in AI. Because it seems like Lanxess started with a bang in terms of big price announcements at the beginning of the conflict. But what we've actually seen in terms of realized price is a bit of a whimper in a way. And my question to you, is there a lag in terms of price realization? Because I'm a bit surprised that your AI earnings are actually down year on year. All the conflict-driven shortages, pre-buying, panic, that should be typically a good environment, I would have thought, to be able to raise prices and improve margins. Clearly, we've not seen that. So I'm just curious if there is a lag in that business in terms of getting the raw mats fully passed on. And the second question I had was, To the extent you can help us, what is your current situation with the Rhine water and sourcing? It seems for now it's good, but do you have a view whether it can get worse if it doesn't improve in two weeks, three weeks? Any color there would be quite useful.

Thank you. Well, Chetan, thanks for joining and for your questions. I will take them one by one. So on AI or advanced intermediates, let's start with the following clear statement. We've delivered on our guidance in Q2. We are spot on market expectations. When you are saying AI is lower in performance, then my feedback to you is the quality of earnings In the other segments, which are regarded as stronger or higher priced through the multiple, then the quality of earnings of the segments has improved. And therefore, that I read not as a negative, but rather as a positive. But now to your questions. AI, we have two business units. Advanced Industrial Intermediates, where price increases were Thank you very much. More energy intensive than the rest of our group and of course energy in second quarter went up strongly impacting the profitability of the segments as well. I hope that clarifies your question on intermediates. Now on the Rhine. Yeah, I apologize that we as a company have talked about the river and the water that is in it, but that's what we have to So far, our teams have operated extremely well. I'm really impressed by what they've done. Fortunately, we've taken very early, around about four or five weeks ago, already the decision to reserve a lot of capacities for rail and road. So that is needed if you need to redistribute from water to other transportation means and therefore we feel strong about what we have. Nevertheless, of course, we still need shipments on the river Rhine. And so far we have no force majeure. So far we get all the roles that we need. We have also good indication for the next one to two weeks. But of course, this is something that is clearly on our agenda now. So all in all, we feel good about what we have done so far. We think that we are well prepared for the weeks ahead. But it's something that is clearly on the radar. And it is a force majeure. A force majeure means this is a surprise. and that hits you when it occurs. We don't see it at this point in time, but we are working on that as I've indicated before. So that's basically what I would like to say. The one thing, however, that I would also like to stress, out of 2018 situation when the last time we had a low water level in the Rhine, we of course took respective measures So that we are far more flexible than we were in 2018. At that point in time, many of our sites could only or plants could only be supplied through water transportation. We've invested around about 10 million in the years afterwards to basically make sure that all important plants have at least two ways of being supplied, sometimes even three ways. So that you can basically flexibilize the transportation means from water to road or on rail. And that's the reason why today, even at lower levels of the River Rhine, we have so far managed extremely well the current situation. I hope that answers both questions. And if not, please...

Can I clarify on your comment on energy price impact on margin in AI because energy price is still quite high in Q3 so and I remember at some point in the past after 2022 you had those energy pass-through clauses so will those help you to regain some of the margins back in Q3 and Q4 or is it tough right now to raise prices fully to pass on all of the cost increases because of weak demand?

Well, Chetan, we have on energy, as I think Oliver has highlighted last quarter, in last quarter call, we have increased our protection here through contracts, but also through financial hedges. So roughly 50% is being addressed through contracts or derivatives. So that is definitely mitigating the situation. Nevertheless, energy prices remain high. We put pressure or have put pressure on Q2 earnings and will definitely weigh on earnings in intermediates in the third quarter. But as you have seen from the guidance, if you're softer on intermediates, you can be stronger on editors and consumer protections. Got it. Thank you. You're welcome, Chetan. Next question, please.

The next question is from David Simmons from BNP Paribas. David, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much. Two from me, please. Can I firstly ask about the share purchases in Q2 by management? They were quite substantial. Is your view that the industry has reached a turning point here We saw bromine prices rallying very hard and they've now faded. And we've also had Some of the peers in lubricants talking about a weaker second half than they saw in the first half and especially in Q2. What's the outlook for specialty additives in the second half and would you expect that very strong performance to fade or were there more sustainable factors than the lubricant additive stuff and the bromine price? Thank you.

