Thyssenkrupp AG

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ThyssenKrupp Conference Call Interim Report First Quarter 2023-2024. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question-and-answer session. I will now hand you over to Andreas Trosch. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Operator. Hello, everyone. This is Andreas Trosch from Investor Relations. Also on behalf of of my entire team, I wish you a very warm welcome to our conference call on the Q1 results. With me in the room are our CEO, Miguel Lopez, and our CFO, Klaus Kalsberg, and also my colleagues, Jacques and Annika, from my team. Before I hand over to the CEO and Klaus for their presentation, some housekeeping. All the documents, as usual for this call, are available in the IR section on the website. The call will be recorded and the replay will be available shortly after the call. After the presentations, there will be a Q&A session. Please only ask two, maximum three questions at a time so that everyone has a chance to ask the questions. And with that, I would like to hand over to our CEO, Miguel Lopez.

Thank you, Andreas. And since this is your first conference call with ThyssenKrupp, welcome on board officially. Also a warm welcome from my side to all of you in today's Q1 conference call. It's a real pleasure. And at the beginning of our new fiscal year, we have to continue to cope with the still challenging and volatile macro environment. Yet we were able to clearly deliver on our management priorities that you are well aware of. Let's get to portfolio first. By the end of the last fiscal year, we simplified our group structure and now only report five segments, which leads to less complexity. This includes, as part of our transformation journey, that we created the segment decarbon technologies for which we will present first actuals today. And at decarbon technologies, there is one transaction I want to highlight. At the end of January, we signed the agreement to sell our remaining 55% share in our Polyseus business ThyssenKrupp Industries India to the core shareholders. With Polyseus now being part of the carbon technologies, they are focusing on services and green technologies in the cement and lime business. Whereas ThyssenKrupp Industries India is involved in the mining business amongst others, a direction that we do not want to pursue any further. Closing is expected in fiscal Q3 after fulfillment of the necessary closing conditions, in particular after approval of the transaction by the Indian Merger Control Authority. Of course, we will continue the transformation at the other segments as well and relentlessly strive for standalone solutions for steel Europe and marine systems. Our second priority, as you all know, is performance and here I'm happy to state that our Q1 results are in line with our expectations and that I can confirm our full year guidance for EBIT adjusted and free cash flow before M&A. Regardless of this, we all are aware that our performance is not where it should be, therefore we decided to anchor that performance ambition even more into our DNA and into our management board by now having two additional board members, each being responsible for a segment. Ilse Henne being responsible for material services and Volkmar Dienststuhl taking over responsibility for automotive technology from 1st of January 2024. If we look at our new performance program, APEX, I'm happy to report that the program is well on track and already showed first effects stabilizing our Q1 earnings. Our third item on our priority list is green transformation. Last but not least, with the formation of decarbonized technologies, we are leveraging business opportunities by positioning ourselves as an enabler of green technologies and decarbonization. I had the great pleasure to participate in many extensive and fruitful discussions at the COP28 in Dubai last December, a very important platform to exchange ideas that will actually change our climate. Here, we are able to sign contracts for two projects that will drive forward decarbonization of emission-intensive industries, both based in the United Arab Emirates. Polysius and Fujarat Cement Industries will cooperate to replace fossil fuel in cement production. Our cement business, Polysius, has developed a new combustion chamber technology that allows fossil fuels to be completely replaced by green alternatives, thereby reducing emissions and operating costs. Ude will build a large biopolymer plant for gulf biopolymers the biopolymer from that plant will be derived from renewable biomass sources is biodegradable and has a substantially lower carbon footprint compared to synthetic polymers made from fossil fuels let me assure you this group wants to play a proactive role in the green transformation and this will pay off for all our stakeholders. Coming back to our second priority, I would like to provide you with some more color and give you some examples on actual apex measures. At DeCalm Technologies, or to be more precise, at Polysios, we have launched a large-scale service transformation program. The aim is to enable Polysios to evolve its original business model as a mechanical engineering and construction company even further in the direction of services in order to generate high margin and stable sales growth. The second example comes from Steel Europe. Here we have identified further potential in marketing by products from steel production, such as granulated blast furnace slag. It is a byproduct from blast furnaces and is used in the construction materials industry, especially in cement and concrete production. At Marine Systems, leasehold contracts for shipyard capacities that are not permanently utilized in full due to the order situation have been renegotiated. Initially, until the beginning of 2025, this flexibilization will deliver significant savings. Materials Services is expanding its business with value added services in the areas of supply chain management and optimization. materials procurement and raw materials supply as part of the extension of a long-term contract with a leading aerospace company. These four examples alone will generate a total effect of over €50 million. Now you might ask, is that really a lot? However, please keep in mind that these are only four examples of the more than 2,500 measures we have identified so far. With that having said, I would like to hand over to Klaus for the Q1 financial highlights.