Sika Ag Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the SICA 9 Months 2024 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Sandra, the Chorus Call Operator. I would like to remind you that all participants have been listened only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcasting. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Dominik Schlappnig, Head of Communication and Investor Relations of SICA. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Sandra, and good afternoon, and welcome to our nine-month results conference call. Present on the call with me today is Thomas Hasler, CEO, Adrian Widmer, CFO, and Christine Kukan, Head of IR, plus Yomi Lemmermann, HR Manager. We published our nine-month figures this morning at 5 o'clock. The presentation to the nine-month results is as well published on our website. With this, Thomas Hasler and Adrian Wittner will provide further details on the results and the outlook. Afterwards, we will be ready to take your questions. I hand now over to Thomas to start with the highlights of the first nine months.

Thank you, Dominik, and good afternoon. for all joining this call. It's a pleasure to present insights into our nine-month results. As highlighted also in our morning disclosure, we have reached in many aspects new record heights as a company. We are proud of the results overall. They are in line with our expectation and with our guidance. I think starting here, On the top, with 8.9 billion in sales, 5.5% growth in Swiss francs, we have delivered according to our expectation and guidance. A lot of that coming from the NBCC transaction has also, I think, very transparently shared, but significantly also supported by the organic growth. 1% on a year-to-date rate, but with a very positive steady improvement quarter after quarter, which we regard as very significant as it demonstrates our ability in challenging times to take any moment up the chance to gain market share. And in particular, in the Americas, it's becoming very visible that if the underlying trend turns slightly positive, we overproportionately take advantage of that in contributing significant organic growth. As you have seen in Q3, this is above 4% for the whole region, Americas in particular, the North American market has been driving and contributed to that top line evolution. But besides the top line, also, of course, on the margin side, a great expansion of our material margin base from 53.1% last year to now 54.7%, a significant improvement on this, as well as, of course, on the EBITDA margin, where we moved from 17.8% to 19.1%. Also here, multiple key contributor, of course, to this improvement, and not least, of course, also the strong synergy collection from the NBCC transaction, which also led then early in the year to an upgrade of our targeted synergy expectation for 2024 in the range of 100 to 120 million for the full year. Next to that is also to be mentioned that the expansion of our footprint, the organic footprint with plants opening in Latin America in Peru for fiber, which is a strategic complimentary offering on the concrete side, which has demonstrated great potential. Also, at the Capital Market Day, we talked a lot about the fiber possibility. This expansion in Peru has to be seen as a concerted action with the implementation of a footprint in the U.S., as well as in Germany, as well as in Australia, and is a consequence of our belief into the fiber possibilities going forward, and it's demonstrated and also reconfirmed with the business evolution in LATAM in regards to this technology. Also China, I think here further investing into our distribution journey in China, but also in Indonesia, both are related to our distribution journey to penetrate further and reinforcing our activities in these key markets. These were the organic investments. On the acquisition side, Quick Bond, the bridge tech renovation company we bought in the US, a fantastic enhancement to our infrastructure offering in North America and integration is very well on track and is contributing and is also benefiting from the overall increased spend on infrastructure in North America. Right in time and a great combination with our business in North America. Then also in the Americas, the Vinaldom, this admixture company acquisition, it makes a difference in the Caribbean and it is a hub for future expansion like any other acquisition for CK. It's always a platform for acceleration of growth and penetrating markets at a higher rate of speed. Then ultimately, coming to the outlook, we confirm everything we have provided since the start of the year in February, the 6% to 9% growth in local currency. We are well on track with the overproportional increase in EBITDA, as well as the confirmation of our strategic targets that we have outlined in our 28th strategy. And with that, I would then hand over to Adrian to give some more granularity.