Well thank you David for your questions. I will address them one by one. and I start with share purchases by management. All of us have bought stocks and I think this is a clear message that all of us believe in the company, believe in the potential of the company and we believe in what we are doing. We know that by and large chemicals sector has been under A lot of pressure by the capital markets. A lot of investors are looking into artificial intelligence and semiconductor defense, etc., etc. So chemicals is not our walk. But clearly we as management team think, okay, that's a situation we understand. We acknowledge what the capital markets say. Thank you very much. and also Oliver bought not for incentive programs but because it was a personal decision. Now on speciality editors, let me clarify a little bit the situation. What you say between the lines is that editors' profitability increase has been pushed strongly by the Brom price spike that we have seen. I clearly would like to state this is not the case. Of course, higher Brom prices are nice, but if you look at the profitability development of editors in Q2, it was coming from all three business units. The lubricants business units had a strong performance, vis-à-vis a soft previous year quarter, and Q1 was also softer, and therefore lube ads really performed nicely in Q2. Also helped by Rheinschimi. Rheinschimi is the smallest business unit, but came out comparably strong. These are the poor quarters it had in the last 12 months. The polymer additives business also did well, not only in brominated products, but also in the phosphor area where we are a very strong player as well. So the speciality additives performance in Q2 is carried or supported by all three business units. For that very reason, we are not now Softening strongly our tonality for Q3. No, no, no, no. When you look at the comments I've just made on advanced intermediates, the question that Chetan raised, I basically have alluded to the fact that there will be two divisions in our portfolio, consumer protection and editors, that should in third quarter again be visible contributors to the performance. Despite bromine prices in China going down visibly, so that should clearly give you the answer to your questions. I hope that is clear enough, David.

Thanks, Matthias. If I could just press you for some more detail on the first question, so the potential you see for the sector. Is that linked to some of the forward indicators we're seeing on construction activity? Is it linked to EU protectionism potential? Could you maybe give some more specifics on what you're saying that you think has changed?

You're referring now to what precisely? To our purchase on shares? Yes.

Well, you mentioned that you see great potential for the sector.

It would be good to just dig into a little bit on what you think is... Well, I can only look at the last two to three years. These have been tremendously tough years for the chemical industry. And I know that people, in some drastic words, have quote-unquote given up on the industry. That's not the case. I mean, we are cyclical, let's face it. And for that very reason, when the cycle is down, nobody believes in the industry anymore. But then you see that the industry suddenly rebounds. I think if you look at the last two to three years, we have seen massive pressure on prices, on volumes, everything. Everybody has gone for cost cuttings. Nobody went for big capacity additions, at least in the Western Hemisphere. So that is always the frame or the grounds for rebounding strongly. When the cost base is leaner, capacities are being trimmed, and then volume returns. Thank you very much. We have worked on costs, we have worked on everything to make us stronger should on the volume side, on the macroeconomic side things improve. And I think this is What we as management team believe in strongly and that's the reason why we've invested into our own company or into the company that we operate in.

Thank you so much. Thank you. And the next question is from Tristan Lamotte from Deutsche Bank. Tristan, the floor is yours.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions, which are around free cash flow generation, which I think was decent in the quarter. I'm wondering first if you could explain the changes in other assets and liabilities in Q2. And a kind of linked question to that is, speaking generally, so not just about 2026, but at around this level of 500 million of EBITDA, If we were to assume no cyclical improvement and no big exceptionals in the other assets and liabilities line, which I think was actually quite decisive in 2025, presumably you would expect a positive free cash flow at this level of EBITDA, or is it more kind of on the edge due to the relatively low utilization? And then still linked to free cash flow, but separate question, Clearly you've made a significant decision here on Sortico. I'm wondering if there are other areas of the business that if you were to close them would take away some negative cash impact and what kind of areas you might look at in that kind of category and how you think about that conceptually. Thanks.

Well, Tristan, all valid questions and Olli is going to take your first two ones and then I will step in. and Ralf Grigor again. Olli?

Yeah, Matthias. Thank you, and hi, Tristan. The changes in other assets and liabilities lying in the cash flow basically includes all of the changes that you have occurring in provisions, and specifically in the second quarter, the big gap, the big difference really comes from the fact that in last year's Q2, we have had a payout for the variable compensation out of the year 2024. While this year, there was hardly any payout, but in contrast, there was a build-up in provisions for variable compensation for vacation and for tariff payments here. On top of things, you typically also have volatilities from hedging instruments of intercompany loans get in there, so that makes up the difference in the changes in other assets and liabilities. Then you also asked about the level of 500 million EBITDA and whether you would expect a positive free cash flow around that level. And I think here we've given quite a detailed guidance in, I remember almost every of the last quarter reports where I went through capex, which we've guided the interest, a typical tax amount, which at the end of the day always ended at the question, What is the development of working capital? And in the situation that we're in right now, that question remains because we do see volatilities in pricing. You will have also seen and heard from Matthias comments that we indeed put a lot of emphasis on managing cash tightly in terms of inventories. The volatility in working capital for me is nothing that I would like to forecast. So keeping working capital stable, you will have a positive free cash flow. And I can re-emphasize that we are strongly working on working capital improvements.

Thanks, Oliver. And with this, Tristan, let me address Zaltigo, your question on Zaltigo. I think it clearly shows you that we are very focused on every plant, and when we see opportunities, we take decisions. For this capacity, we are structurally adjusting. We basically had no contractual obligations anymore, so otherwise we would have taken that step. already in course of 2025 so we were in a situation where we could clearly act and adjust the capacities without any contractual penalties whatsoever I'm clearly stressing if there would be anything else today we would like to adjust we would communicate it but if need be or we see opportunities Through industry consolidation, for instance, that raise clear upsides for the future, I don't rule out that we take further steps. So taking capacities out, reducing headcount is always painful, especially here in continental Europe, but you clearly see that we are not shying away and we take tough decisions and implement them accordingly.

Thanks, that's helpful. And I guess implied in your answer, there's nothing that you're kind of keeping running at a low free cash flow level or negative free cash flow level that you're kind of betting that at some point the cycle will come back and therefore it's worth keeping open?

This is basically, Tristan, what you have to evaluate. I mean, there are some plants, I mean, we operate, as I've A set in the last few quarters at a utilization that is one of the lowest in the last 30 years. And not only for the industry but for us. We are in the second quarter still below 70% utilization which is industry-wide extremely low. The industry remains at a very low utilization. We know that some of our plants that are at these utilization levels are not great performers. But we know that from the industrial cost curve, if volumes rebound, there can be very strong performance. And that's the reason why for these businesses, we will not adjust capacities further. I give you one key example. Inorganic pigments. It has the lowest industrial cost curve with its capacity worldwide. The markets are very strongly bound to construction industry, and we are here, of course, a big player in continental Europe. I've never seen the construction industry in continental Europe in the last 30 years as down as it has been in the last two years. Massive investments are being started in continental Europe. There's a huge backlog on investments that is known to everybody. The industry will turn. The question is when precisely. And if this industry turns, I'm bullish on inorganic pigments, even though currently profitability and cash flow generation is at extremely low points. and I strongly believe that this will change once construction gets momentum. I hope that clarifies your question.

Very helpful, thanks a lot.

Thank you. And the next questioner is Sebastian Bray from Berenberg. Mr. Bray, the floor is yours.

Hello, good afternoon and thank you for taking my questions. I'd have two, please. The first is on the role of bromine in the specialty additive segment. It looks like the Pricing and volumes both perform quite nicely, which is in line with peers. I wanted to ask on a longer-term view in two or three years' time, there are various commentary out there about the level of reserves that Lanxess still has in Arkansas and the ambitions of Tetra Tech to add capacity in that market. Can bromine grow from here, or is it just a flat business for the next three or four years, albeit with a small recovery before Tetra Tech brings online its capacity? That's my first question. I'll ask the second one in turn. Thank you.

Well, I mean, there are two big known reserves in the world on bromine, as we've explained several times. Dead Sea is one, and the Smackover Formation in El Dorado is another one, or in Arkansas. And here, clearly, Reserves in other areas or other countries have gone down, especially in China. I think this is what has been commented about. So we are, I think, well located where we are. Our view is that brominated products, phosphor-based products, flame retardants will be needed in the decades to come. In the electronics industry, in the construction industry, at some point in time also China construction-wise will get out of the trough where China currently still is. I mean, I think it's known that the construction industry in China has suffered. So all in all, we are in a situation where the volume demand for flame retardants that's brominated or phosphor-based The volume demand has not been great. Pricing has somewhat gone up and down and has been on the rise in Q4 and Q1 again, or seasonally in Q2, Q3 it's going down. And therefore we view that the players operating in the brominated business will also in the future years have a reasonable performance with the products that they offer. and as far as the company you alluded to, I think the jury is out. If you're going to see capacities here being added or not, we will see and we'll watch market developments.

That's helpful. Thank you. My second one was on the advanced intermediate segment and the outlook as we move into Q3. I think it's been touched on a little, but Is this inventory normalization done and how has this segment performed as we move into the main body of Q3?

Well, I think everything on AI has been set in the call already. I think I've in a qualitative way alluded to Q3 already, division-wise, so there's nothing that I can add. I can only stress that We have not seen in the second quarter that inventory has been massively stocked up. That's not the case. We saw at the beginning of the Near East conflict that there was definitely more uncertainty by customers if delivery is assured or not. We saw that the delivery security was therefore a clear theme in the second quarter. But we did not see that any of our customers and industries massively stocked up quite differently. In the development of end of May, June, we saw simply that investors saw price increases everywhere and so they were modestly buying but not heavily buying. So I think you will not hear from our end industries that they are running with tons of stocks. This is simply not the case.

That's helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.

You're very welcome, Sebastian.

Last question for today comes from Georgina Frazer from Goldman Sachs. Georgina, the floor is yours.

Hi, Matthias. Hi, Oliver. I've got two questions left. One is a follow-up on Celtico, please. At the first quarter conference call this year you were highlighting there could be a potential upside for the asset regaining competitiveness versus Asian players in crop generics. But today you've announced restructuring measures and an intention to scale back on your crop exposure. What's changed in such a short space of time? And then the second question is you've also pushed out your expectations for a construction recovery to 2027. Is there anything in particular that you're seeing that's ruling out the chance of an improvement later this year in the fourth quarter? Thank you.

Well, thank you for your attendance and your questions, Jorginho. On Saltigo, I think the comments that I made in Q1 were simply addressing the situation on supply and security, especially from Indian competitors due to some players or some competitors of ours being constrained due to the shortage of gas and oil in India. So that was my comments in Q1. There is no change in strategy on Valtigo overall. What we are doing in Valtigo is barely or clearly only related to analysis and then respective decision. The tier structural costs that are not leading to returns can be taken out and therefore we are taking it out. So there is no different tonality whatsoever. On construction, I mean what we are following here is we see that as far as project developments or project registrations in Germany are on the rise. This is very early in the value chain. This is giving me a positive momentum but we still don't see it in the order book. In inorganic pigments, we need orders and volumes. So we see that from the data that we are assessing, there are some positive signs, but from ordering on our customer side, it's simply still too early. And therefore, we don't assume a positive impact from construction this year anymore. So that's the reason why we've taken any positive momentum on construction out of our guidance.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Thank you. And I will now hand back to Matthias Zachert for closing remarks.

Well, thank you very much to everybody for your attendance and thank you for your questions. We hope that everything could have been clarified. If not, please don't hesitate to contact Investor Relations and we are looking forward to seeing you in the following months on the road. Take good care and have a good summer. Bye bye from Lenxis.